Chapter 6 Environmental Responsibility

Abstract

Although Responsible Tourism and the sustainability agenda cannot be reduced to the green agenda, the environmental challenges that confront us are pressing and serious, and will become more pressing as we encounter the limits to growth. Inevitably, this chapter addresses climate change and tourism, but the environmental agenda is not exclusively about the use of fossil fuels and emissions of greenhouse gases. There are other issues which must also be considered. Tourism, like other industries, causes pollution – light and noise, solid and liquid waste, and through the consumption of water and fossil fuels – and it destroys natural habitats through infrastructure development and use of construction materials. Species are consumed as souvenirs and food, and tourism may introduce exotics – invasive flora and fauna which may negatively affect the local ecology. The leisure and recreational activities of tourists – skiing, climbing, diving, wildlife viewing, snorkelling, yachting and a host of others – all have environmental impacts which need to be managed. In theory, tourism can contribute to conservation and the maintenance of biodiversity, but ecotourism remains little more than a good idea. There are major gains to be had by greening businesses but the case for certification, or green labelling, is less robust. The chapter concludes by looking at recent campaigns on animal welfare and asking what responsible aviation might look like.