By Victor Block
For the millions of people who visit Yellowstone National Park each year the sight of Old Faithful can be a disappointment. The geyser, which is famous for erupting at regular intervals, is doing so less frequently these days. And tourists planning to take in the treasures of St. Mark’s Square in Venice, Italy, sometimes have to don boots and walk on elevated wooden planks.
There is some disagreement about whether climate change is a natural recurring phenomenon or if human activity is a contributing factor. What’s clear to people who travel around the United States and abroad is that something is going on with Mother Nature. Torrential rainfall is causing flooding where it didn’t previously occur. Searing drought is drying lakes and rivers in some places and creating conditions for devastating wildfires in others.
Anyone who wishes to take a trip that provides close-up encounters with evidence of the changes that are taking place around the world has a varied list of options. From Antarctica to Austria to Africa, they span the globe.
Visitors to Yellowstone are drawn by geysers, wildlife and magnificent scenery that make it a sightseeing magnet. But with warmer weather and less snowfall than in the past the local environment has been changing. One result of recent droughts is a reduction in how often water shoots out of the park’s best-known natural fountain.
The scene is very different in Venice, which is perched on more than 100 low-lying islands. In recent years heavy rains, strong winds and the rising sea level have combined to make what used to be an occasional acqua alta (high water) event a regular occurrence. During the past two decades, there have been almost as many high-water inundations as in the previous century. When they happen, people coming to see St. Mark’s Square tug on high rubber boots and make their way over raised wooden “duck boards” to keep dry.
Signs of an increase in the ocean level are evident in many places around the planet. Measurements indicate that seas have risen about 8 inches in the last century, and the rate has nearly doubled recently. One contributing factor is the melting of ice and glaciers resulting from rising global temperatures. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration reports that both the Greenland and Antarctic sheets have lost billions of tons of ice.
Canada’s Athabasca Glacier, the most visited in North America, has lost half of its volume during the past 125 years. Scientists say some glaciers in the Austrian Alps are likely to disappear in the next 20 years, and the U.N. climate agency predicts that the last three mountain glaciers in eastern Africa could vanish in that same time frame.
Impacts of climate change, whatever their causes, are being increasingly encountered by people in their travels. One place this is happening is in stretches of the American West. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the area in 11 Western states that has been devastated by wildfires since 2000 doubled over the previous 17 years. Forest fires in 2021 alone killed thousands of giant sequoias, adding to the two-year death toll of nearly one-fifth of those majestic trees, the largest in the world.
The sea level rise is threatening the existence of some island countries that hardly poke above the water. The Marshall Islands, a central Pacific nation that is home to nearly 60,000 people, attracts experienced divers seeking to explore its magnificent offshore coral reefs as well as sport fishermen. The bad news for both them and residents is a World Bank report warning that the projected sea level increase would cause 40% of the buildings in the capital of Majuro to be permanently flooded and some islands in the chain to disappear.
Climate change also has its sights set on one of America’s favorite vacation spots. Hawaii is known for its near-perfect weather, but a report from the University of Hawaii’s Sea Grant Program says that state might be unrecognizable in the future. It forecasts higher temperatures, periods of both drought and heavy rainfall, and resulting beach erosion and damage to infrastructure. Perhaps the most obvious change to visitors will be the rise in sea levels, causing most of Waikiki and its famous beach to be under water or highly eroded. Some beach loss already has been observed on the north shore of Oahu.
Not surprisingly, the impact of climate change isn’t limited to the human race. Wildlife around the globe is also experiencing it in both direct and less-obvious ways.
Polar bears, which are listed as an endangered species, need Arctic sea ice to hunt for seals and find shelter. Loss of it to warming is threatening them along with walruses and other cold-weather mammals.
Another endangered species, the sea turtle, is challenged when the rising sea level, increasing temperatures and more frequent storms threaten their nesting sites.
In northern Kenya, which has been suffering from drought for more than a year, the skeletons of giraffes and camels dot the terrain.
Whatever its causes, climate change is impacting places, people and wildlife around the country and the world. Travelers may see and perhaps experience some of these changes as they journey to destinations near and far.
WHEN YOU GO
For more information about the impact of climate change on tourism: www.worldatlas.com
Visitors to Venice, Italy, now often have to deal with rising sea levels. Photo courtesy of Neil Harrison/Dreamstime.com.
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A diver explores an endangered coral reef off the Marshall Islands. Photo courtesy of Chonchasdiver/Dreamstime.com.
Victor Block is a freelance writer. To read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.
