Tourism and the Implications of Climate Change: Issues and by Christian Schott

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The different disciplinary perspectives presented in this volume include anthropology, climatology, climate change studies, economics, environmental sustainability, hospitality, policy and planning, psychology, scenario planning, and transport studies. While it was also attempted to provide insights on the topic from diverse parts of the world, this proved more challenging than anticipated and as a result the contributions originate from nine developed countries across three continents. The academic and case study chapters in this volume are arranged into four parts: a contextualization of tourism and climate change science, a section examining issues and actions in the supply of tourism products in this era of climate change, a section discussing issues and actions in different countries and with different tourism consumers, while the final section of the volume explores adaptation and innovation actions and identifies resultant issues.

But vulnerability to climate change and adaptation options are shaped by local socioeconomic and cultural contexts, as well as by the adaptive capacity of local people and institutions. Understanding local responses and options to adapt local tourism activities to the impacts of climate change will require intensified place-based research conducted by researchers that are appropriately equipped to understand these place-specific factors. This will be aided by drawing on the lessons generated by the growing literature on place-based vulnerability in other sectors (Ford, Keskitalo, Smith et al 2010; O’Brien, Eriksen, Nygaard and Schjolden 2007; Smit and Wandel 2006; van Aalst, Cannon and Burton 2008).

There has in fact been a cooling influence on the atmosphere caused by aerosols, some of them caused naturally, for instance by volcanic eruptions, and some by human activities, principally emissions of sulfate, organic and black carbon, nitrate, and dust. These aerosols reflect some of the sun’s rays back to space or absorb some of them, in either case preventing them from reaching the surface of the Earth. Discernible human influences extend to other aspects of climate, including ocean warming, continental-average temperatures, temperature extremes, and wind patterns (IPCC 2007a).