Last-chance tourists

 

For those people who think climate change, aka global warming, is no big deal in modern times, I've got news for you, from the New York Times.

It Just Got Easier to Visit a Vanishing Glacier. Is That a Good Thing?

“Last-chance tourists” are visiting the melting Mer de Glace in Chamonix, France, in droves. A just-opened lift should make that easier. But some worry tourism is only making the problem worse.

Last-chance tourism

"Can a visit to such a site prompt a change in behavior?

Researchers at the Mer de Glace have found that exposure to its fragile environment can inspire people to adopt environmentally friendly behavior — or at least to declare their intention to do so in a questionnaire.

A 2020 survey of summer visitors to the glacier found that 80 percent said they would “try to learn more about the environment and how to protect it.” Another 82 percent said they would stop visiting glaciers if doing so would protect them, while 77 percent said they would reduce their water and energy consumption.

More research would be required to see whether tourists follow through. But drawing on the survey results, the researchers concluded that using last-chance tourism as an opportunity to educate visitors about climate change — while also engaging people’s emotions and showing them concrete steps they can take to protect the environment — could maximize the environmental benefits of this kind of tourism."

But wait -- is it really vanishing/melting?

Sadly, it sure is.

100 Year Time-Lapse of the Mer de Glace

Read the article for the video.  But the picture is enough.

1909 on the left (Spelterini's photograph from a balloon); 2017 on the right. 

"At the area in the foreground of Spelterini's photographs, where the glacier now terminates, the surface has dropped around 100 metres from its position in 1909. Scientists have calculated that the overall volume of the Mer de Glace has diminished by the equivalent of around 700 million cubic metres of water in the last century."