ENVIRONMENT AND CLIMATE
Traveling has long been a means to explore the world and discover new places, but with the increasing awareness of environmental degradation, the tourism industry is being called to rethink its impact. While tourism offers economic benefits and cultural exchange, it also contributes to significant environmental problems, such as pollution, habitat destruction, and resource depletion. In response, a movement known as ecotourism has risen to the forefront as a solution that seeks to minimize these negative impacts and promote sustainability.
Ecotourism focuses on responsible travel practices that protect the environment, empower local communities, and allow travelers to engage with the natural world in meaningful ways. It is a crucial model for preserving our planet’s delicate ecosystems and ensuring that tourism benefits both people and the environment. In this article, we will explore what ecotourism is, how it supports conservation, the economic benefits it offers to local communities, and how destinations like Ecuador are leading the charge in ecotourism.
What is Ecotourism?
Ecotourism is defined as a form of responsible travel to natural areas that conserves the environment, respects local cultures, and supports the well-being of local communities. Unlike conventional tourism, which often exploits resources and contributes to environmental harm, ecotourism prioritizes the health of ecosystems and minimizes the footprint left by travelers. It encourages education, environmental responsibility, and direct engagement with nature, allowing travelers to appreciate and understand the importance of preserving the places they visit.
The primary principles of ecotourism include:
- Environmental sustainability: Reducing the environmental impact of tourism activities, including waste management, energy consumption, and minimizing disruption to ecosystems.
- Cultural respect: Engaging with and learning from local communities, while ensuring that tourism benefits them economically and…
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The research, led by scientists from Hohai University, the Nanjing Hydraulic Research Institute, and the IHE Delft Institute for Water Education, found that carbon emissions from China’s water supply infrastructure amounted to approximately 228 million metric tons of CO₂ by 2022. This figure reflects indirect emissions associated with electricity use and the increased use of energy-intensive water sources, even as the nation increases its share of clean energy.
Water supply systems are central to China’s urban development, but their high energy consumption has become a significant driver of carbon output, the authors said. The study highlights a paradox in China’s transition to cleaner energy: while renewable energy has helped mitigate emissions from power generation, the growth of energy-intensive water-intensive processes has increased overall emissions from the sector.
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The life of David Duong and his family is an American and Vietnamese success story, one built on both resilience in the face of challenges and a steady commitment to environmental service. After losing everything following the fall of Saigon in 1975, the Duong family moved across the sea and made a new home in San Francisco. Their experiences became the foundation for a multigenerational business in waste management and sustainability. Over the years, David’s eldest son, Michael Duong, began learning the company’s operations, while his siblings, Kristina and Victor, played crucial roles in financial management, community partnerships, and strategic growth. Together, they support a family mission that spans two continents.
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By Tina Geiger / Staff WriterA collaborative international research effort has produced a new way to observe forest growth across large regions over extended time periods using satellite data. The work provides the first continuous record of annual forest canopy height, opening new avenues for tracking biomass accumulation, forest health, and the potential for global carbon storage.
Forests are vital to Earth’s carbon cycle and support diverse ecosystems, but understanding how they grow and change over decades has historically required costly and labor-intensive field measurements. Traditional forest maps provide snapshots rather than continuous growth patterns, limiting their usefulness for long-term analysis and policy planning.
New Satellite-Driven Forest Growth Data
Researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the University of Copenhagen, and partner institutions used the Landsat satellite archive and advanced machine learning to reconstruct annual canopy height maps from 1986 through 2019. These maps were generated at 30-meter resolution and validated with airborne lidar measurements and national forest inventories to ensure accuracy.
This method uses a Random Forest machine learning model trained on existing global canopy height products to predict vertical forest growth patterns from satellite spectral data. The model showed consistent performance across different regions and decades.
The analysis revealed that forests in southern China have grown significantly over the past three decades. Average canopy height increased from approximately 6.4 meters in 1986 to more than 10.3 meters in 2019, a rise of over 60 percent. Plantation forests showed faster growth cycles, while secondary forests grew more steadily.
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Scientists from the University of Utah and the Colorado School of Mines used geological “proxies” such as plant fossils, soil chemistry, and river deposits to infer how rainfall behaved during this period. Their findings challenge a long-held assumption that a warmer world simply makes wet regions wetter and dry regions drier. Instead, rainfall became much less predictable, with long intervals of dryness punctuated by episodes of intense precipitation.
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