3 days ago
An ethical guide to last-chance tourism
As more people travel to destinations that may soon vanish due to climate change, experts and guides weigh in on how this practice could help preserve these places – if done right.
When French writer Cédric Duroux reached the summit of a remote Icelandic mountain where a few lone glimmers of ice remained, his first thought was that it was breathtakingly beautiful – until one of the guides gently told him that everything around him used to be glacier.
"And then it hit me at the top of that mountain; I'm still having goosebumps telling you about this," Duroux said. "That's when I realised how serious the situation was."
This was in 2018, the first of several trips to Ok – formerly the Okjokull glacier – organised by Rice University anthropologists. The professors were scouting the location where Okjokull's highly publicised glacier funeral would take place, and Duroux tagged along. The moment he came face to face with climate change for the first time has stayed with him ever since.
