While on one hand this phenomenon can serve to help raise awareness and recognition of the seriousness of the problem, and provoke the social consciousness, on the other hand, travelers seeking to marvel upon polar species, vanishing fauna and authentic cultures, before they are gone forever, could increase the negative human impact on nature.
The travel phenomena is termed ‘last-chance’ or ‘doom’ tourism in the popular media, and put in the context of societal angst against globalization, climate change and technological progress, easily accumulates the desire of tourists to witness vanishing landscapes.
Does this make YOU wish to see a polar bear?
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#1. Alaskan Tundra
The temperatures are rising all over the world due to the global warming, but the Arctic is heated up twice as fast as the rest of the world. If the tundra's permafrost keeps melting, that means that the beautiful frozen area of Alaska could vanish completely. Ironically, in the process, it not only drastically alters the ecosystem but also releases additional carbon, which hastens global warming.
#2. Amazon Rainforest
With its 3.4 million square miles which are home to more than 20 percent of the world plant and animal species, spread over nine different nations, the Amazon Rainforest's biodiversity is unparalleled. However, over the past years, deforestation and human settlement have destroyed nearly 373,000 square miles of the rainforest. At that rate a complete loss of rainforest cover in the basin could be achieved by 2100.
#3. Bangladesh
Lying both in the Ganges–Brahmaputra River Delta and in the heart of the monsoon belt, Bangladesh sits in a perfect storm of climactic conditions. Natural cataclysms, such as floods, tropical cyclones, tornadoes and tidal bores occur here almost every year, with tragic results, but with only 1 meter rise of the sea level would sink 50 percent of the area.
#4. Bering Sea
Providing the U.S. with half its seafood caught and a home to more than 30 species of seabird, including endangered whales, belugas, walruses and at least 419 species of fish, The Bering Sea is home to some of the world's most interesting wildlife. The warming of the oceans could have a substantial impact on its biodiversity: in the northern reaches, there is already less ice than just a few decades ago, and it melts earlier.
#5. Caracas
The extreme weather of Caracas is the cause for the most tragic natural disasters of the Americas. The force of the rainstorms trigger landslides and endager the livs of half the population of the Venezuelan city population - more then 2 million people live in communities on the surrounding slopes.
#6. Chacaltaya
The snow peak of La Paz, rising 17.800 feet high, is a 18,000 years old glacier tower over the Bolivian capital. The continuously rising temperatures have caused the glacier to shrink about 80 percent in volume in only 20 years. With this high melting speed, the glacier and its essential for the Chacaltaya people melt water would eventually disappear completely.
#7. Glacier National Park
With a breathtaking pace of more than one glacier per year, the Glacier National Park is currently hosting only 27 remained of 150 glaciers, and even those are expected to disappear by 2030, if not earlier. The park is a tome to a plead of floral and animal species that call the park home require cold water, meaning the ecosystem of the park may change dramatically when the glaciers are gone.
#8. Great Barrier Reef
With 900 individual reefs and 900 islands stretching for more than 2,600 kilometres over an area of approximately 344,400 square kilometres, the Great Barrier Reef is the world's largest single structure made by living organisms. It is actually so big so large that it can be seen from outer space. It took nature more than 8, 000 years to create a wonder that rising ocean temperatures to vanish in a human lifetime.
#9. Honduras
The tropical climate of Honduras and the favorably warm waters of the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific generate vast biological resources and make the region a biodiversity hotspot. One of the richest land for growing coffee and bananas in the world, has been subjected to the devastating force of the hurricanes, occurring after large air masses have been heated up over the Caribbean Sea. Recently, hurricane Mitch killed nearly 6,000 people, obliterated much of the country’s infrastructure, and destroyed a great percent of this poor nation's crops.
#10. Little Green Street
This very diminutive street in London's Kentish Town, hosts only eight houses on one side and two on the other, but the houses were built in the 1780s. Survived both world wars unchanged and the unwise decision of the local authority. today it is one of the few intact Georgian streets in the capital.
#11. Maldives
With 1,192 islets, spread over a territory of approximately 90,000 square kilometers, the Maldives is one of the most dispersed countries in the world. With an average ground level of 1.5 metres above sea level, it is the lowest country on the planet and the rising sea levels (about 20 centimeters over the last century) are of a great concern for its population - most of the islands could be inundated with water, just like Atlantis.
#12. Mississippi River Delta
The mighty Mississippi flows south and trails into the Gulf of Mexico through a vast, subtropical landscape of rivers, marshes, and low-lying barrier islands. At the rim of the delta, the Chandeleur Islands form a natural buffer zone for the heavily populated coastal regions of Louisiana—which include New Orleans—against increasingly stormy seas.
#13. Patagonia
The steadfastly retreating glaciers because of rising temperatures and declining precipitation, a land of untouched beauty, South America's Patagonia is being dramatically altered by climate change. While this land won't disappear entirely, its landscape may soon be altered beyond recognition if global warming persists.
#14. Saharan Africa
The world's largest desert, Sahara in Africa - an arid area, currently stretching over 9,400,000 square kilometres and continuously expanding its territory (at an estimated rate of 0.8 kilometers per month). The desert is constantly altering the environment of the continent, but with this speed of growth, it could consume all of Northern Africa.
#15. South Australia
Fresh water supplies are rapidly drying up in the southern regions of Australia, threatening the continent with desertification. The parched landscape increases the occurrence of wildfires, threatening agriculture, wildlife and hundreds of Australian homes.
#16. The Alps
With an altitude lower than the Rocky Mountains', the Alps with their glaciers and ski resorts are more susceptible to the effects of global warming, in fact predicted to disappear by 2050.
#17. The Battery
A popular promenade since the 17th century, the southern shoreline of Manhattan experiences extreme flooding that reaches up to 3 meters, every century. These floods could worsen and become much more common over the next few decades as a result of increasingly frequent storms and rising sea level and threaten the Battery.
#18. Trinidad
Renowned for its well-preserved Spanish colonial architecture, the town of Trinidad has been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site. But Trinidad, together with the rest of Cuba, lies in the path of hurricanes. An effort is now underway to reinforce buildings against more severe storms that threaten both the town’s colonial heritage and the lives of its citizens.
#19. Venice
A man shows off a sea bass that he caught with his bare hands while standing in St. Mark's Square in Venice during a severe flood in November 2009, when water levels reached 131 centimeters. Venice has long been sinking, but rising sea levels have made the situation more dire. The frequency of floods increases each year, leaving many to wonder how much longer Venice can stay above water.
#20. Western Hudson Bay
For much of the year, polar bears roam the frozen Canadian Hudson Bay, hunting for seals. In the western portion of the bay, the ice begins to melt in late spring. The polar bears then go into hibernation, living off reserves of body fat until the sea freezes again. The ice now breaks up three weeks earlier than it did in the early 1970s, limiting the endangered bears’ access to food.