Um, yeah, so–that happened. How on Earth (to Jupiter) did two months elapse since my last post? Insane, I tell you. It’s amazing how fast the time flies, but for what it’s worth, I’ve left my full-time job to freelance, so I’m looking forward to a lot more time to blog here.
Today, since we’re deep in the streets of summer, I figured I’d offer some vacation thoughts and ideas for the Armchair Do-gooder who “Has Brains–Will Travel.”
As a seasoned backpacker whose travels have brought me to destinations including Dahab, Egypt and Moscow, Russia I know how valuable tourism is, both for the visitor and the country visited.
The problem is, valuable as it can be, tourism is also an immensely destructive industry. As Dr. Tim Forsyth–a Senior Lecturer on Environment and Development at the London School of Economics and Political Science–writes in his introduction to a seminar on Sustainable Tourism:
Tourism is the world’s largest industry. Over the twentieth century, it has proved itself a destructive force. Coastlines have been transformed from still, sleepy beauty spots to over-developed resorts crowded by multi-storey hotels, bars and casinos. When fashions and tastes change, these areas are left to decline as the mass tourists head elsewhere. In other scenarios local communities have sometimes been displaced, as the powerful drives for development and preservation of natural national parks have in equal measure ignored their rights. Despite all this, tourism is a largely unregulated industry.
Dr. Forsyth believes that Sustainable Tourism is the best way to reduce damage to the environment and prevent negative impacts on human communities and wild animals. He defines Sustainable Tourism as “Tourism development that avoids damage to the environment, economy and cultures of the locations where it takes place.” Dr. Forsyth also makes the important distinction between Sustainable Tourism and Eco-Tourism, which can be equally destructive, and which he describes as “A form of tourism that focuses exclusively on wildlife, nature, or “exotic” cultures. Some argue that it is a vague term used to market anything related to nature or environmental tourism.”
Forsyth wraps up Session 1 of his seminar (all of which is online, by the way, and definitely worthy of a thorough read-through) with commentary on what it will require for Sustainable Tourism to really succeed:
The achievement of sustainable tourism, therefore depends in part on providing the right incentives for companies and resort managers to reduce the negative impacts of tourism, and then a variety of local practical steps (such as limiting numbers, or zoning land use) to reduce these impacts. But in the long term, the ultimate achievement of sustainable tourism also requires tourists and companies to think more about how tourism may impact on other people’s homes and livelihoods. Marcel Proust once wrote that most tourists seem to want to travel through one hundred countries with one pair of eyes, whereas the best journey would be to travel through one country with a hundred pair of eyes. By seeking more diversity and depth in holiday destinations, tourists may help avoid the impacts of tourism on destinations, and also achieve a more satisfying experience.
It will be up to us–you and me–to think more about how our travels impact the people and places we visit, and up to us to seek more diversity and depth in the destinations we choose.
With this in mind, here are some interesting approaches to travel as created and promoted by Conservation International, a nonprofit that applies innovations in science, economics, policy and community participation to protect the Earth’s biodiversity around the world. Their mission statement: “To conserve the Earth’s living heritage, our global biodiversity, and to demonstrate that human societies are able to live harmoniously with nature.”
The organization provides a list of “new Eco-Tourism” destinations and itineraries that they’ve developed, such as the Camino Posaderos Andinos (Andean Inn Routes) trip, which offers five main routes, and promises “a network of spectacular trails and smalls inns allowing tourists to experience the Mérida Cordillera. The Mérida Cordillera is part of the Andes mountain chain within Venezuela, which extends from the Colombian border and has an area of 11,866 square miles. High plains, valleys, páramos (high, bare and cold regions) and mountains predominate its geography. This complex topography is interwoven with a wider variety of ecosystems, making it one of the most valuable reservoirs of biodiversity in Venezuela and in the world.”
Food and lodging services are managed by local families.
Other destinations include Bolivia, Brazil, Ghana, Guatemala, and Panama.
Do you think they qualify as Sustainable or not?
If you’re like me, you’re tired of the seemingly endless amount of bad news that our media offers up every day. Read, watch, or listen to enough of it, and you’re liable to believe our world is an overwhelmingly scary, dangerous, hopeless place indeed. Of course, if you dig a little deeper than the incessant, mainstream media drone, you’ll find positive sources of news like the “intelligently optimistic” Ode Magazine.
Shelters:
My friend Katherine up the street just clued me in about this fantabulous organization. 
Sometimes, the opportunity to do some good is so darn easy, you’re likely to miss it. President-elect Barack Obama and his legions of ardent supporters are proof that when people are inspired to take action, they can accomplish just about anything. Today, I’m inspired, and I hope you will be, too.
This past summer, I started a project called “The Volunteer Chronicles.” I set out to volunteer with a variety Los Angeles organizations, and wrote about the experience over at 
Their “Laughing Gas” room spray benefits the 
billion last year drinking 8.3 billion gallons of bottled water