Tourism Booms as Arctic Melts

作者： Docksai, Rick

刊名： The Futurist, 2010, Vol.44 (3), pp.9-10

来源数据库： ProQuest Journal

英文摘要： Researchers anticipate large increases of Arctic industry and tourism in this century. The Arctic Marine Shipping Assessment, a report compiled by the Arctic Council, an intergovernmental forum, says that the number of cruise ships visiting Greenland alone rose from 14 in 2003 to 39 in 2008. The Arctic is a promising site for business as well as pleasure. A 2008 study by the US Geological Survey estimated that it contains 30% of the world's undiscovered natural gas and 13% of its undiscovered oil. As tourism and industries increase, so might the emissions from ship smokestacks: ozone, carbon dioxide, sulfur oxides, and black carbon, among others. The emissions poison animal life, deplete the ozone layer, and taint the snow and ice, reducing their ability to mitigate global warming by... reflecting sunlight away from the earth. Industry can benefit indigenous peoples, however, with bigger supplies of food, more amenities, and new jobs.