Rampant Tourism Must Be Brought Under Control

Dear Fellow Earthlings,

When I was in junior high school, my favorite song was “Those Faraway Places (with the Strange Sounding Names)”. In that song the intrigue, the adventure, the thrill of different cultures, different places, different languages — beckoned.

But now we can travel anywhere we want — within 24 hours for most places. And —within 48 hours — and at a substantially greater cost — we can go to truly out-of-the-way spots.

Airplanes now crisscross the skies, carrying people to places they would never have considered going to before — and often just so they can post “selfies” to show online to all of their friends — and to all their “online friends” as well.

> The thrill of the adventure of travel has all but disappeared. The people moving about in such great

> profusion are bringing noise with them and leaving pollution in their wake.

Indeed, these tourists are destroying the diversity of cultures, of ecosystems...

This is globalization at its worst. Personally, I think what we should do now is to make most places off-limits to tourists — that we should simply have professional film production crews go into “tourist areas” to take pictures and videos, and to write descriptions of what they have seen — and then SELL their productions to people who are interested in faraway places with strange sounding names — and with exotic tourist attractions..

It is not only invading armies or illegal immigrants who destroy. It is not only slash-and-burn farmers who lay waste to Nature. Nor is it only religious fanatics or greedy, heartless businesspeople who turn beautiful, peaceful places into wastelands.

Tourists, too, when their numbers swell, do great damage to Earth.

Steve Walker

Earthsaver and Jingles Creator

EarthSaver

Steve Walker

Rampant Tourism Must Be Brought Under Control