EcoTourism

While I really enjoyed the film "Life and Debt" one of the aspects of it that really bothered me was the depiction of the obviously stupid, mindless tourists flooding the islands of honest, underprivileged Jamaicans. Okay, yeah, I'm sure a lot of those tourists really weren't consciously dissecting the social inequities of tourism in the developing world or the irony of watching crabs race by the pool while women demanded fair working conditions and pay. But applying a blanket characterization to one group of people (the stupid, ignorant tourists) is just as morally questionable as believing the stereotypes about another (the uneducated, lazy Jamaicans). Yeah, spending your vacation at a Sandals resort in a country on the verge of economic collapse with nary a second thought is wrong, but assuming that all of these people were ignorant of the issues they were surrounded by and parodying them for it was wrong, too.

That said, eco-tourism and tourism generally, when conducted in a sustainable and socially conscious manner, is really great. Experiencing different cultures is absolutely essential to expanding and reshaping the way you perceive the world you live in. I can absolutely say that studying and traveling in Central and Eastern Europe (more exotic than it initially sounds, formerly communist countries are fascinating and really, really different than the bastion of capitalism, the United States) completely transformed the way I see the world and how I approach problem solving. That said, air travel is completely ridiculous in terms of carbon emissions (I should know...my dad is a corporate pilot and I tried to buy him a carbon offset for Christmas last year...anyone have $9,000 lying around??). The solution to this problem, in my view, is not necessarily eliminating travel from ones life completely, but by supporting companies that are investigating clean fuel technologies. Beyond this, it is the responsibility of companies to actually do this research and governments to financially motivate such initiatives.

The issues brought up in the short webisode about greenwashing is well received and should definitely be taken into consideration. This requires real, substantive research into tourism packages, but if you're paying a lot to go on a great trip, research is sort of part of the ball game.