4 ms·

I know the islands well. Tourism is still only a third of the economy there. International shipping and agriculture sustained the islands for hundreds of years,

I know the islands well. Tourism is still only a third of the economy there. International shipping and agriculture sustained the islands for hundreds of years, prior to the 1970s when cheap jet air travel came of age. They import a lot now, but can in theory totally self-sustain. Each of the islands has a very different biosphere suited to different farming. We should pay attention to the Canary Islands, the rest of the planet is the coal mine, The problem is identified as "tourism" but their relation to the global economics within a climate change context is the real story. > 13.9 million people visited the islands Nearly all of them flew there. A few passenger cruise ships stop by. > a water emergency is already been declared on Tenerife They've a housing crisis, a cost of living crisis and now 36 degrees in April after a dry winter. Most of Tenerife is volcanic and the plant life around tourist areas is heavily irrigated. Without that it's a quite barren, unattractive environment. Without enough water for just the population, tourism is unsustainable. > It's a model that was built around a business class that doesn't want to listen to what needs to be done, and with a political class that serves that business class instead of serving all the citizens. So, the usual root causes, greed and short-term thinking.

yakshaving_jgt 2y ago
> We should pay attention to the Canary Islands, the rest of the planet is the coal mine I enjoyed this line.
hcks 2y ago
> only a third of the economy Yeah and I’m sure the rest is advanced industry and not at all goods and services consumed by the tourism-industry workers and their families
NoPie 2y ago
Santa Cruz where most of the local population lives gets half of its water from desalination plant. Desalination is already cost-effective and can provide water for tourists if needed. They would just need to build a desalination plant in the south. Electricity already is largely generated by wind, solar and tide. Air transportation probably causes the biggest pollution. Apart from that such tourism is very sustainable. It provides value to people who need to go on holidays. It doesn't matter if the food and necessities are imported because tourists would have consumed the food anyway if they had stayed at home. While it causes unsustainable rent increases to local population, that can be managed somehow. Maybe give subsidies to them by using the profits from tourism. Tourism tax is not unusual invention in many places.

yakshaving_jgt 2y ago

> We should pay attention to the Canary Islands, the rest of the planet is the coal mine I enjoyed this line.

hcks 2y ago

> only a third of the economy Yeah and I’m sure the rest is advanced industry and not at all goods and services consumed by the tourism-industry workers and their families

NoPie 2y ago

Santa Cruz where most of the local population lives gets half of its water from desalination plant. Desalination is already cost-effective and can provide water for tourists if needed. They would just need to build a desalination plant in the south. Electricity already is largely generated by wind, solar and tide. Air transportation probably causes the biggest pollution. Apart from that such tourism is very sustainable. It provides value to people who need to go on holidays. It doesn't matter if the food and necessities are imported because tourists would have consumed the food anyway if they had stayed at home. While it causes unsustainable rent increases to local population, that can be managed somehow. Maybe give subsidies to them by using the profits from tourism. Tourism tax is not unusual invention in many places.