It’s that time of the year again, and you’re probably dreaming about a great summer vacation with your loved ones. I don’t blame you; I am too. Every year most of us go on our annual vacations (if we’re lucky) in the summer. It’s our chance to kick back, relax, and get away from it work and other obligations.

However, there are certain facts about tourism that we should pay attention to when choosing a summer vacation spot. For instance, tourism is hugely affected by global warming (rising sea levels that threaten to submerge small islands and coastal regions), desertification (the scarcity of water), deforestation (which contributes to global warming and excess carbon in the atmosphere, which reduces the pristine beauty – and therefore the demand – for these destinations), and melting glaciers (which leads to rising sea levels, flooding, and affects destinations worldwide). So it’s hard to escape the fact that we – as tourists – also affect and damage the environment simply because that is the nature of the industry. We now know that “tourism is not only the largest growing industry in the world, but it is also responsible for 5% to 12% of global greenhouse gas emissions.”

Read more here.