From Inderscience Publishers , a shocking revelation. People actually go to Botswana. Though, maybe they’ve been jealous of the Maldives and Tuvalu getting all the attention and handouts for non-existent climate threats. The Maldives formula is simple: Say your livelihood is being threatened by climate change, ask for money from the UN and guilted up richer nations, use that money to build new airports and tourist facilities. Problem solved.
Botswana, climate and tourism
Saving Botswana’s tourist industry from climate change
Botswana’s Okavango Delta is a sensitive ecosystem that could be affected detrimentally by climate change. Given the Delta’s prominence in the country’s tourist industry, such negative impacts could wreak havoc on its economy and affect the lives of its inhabitants.
Tourism in Botswana is the second largest economic sector, according to Wame Hambira of the University of Botswana in Gaborone. She has taken the Okavango Delta as a case study for investigating the vulnerabilities and problems faced by such an ecosystem and the side effects change might have on economic growth. She suggests that suitable adaptations and policy changes are needed in the face of climate change if Botswana is not to lose income from this sector.
The Okavango Delta is a richly diverse ecosystem, it is the world’s largest inland delta and sits atop the Kalahari Desert. More than 10 trillion litres of water irrigate the 15,000 square kilometres of the Delta. Given the beautiful landscapes, the scientific importance and the presence of large mammals including African bush elephant, buffalo, hippopotamus, antelope, giraffe, leopard and lion as well as the endangered African Wild Dog, the Delta is an important conservation area and attracts an estimated 50,000 visitors annually. The actual figure may be more than double that.
“Currently, the prime sites for tourism in Botswana are geographically concentrated in the north-western part of the country along the Chobe River (Kasane/Chobe area) and the Okavango Delta, which are rich in pristine wildlife and wetlands attractions,” says Hambira. She adds that the Okavango Delta offers popular tourism activities such as hunting safaris, photographic safaris, bird and animal watching, fishing, canoeing and cultural and heritage activities.
Hambira calls for a full vulnerability assessment of Botswana’s tourism industry as a whole, taking into consideration that the different ecosystems ranging from the dry lands to the wetlands and their associated leisure activities will be affected differently by climate change. Planned adaptation could then be achieved through financial, technical, legal and other assistance to facilitate the implementation of policies to help the tourism industry adapt to the effects of climate change.
“Screening for climate change vulnerability in Botswana’s tourism sector in a bid to explore suitable adaptation measures and policy implications: a case study of the Okavango Delta” in International Journal of Tourism Policy, vol 4, 51-65
Nasty, snarky comments seem quite uncalled for. What have you got against Botswana and its people, Anthony?
It’s long gone time this global warming racket was stopped. You cannot heat water from above on this planet. It is childishly simple to prove beyond any doubt that oceanic surface tension stops the ocean from absorbing physical heat from the atmosphere. It follows from that that there is NO positive feedback therefor NO manmade global warming. Oh and by the way, water ignores the second law of thermodynamics, which is probably why we still have an ocean.
yeah Botswana is an interesting place…a well governed african country…though AIDS is their major problem…check out the movies…the gods must be crazy…1 and 2…great entertainment
@ur momisugly nigel harris you see where this piece came from originally right? Anthony is re-blogging/posting this. So why the nasty, snarky comments against our host? they seem quite uncalled for.
However, my guess is you will never post again on this thread. Another driveby trolling. Go back to fakeclimate.
“a shocking revelation. People actually go to Botswana”
Somewhat tongue-in-cheek perhaps, but I really can’t see this as “nasty” or “snarky.”
Botswana’s Okavango Delta is a sensitive ecosystem that could be affected detrimentally by climate change.
The Okavango Delta is the water source for pretty much all of Botswana’s agricultural area, and it gets sucked pretty dry during Botswana’s periodic droughts — so the ecosystem is actually fairly *robust*…
Let me see if I have this right.
So climate change may affect their tourism business.
And climate change is caused by CO2.
And tourists fly to Botswana and while there drive around in cars.
So the tourist, that are a requirement for a tourist business, are causing the climate change that will affect the tourist business.
Do I have that right? Sounds like a Catch-22. Tourism causes damage that will stop tourism.
Reblogged this on Climate Ponderings and commented:
YEPPERS!!! I need to spend more monies to save tourist traps
Things I never thought I’d say:
#145 – I wish the US was as fiscally responsible as Botswana.
(look it up)
The Okavango Delta is a truly incredible place. Please nobody be phased by Anthony’s requote of ‘People actually go there’. The government appears to be far ahead of just about anything else Africa offers. (Except they stand on the San people.) There was a time however when the government were considering draining the delta in order to facilitate diamond mining. Happily that has never come to be, as tourism thus far has won the day.
To me, the most incredible aspect of this massive inland delta is you can scoop a tumblerful of water when on a boat at any point on the delta and drink it. When I was there, it was delightful, beating any bottled spring water! This is not withstanding the fact that countless hippos, crocodiles, tiger fish and bathing elephants poo in it at what must be a rate of many tons per hour. Nature does a wonderful thing of self-preservation and self-regulation; something the global warmers would be well advised to observe.
Gimme Gimme!
The temperature increasing from ‘terrible +15’ degrees > ‘terrible +16’ degrees is sure to be more than those poor tourists can handle.
The tourist industry must compensate and add more ‘watering holes’, which is expensive.
I’m old enough to remember when the activists spent their time trying to keep tourists OUT of areas like this in order to preserve them. Around the circle we go….
Actually, if you decouple their intent from the CAGW meme, it makes sense. Our mantra here is that “The climates is always changing.” Given that truism, it seems reasonable to attempt an assesment of what could happen when the local “decadal oscilliation” flips, or ENSO does it’s thing. If you believe a major portion of your GDP is vulnerable to climate, finding out for sure and having a “B” plan seems smart to me.
“She suggests that suitable adaptations and policy changes are needed in the face of climate change if Botswana is not to lose income from this sector”.
My response: If you destroy the worlds economy you will have no tourists.
What is the level of mercury in the water in this pristine environment? If it exceeds that now identified in the US as unacceptable, can we shoot all the hippos? Or should we shoot the US EPA?
It could be more a matter of protecting the habitat of the ecotourists than protecting the habitat of the animals. Ecotourists are very fussy about the ideological orthodoxy of places they visit. If Botswana is seen as not screaming loudly enough, not insulting the West stridently enough at meetings of Rio and Kyoto and Durban and so on, the population of ecotourists will be endangered.
Hum…things will change HERE???
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalahari_Desert
Shocked I am, SHOCKED that Botswana already is highly damaged by the AWG. Why, just yesterday (whoops, I mean 10,000 years ago) it was a tropical wonderland.
If Venice can handle it, why get get too concerned about a sparsely inhabited delta. All delta sedimentation compacts and subsides. If the sediment transport is adequate, it’ll keep up with transgression. If not, it wasn’t meant to.
I have noticed that Anthony has seemed a bit cranky of late, if that’s the right word. Don’t know if it is due to dealing with certain PITA’s or maybe just hanging out with Willis. Whatever the case, it won’t stop me from visiting the site, as it continues to be one of the best in the business.
REPLY: Yes, I admit to being cranky. I’m getting a lot of hate mail behind the scenes. Thanks go to angry science writer David Appell for publishing my email address while at the same time trying to minimize his exposure for believing that the ANU death threats were real. I’ll probably have to abandon that email address now, one I’ve had since 1995. -Anthony
Here is the kind of garbage coming out of WWF sponsored bank reports…
.”.Global warming could exact a devastating toll on the economies of Latin America and the Caribbean, with costs possibly exceeding $100 billion by 2050, the Inter-American Development Bank warned Tuesday. (..)
“Many climate-related changes are irreversible and will continue to impact the region over the long term,” Walter Vergara, the bank’s Division Chief of Climate Change and Sustainability and the lead researcher of the study, said in a statement.
“To prevent further damages, adaptation is necessary but not enough. Bolder actions are needed to bend the emissions curve in the coming decades,” he said.
The report — issued by the bank, the Economic Commission of Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) and the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) — is to be formally unveiled later this month at the Rio+20 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development.”
..
The ‘place’ has nothing to do with deploring the proliferation of rent-seeking governments trying to tap into the CAGW financial boondoggle. The river delta will only be ‘endangered’ if the river stops flowing or if its silt supply is cut off.
That would faze it. Unless it was just going through a phase.
Anthony;
About the hate mail: do a Breitbart. Publish it all, complete with email addresses.
They should conduct an assessment of their vulnerability to short and long-term variability in the climate and plan accordingly. They should refrain from participating in extortion schemes, including the “global warming” enterprise.
It’s completely rational behaviour for any coutry to maximise the international aid or grants that it can obtain, indeed it would be a dereliction of duty for a government not to try to obtain such grants if available. EU countries try to maximise the benefit they get out of the EU, UNESCO world heritage sites get grants – why shouldn’t Botswana do the same?
And why not do a vulnerability assessment – climate is always changing, as I think has been pointed out here before? It might highlight useful actions to take to improve resilience to any unforeseen events.
Spot the weasle words?
How many tonnes of carbon dioxide does the average tourist churn out FLYING to Botswana?
As for climate change and man, man does have a part to play but it ain’t from co2.
Here is the Okavango’s experience of climate change over the Holocene.
[My bold]
I’m certain an absence of tourism and the resulting income to the region will be more detrimental than its presence. Eat the wild beasts kind of detrimental.