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Global Warming / Mount Everest / Explorers Club / North Pole / South Pole / Skiing / Eric Larsen / Ecotourism / Science / Mountain Climbing / → All Tags

Three Poles in 365 Days: Polar Explorer Plans Chilly Trip for Global Warming Awareness

A polar explorer named Eric Larsen is about to embark on an ambitious adventure that will bring him to the North Pole, South Pole, and summit of Mount Everest, the world's tallest mountain, all within 365 days. The Save the Poles Expedition, as he's calling it, is designed to bring awareness to the problem of global warming by traveling to the most notorious frozen places on earth, reporting the latest climate data, and using the platform to advocate strategies for reducing carbon emissions.

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Winter Travel / Festivals / Global Warming / → All Tags

Ridiculous Harbin Ice Festival Officially Open

In December, we were a bit worried that the Harbin Ice Festival would fall victim to global warming and be a bit smaller of a spectacle. How little faith we have in China: This year's 25th anniversary event even features an enormous Disney Land replica to go along with various snow-centric competitions and rides.

In addition to ice slides, mouse ear-shaped igloos, swims in a frigid river and skiing, fireworks light up the snow sculptures and ice pagodas that should be on view for the next month, as long as the winter weather holds. More than 800,000 visitors are expected.

As for those worries about global warming hurting the frost, it seems Harbin's still a few tons of CO2 short of a crisis: Wednesday's forecast high is 16 degrees, dropping to minus 6 tomorrow night.

Related Stories:
· China Builds Icey Disneyland [BBC]
· Ice Santa 1, Global Warming 0 [Jaunted]

[Photo: China.org.cn]

Global Warming / Barrier Reef / Kakadu National Park / Australia Travel / → All Tags

Dear Aussie Government, Please Save The Clownfish

When is the Great Barrier Reef not so great?

When the Australian government decides to make carbon emission reduction targets that aren't low enough, at least according to a bunch of environmental campaigners.

Global warming is threatening Aussie tourism icons like the Great Barrier Reef in Queensland and the Northern Territory's Kakadu National Park, which is why the year-old Aussie government promised major moves on climate change. Activist group GetUp is pretty disappointed at the lack of progress; they say emissions targets need to be more drastic to ensure tourists will still have somewhere to visit in the next few decades.

Related Stories:
· Great Barrier Reef Doomed [Northern Territory News]
· Can Britain's Coral Farmers Save the Maldives? [Jaunted]
· Barrier Reef coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo of clownfish at the Barrier Reef: Leonard Low]

Global Warming / Barrier Reef / Snorkeling / → All Tags

Can Britain’s Coral Farmers Save The Maldives?

With natural spectacles like Australia’s Great Barrier Reef under threat from global warming, we know there’s a rush on to visit them before they’re destroyed forever.

But there is another way. Over in Britain, growing your own Great Barrier Reef has become a trendy hobby of late. Yep, the "home-grown coral farm" craze is sweeping the nation with new farming techniques making it possible to grow your own coral reef in a tank in your yard.

All we need now is for some of these hobby coral farmers to make their tanks big enough for snorkeling and tourists will be flocking in. Or make even larger coral reefs and when the Maldives disappear, there'll be somewhere just like home for the Maldivians to move to--after all, they're now saving cash for the day when rising sea levels obliterate their country.

Related Stories:
· Great Barrier Reef in Garden Shed [Ananova]
· Maldives Saves for New Homeland Amid Flooding Fears [AFP, via Google]
· Water Hazard [Jaunted]

[Photo: stuandgravy]

National Parks / Outdoor Travel / Green Travel / Global Warming / → All Tags

Global Warming Travel: No Joshua Trees National Park

The strange looking, U2-album-inspiring Joshua tree is in trouble. Its range has been in decline for millennia, and at least one scientist says it'll be extinct in 50 to 100 years thanks to global climate change. That doesn't bode well for Joshua Tree National Park in California.

One park ranger admits he and his colleagues are worried about the situation:

One of the questions we talk about at least internally and on an informal basis is, "What do you have here as a national park without Joshua trees?"

Good question. As one couple visiting the park asks an NPR reporter, why would you want to visit a vacant desert devoid of all life?

Related Stories:
· Outlook Bleak for Joshua Trees [NPR]
· Joshua Tree National Park [Official Site]
· Maldives Preparing for Global Warming Apocalypse [Jaunted]
· Tuvalu Slowly Sinking Under the Sea [Jaunted]

[Photo: ChuckThePhotographer]

Environment / Green Travel / Islands / Global Warming / → All Tags

Maldives Preparing for Global Warming Apocalypse

Seawalls on the seashore...

As far back as 1992, the president of the Maldives, Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, warned that his nation could end up under the ocean by the year 2100. After the Boxing Day tsunami of 2004, the entire archipelago was underwater for minutes. And the Kyoto Protocol has done about, well, nothing to keep the Indian Ocean at bay.

So the Maldives built huge seawalls--at the expense of the islands' natural beauty. (Not high on our attractive natural wonders scale: concrete blocks.) As for beaches, the new strategy is to build artificial islands, like Hulhumale, where white sand is the norm and engineering staves off submersion.

Still, forging artificial atolls isn't cheap. Unless the Maldives can convince industrialized nations--which create most of the world's greenhouse gasses--to chip in some cash, the future of the island nation remains in doubt.

Related Stories:
· Maldives Builds Barriers to Global Warming [NPR]
· Air Taxis Trump Land Taxis in the Maldives [Jaunted]
· The Maldives: Destination of the Year 2006 [Jaunted]
· Tuvalu Slowly Sinking Under The Sea [Jaunted]