ECOCLUB Blogs™

The choice is yours. And it is an urgent one too: The World Health Organisation today announced an urgent review into microplastics in drinking water, following a new study by Orb Media and State University of New York - Fredonia, which found plastic contamination in 242 out of 259 bottles sampled from 11 brands in nine countries, at twice the level of the supposedly inferior, humble tap water. The multinational brands involved, some of whom are keen on privatisation of public water utilities (so that they can sell it back to us at bottled prices?), were, as expected, quick to dispute the accuracy of the results, but what even the most gullible consumers will start realising soon is that microplastics are potentially a threat as serious to human health and the environment as Climate Change, and related to it in various ways.  The micro-plastic mega-threat is one extra but very serious reason for ecotourists and ecotourism providers to avoid plastic, including plastic water bottles as much as possible. Ecotourists and adventure tourists, in particular, should avoid clothes made from synthetic fibres, as one of the major sources of plastic pollution are microplastics produced each time fancy isothermic and waterproof materials go for washing - up to 1 million fibres for...

Does tourism contribute to the rise of nationalism or quite the opposite? Over the years I have spoken with many tourism practitioners, academics and decision-makers and in the vast majority of cases have detected a strain of unadulterated nationalism in their views, even when these tend to be otherwise progressive and green. It could be that the daily preoccupation of these people with local culture, tradition, monuments and history contributes to the development of notions of national identity and particularity in their mind. It can hardly be disputed that National Tourism Ministries and National Tourism Boards, which exist in nearly every country (with the notable exception of the United States) have similarities with the propaganda offices of authoritarian regimes as they are always painting a rosy picture of the country/destination, inviting travel journalists and bloggers for hire, paying lobbyists and so on. On the other hand, community-based forms of tourism tend to highlight differences (in dress, language, customs) between each village and region within countries and encourage the discovery or rediscovery of ethnic or other minorities, something which is a red flag to nationalists, authoritarianism peddlers and assorted control-freaks. Of course, there is a cottage industry there, namely in the discovery...

An environmental disaster of yet unknown proportions is unfolding in the Gulf of Athens, known as the Saronic Gulf, following the peculiarly rapid sinking under calm seas, of an ageing, small oil tanker carrying 2,200 tons of fuel oil and 370 metric tons of marine gas oil, near the island of Salamis, on the early hours of October 11th, 2017. Decades of haphazard, boom and bust industrial development and lack of planning has turned a great part of the northern Saronic Gulf into a strange and conflicting mix of heavy industries, refineries shipyards, summer houses, restaurants, beaches, marinas, archaeological sites, and sea-farms. In the past decade, during a huge financial and social crisis, there is an effort supported by powerful private developers to relaunch the area as the Athens Riviera, a new destination with mega-projects including the construction of a coastal casino-leisure-business complex in the sprawling site of Athens Hellinikon, a former airport and military base, which until recently was also hosting Syrian refugees in derelict, athletic infrastructure built for another mega-project, the Athens 2004 Olympics. That mega-project has not been given the green light yet, as archaeologists claim that the former airport site contains important sites dating back to prehistoric...

Call it Climatexit? Perhaps, but there is no need to despair at President Trump's 'final decision' to 'withdraw' from the Paris Treaty. For a democracy, it may be scary if one is really able (there are doubts) to take such a decision without having to get approval from Congress. But looking at the bright side, this dev...

 Bashing villains (soft, anonymous, targets not, say, a powerful hotel developer!), real and perceived (all-inclusives, orphanages, slum tourism, voluntourism) is becoming a bit of a tradition these days. A UK-based responsible OTA, a minor player compared to mainstream OTA giants yet a big one on the adjectival tourism scene, has abruptly ann...

The recent passenger-removal-due-to-overbooking incident from a flight operated by a major airline shed light on a common (50,000 annual cases in the US alone) but relatively unknown, dubious commercial practice, and also revealed or confirmed some interesting facts: - the power of direct-democratic, citizens journalism, in the form of ma...

In early versions of Sid Meier's classic strategy game 'Civilisation', the discovery of gunpowder made Walls obsolete. It was far more gradual in reality, but Walls did eventually become obsolete as defensive structures and those that escaped destruction to allow for city expansion during the industrial revolution were later reborn as tourism attra...

Predicting the impact of Donald Trump's win is even more tricky than was predicting the outcome of this extremely tight contest. It depends on whether the new administration really attempts to implement any of Trump's more controversial, and sometimes highly offensive to ethnic groups, campaign promises, which would result in major changes in US po...

Beautiful short film by Andreas Siadimas celebrating local environmental knowledge and genuine hospitality in Crete, Greece.

It was great discussing responsible travel prospects in Greece, Estonia, Malaysia and the United States in a live hangout hosted by Ron Mader and with the participation of Ecoclub Members Natali Dologlou, Aivar Ruukel, Sudipta Kiran Sarkar and Chris Milnes. The event was part of Planeta.com Responsible Tourism Week 2016