nakita ko itong article na ito sa Yahoo!
Endangered vacations
You've heard of a
"life list" -- the vacation spots you want to see before you die. This is a little different. These are top U.S. destinations you might want to see before
they die. "They" being the destinations themselves. Each of these vacation ideas is located in a landscape that is threatened in some way by an environmental hazard.
While inclusion on this list isn't an indication that these sites are in imminent danger of disappearing, the fact that this list seems plausible is a distinctly 21st-century phenomenon. After all, destinations are supposed to be permanent, even though our lives are not -- that's what makes the
Wonders of the World so mysterious and attractive. It's not just their beauty and scale, but their endurance.
This summer is the perfect time to take to the road and see one of these endangered U.S. destinations. You may have another chance, but your kids or their kids may not.
Paddling the Florida Everglades
(Photo: National Park Service)
Everglades National Park is the largest subtropical wilderness in the United States — a vast and slow-moving river channeled through tufts of dry land. It's teeming with wildlife, from the abundant and ferocious (alligators and crocodiles) to the scarce and ferocious (the panther) and every creature on down the food chain. Paddling a canoe through the Everglades is a rare experience.
But, the Everglades face a Goldilocks-type question: Will there be too little water, too much ... or just the right amount? Too little and the Everglades dry up. Too much and it gets swallowed by the sea. Either way, it won’t offer the same wilderness canoe experience it does today.
For more than a century, too little water has been the problem, as agriculture and suburban sprawl have eaten into the swamp, draining and diverting the natural water flow. With the water has gone 90% of some populations of wading birds.
Water levels are rising, thanks to a 35-year preservation plan. Ironically, though, global warming is expected to cause sea-levels to rise and potentially cover the low-lying land. The Everglades could be swallowed by the sea. Bottom line: Better not put off that once-in-a-lifetime trip to this one-of-a-kind destination.
Photographing Glaciers in Glacier National Park (and elsewhere)
(Photo: USGS)
What would the Grand Canyon be without a canyon? Something like Glacier National Park would be without its glaciers. But by 2030, that's exactly the landscape that might greet visitors. In fact,
two more glaciers disappeared this year.
Already, some of the most famous glaciers in the Montana park have shrunk by more than half, and
only 17% of the glaciers found there in 1850 remain today (25 of 150).
Glaciers are things of beauty and awe: The imprint of time and the Earth's physical processes represented in massive hulk of ice on the landscape. The loss of glaciers
worldwide is one of the most visual signs of global warming. Sure, the melting of a glacier is still slow in human years, but the change in Glacier National Park is real, and any children born today should see the park before they hit 20 -- because the glaciers might well be gone by then.