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Places to Visit Before It’s Too Late

I wish I couldn’t write about this topic of Places to Visit Before It’s Too Late, but sadly enough it’s not all that hard. There are places that are reaching a point of destruction, and for different reasons they will soon be gone. As I write this post, I feel split between paradoxes.

While I would really want to see these places, I would be contributing to the problem that made me go to an endangered site in the first place.

Global warming is our own fault, and that’s a heartbreaking fact. So while I feel inspired to go to these places, the fact that they might not be there for long because of our actions, makes me want to go there in an environmentally friendly way.

Places to visit Before It’s Too Late
Places to visit Before It’s Too Late

Places To Visit Before It’s Too Late

So as much as I hope to inspire to travel to these places, I hope to inspire to a greener way of getting there.

Some of the places here are a few places that scientists and key reports say are feeling the effects of global warming today — places to consider as you put together your travel plans.

Maldives

Maldives
Maldives

This amazingly beautiful island nation must be paradise on earth, and looking at the pictures I can see why so many people go there for their honeymoon.

The white beaches, the great diving and snorkeling, the relaxed atmosphere.. it just seems like a place where you can really sit back and relax for a while.

But not for too long, Maldives is sinking, and scientists fear the sea level is rising up to 0.9cm a year.

Since 80% of its 1,200 islands are no more than 1m above sea level, within 100 years the Maldives could become completely uninhabitable.

Visiting the place is probably the last thing you should worry about, but I have to say that I would like to see it before it’s all under water.

The Dead Sea

The Dead Sea
The Dead Sea

Want to float on top of water like a cork in the Dead Sea?

Or maybe you would want to go there for the healing natural minerals in the water?

Well, hurry up because The Dead Sea is evaporating!

And it does this at an alarming rate.

As though the global warming wasn’t enough, the problem is compounded by extraction and evaporation of water from the Dead Sea to extract the valuable mineral salts.

Belize Barrier Reef

Places to visit Before It’s Too Late
Belize Coral Reef

Warmer oceans mean stressed coral, which results in bleaching and death. Corals are incredibly sensitive, but very important for the marine life to survive.

Coral is threatened by people breaking them, damaging them and using them for jewelry.

If you ever break a coral, they die. Therefore, when you snorkel and dive you have to be very careful not to touch them.

Part of the reason why they’re so fragile is because they only reproduce once every year, and few of the seeds ever get the chance to grow.

In Belize, more than half of the coral reefs in Caribbean are ALREADY gone.

Report revealed that the world’s coral is dying at record rates because of pollution, disease and global warming.

In the Caribbean, eighty percent of corals have died over the past three decades.

Checkout our article on the Best Belize Beach and Belize Jungle Resorts

The Swiss Alps

The Swiss Alps
The Swiss Alps

The Swiss Alps are already less snowy, and they are forced to use artificial snow more and more.

The scenery will change drastically within the next few decades, the season will get shorter, and the glaciers there are already melting.

Although for us it was hard to see how it could be warmer than usual in -30 degrees last winter, the ski season arrived rather late.

There are many factors that cause the global warming and pollution, and although it might seem like the world wouldn’t be better if you changed your ways of living, it would.

Those are a few of mine – which places would YOU like to visit before it becomes too late?

(photo credits:jenorton – nattu – notsogoodphotography – jimwhiteheaducsc – jetske)

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Comments

  3. it is scary to think about – and sorta makes you want to RUSH around the world trying to see everything before it’s too late. a real shame, but you also never know how long those kinds of things will be there …

  4. Unfortunately, there are many fragile ecosystems and animals in danger of extinction I’d like to think that each place I visit would potentially be my last.

  5. Goodness – had no idea about some of these places…Artificial snow on the Swiss Alps? Crazy!

  6. The Dead Sea will soon hold up to it’s name? It will die? This is horrible news, that it should like White Sands some day. I will definitely add this to my list of places to visit once I get back to traveling!

  7. Ahhhhh, I already feel like I’m running out of time to see every place I want to see and now even more so after reading this post LOL.

  8. If I know that visiting a place will accelerate its demise then I am perfectly happy to read about it, browse photos and watch videos about it. Travel should not be like stamp collecting where you try to get as many destinations ticked off.
    Even visiting destinations that are not currently under threat could cause further damage.

  9. I felt the same way when I saw Semuc Champey in Guatemala, in 5 years it will be ruined by tourism.

  10. So many places are under threat. The Amazon rainforest. The Himalayas. So much of the Pacific. Antarctica… Thanks for a timely reminder, if a depressing read.

  11. Travel has ALWAYS been about ticking off destinations, some just do it faster or slower than others.

    Checking out places you’ve never been to before.

    It might not a physical list, but it’s always mental one…

  12. Thanks for putting a face on the devastating effects of global warming and, consequently, giving me an idea for my 2011 New Year’s resolution: making my travels more environmentally friendly. –Randy

  13. Unfortunately, the more “advanced” our world gets, the more endangered these places become. I don’t care what anybody says – global warming is real. And you’re right – these places are disappearing!

    I wrote a post similar to this a while back, but it focused on ancient wonders that are now crumbling due to very similar reasons – overpopulation, pollution, global warming…

    I would add Pompeii to your list. It hasn’t been preserved as well as it should have been, and they’ve been having frequent collapses there recently of walls and entire buildings. Which is really depressing.

  14. Haha unfortunately yes, the dead sea might actually die for real. It’s so sad because it’s something I believe could be saved with a bit of effort.

  15. It’s crazy how fast things move these days.
    A place that was totally out of the way are just a few years later a big attraction.

    I remember seeing big signs in heaps of hostels in Australia advertising tours to a town by saying “Go there before Lonely Planet does!”, and every day tons of packed buses made their way there…

  16. I guess I should say sorry and you’re welcome 😛
    It is depressing, but like you said, it’s a reminder, and we need to remind ourselves every once in a while.
    Ignoring it doesn’t make anything better, but being aware of it can make a big difference. Thanks for stopping by!

  18. “the more advanced our world gets, the more endangered these places become”, well said, completely agree!
    Thanks for adding Pompeii, I had no idea it was collapsing..!

  19. I’ve been to two of the ones above – Maldives & Dead Sea. Both incredible places – now its off to the other 2!

  21. A friend of mine just got back from Maldives and all she has are positive words about the place. She also described it as a piece of paradise here on earth. I wish I can go visit these places before its too late.

  22. I didn’t know they used fake snow on the alps! It’s strange to think that all this is being ruined as we speak, I really want to see the dead sea.
    Hopefully things may make a turn around and eco systems will have time to adapt – positive thinking?!

  23. It’s not all they use (yet!), but they do it at the start of the season to make sure that there is a solid base of snow.
    It would be nice if that happened, easier for us 😛 who knows, positive thinking doesn’t hurt 😉

  24. So many places, so little time.. 🙂 Yeah it is a really sad story, it breaks my heart watching documentaries about them and their fight for survival..
    Have a great time in the Alps and Belize!

  25. I can imagine that! We had plans of going there later this year, but our plans are changing a little, so we’ll see what happens. would love to go there some time, it would be the ultimate getaway!

  28. yeah – we spent the winter there last year, they use artificial snow as a base to help keep the real snow there once it arrives. but they are using it more and more even in the middle of winter, so cover areas which haven’t received much snow.

  30. Matt, my point was not that people don’t travel with lists in their mind. Unless you plan to travel somewhere and put that destination on a list you are unlikely to go there. It was that a quest to collect as many destinations as possible is at best vacuous and at worst damaging to those very destinations.

  31. I would love to spend some time on the Great Barrier Reef. The forecast is that it will be bleached by 2030 🙁