TRANSCRIPTS
consumers, ranging from environmentally friendly accommodation to restaurants serving only organic food. Other low-impact measures such as recycling may actually result in lower business costs.
Now I’m going to set you a task which will involve investigating some of the points I’ve raised. I want you to do some research into which areas of tourism and hospitality might actually be able to benefit from the changes which are going to be necessary for the environment. I want you to focus, firstly, on some of the new plans, methods and technologies for dealing with environmental problems, with respect to the environmental categories I’ve mentioned – global warming, pollution and waste – and in the context of tourism and hospitality. Secondly, I’d like you to think about whether these methods and plans to save the environment could actually benefit tourism businesses in the future or whether they will mainly affect them in a negative way.
Unit 11, Lesson 3, Exercise E 2.14
But the real question is: is global warming the result of human activity? Some people claim, even some scientists have said, that it’s nothing to do with humankind; it’s the result of natural phenomena such as sunspots or volcano activity. But I’m afraid that just isn’t true. It’s quite clear that global warming is the direct result of human activity – especially business activity. Within that, travel and tourism has a lot to answer for. Most of the research into global warming has concluded that the burning of fossil fuels is what is responsible. The evidence for this lies in the fact that there is a clear, positive correlation between the increase in the presence of CO2 in the atmosphere and the rise in the Earth’s temperature.
Unit 11, Lesson 4, Exercise E 2.15 Extract 1
The lecturer we listened to last week introduced a number of interesting issues. In my part of the seminar, I would like to build on what he said and talk about a number of new technologies which have recently been introduced as alternatives to fossil fuels: these include wind, wave and solar power. It’s obvious that these depend to some extent on the climate and on where a country is located, but there is a lot of scope for development, although some people dislike the impact on the countryside of things like wind- farms. Hydroelectric power is also an important
source that has been around for quite a long time in countries such as Norway, where they have a lot of snow and heavy rainfall. And, of course, there’s also the idea of biofuels, which is anything based on vegetable matter, such as wood, corn, etc., which we can use for heating and to replace petrol. Just think of all the tourism opportunities this offers – a health resort could run completely on hydroelectric power or solar power or biofuels and people would not have to feel guilty about leaving their footprint …
Extract 2
OK, following on from what Majed has said, I’d like to mention some important environmental initiatives. You can see that as a result of global warming and because of worries about the environment, a new form of trading between companies has been created. This is usually called ‘carbon trading’. Basically, what this means is that companies have an allowance for carbon emissions. If they create pollution beyond these emissions, that is, if they are heavy polluters, then they will have to buy ‘carbon credits’ from those companies who pollute less than their allowances. If they don’t do this, they will face heavy penalties. This is what is known as the carbon ‘trade’. So, what this means is that one company can be fined for creating pollution, while another may be rewarded if it reduces carbon emissions. The idea is to reduce overall production of greenhouse gases. Several trading systems already exist, the biggest of which is the one in the EU. The ‘carbon market’ is getting more popular in business circles as a way to manage climate change. You can imagine what this would do to global tour operators and airlines.
Extract 3
Right. Thank you, Evie. I’m going to expand on what Evie just said by mentioning another important initiative. What is usually called ‘carbon offsetting’ is similar in many ways to the concept of carbon trading. Carbon offsetting involves the calculation of your carbon footprint and then, depending on the result, the purchase of ‘carbon offset credits’. Let me try and make this clearer with an example. For instance, if you travel a lot by plane then you might need to offset your carbon footprint (a concept developed by Wackernagel and Rees in 1995, by the way) by some more environmentally friendly green action such as reducing energy use in your house or not using your car so much. Several companies already exist to advise on this and to manage it: for example,
carbonfootprint.com. So, in the context
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