A war against tourism, a war against the Paris Climate Agreement, this is the status tonight in the United States of America. The USA is joining Syria and Nicaragua and decided it was unnecessary to stand behind the rest of the world in joining hands to be good custodian and support the human right of travel. The world tonight in our Aloha State of Hawaii is not the same beautiful world it was when the sun came up over our blue Pacific Ocean this morning. The world is not the same for the United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres’s today, and certainly the world is not the same for the global travel and tourism industry tonight.
A study by the Hawaii Tourism Authority in 2014 confirmed the biggest threat our islands, the Islands of Hawaii face because of climate change: Higher average temperatures, stressing native animals and plants and causing an uptick in heat-related illnesses in people (think dengue fever or cholera), as well as a higher concentration of invasive species; A decrease in trade winds, which would disrupt the rainfall patterns across each of the islands and create periods of drought and heavy rain and flooding; Warmer oceans and higher ocean acidity, which could trigger massive coral bleaching, marine migration, and affect the ocean’s circulation and the way it distributes nutrients.
Perhaps the most obvious change around the state will be the rise in sea levels, which have risen about 0.5-1.3 inches per decade throughout the last 100 years. The study projects this rate to accelerate, resulting in a 1-foot to 3-foot rise (or possibly more) by 2100.That would mean most of Waikiki and its famous beach would either be underwater or highly eroded by it. Today it’s one man against climate, tourism and the world. His name is Donald Trump, and he was helped to be elected president of the United States of America. International Pow Wow, a yearly promotional event with thousands of international tourism buyers invited to the U.S. to discuss inbound tourism is about to start in Washington DC next week. It may be the last POW WOW. Marketing US Tourism abroad may be an activity of the past soon. Brand USA is fighting to stay in operation and may be eliminated altogether. President Trump recently proposed a budget that would shift funding Brand USA to the US Customs and Border Protection. Instead of welcoming international tourists, Trump wants the wall.
A poll conducted for the 2017 U.S. News Best Countries Rankings found that more than 70 percent of a survey respondents lost respect for U.S. leadership. The world today is stunned by this man. News from Moscow however is indicating some sympathy and perhaps President Putin sees an opportunity for Russia with the US decision to leave the Paris Climate Agreement. Fijian Prime Minister and incoming COP23 president Frank Bainimarama has expressed his disappointment in President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw the United States from the Paris Agreement on climate change. This disappointment was echoed by heads of States from almost every country in the world.
Fiji is one out of many leaders today from every continent on the globe condemning the decision of the United States to abandoning the requirement for every decent human citizen to be a responsible custodian of this earth. Small island nations like those in the South Pacific are on the frontline of climate change, susceptible to more frequent extreme weather events like cyclones, and in danger of being swamped by rising sea levels as polar ice caps melt
