Global Warming and Your Caribbean Vacation

I don't know if I should get up on a soapbox wearing a shirt like this, but here goes: If you love the Caribbean as a vacation destination, then urge your lawmakers to take action against global warming. Why? Because Caribbean tourism is directly and deeply threatened by the rise in global temperatures.

Rising sea temperatures, for example, are blamed for a massive die-off last summer in Caribbean coral reefs; some corals that had been alive since the time of Christopher Columbus died. According to the Associated Press, for example, 40 percent of the corals around the U.S. Virgin Islands died last year.

Already this year, water temperatures are higher than normal in the Caribbean Sea, and experts worry that corals weakened last summer won't make it through this one.

If you snorkel or scuba dive in the Caribbean, it's impossible not to notice the massive bleaching of the region's coral reefs, which strips the formations of their vibrant colors. Bleaching is a sign of sickness; if all the corals that are now bleached die off, it would be a major catastrophe for Caribbean tourism and the environment, particularly the many tropical fish species that rely on the reefs for survival.

Global warming plays an obvious role in rising sea temperatures; hotter ocean water also causes more hurricanes, the biggest weather bugaboo for travelers heading to the Caribbean. At a climate conference last week, a U.S. National Center for Atmospheric Research expert Greg Holland put the blame for the record 2005 hurricane season squarely on global warming.

The wind and water conditions underlying the formation of these storms in the Caribbean are "increasingly due to greenhouse gases," Reuters reported Holland saying. "There seems to be no other conclusion you can logically draw."

So what can you do to help protect the Caribbean we all love? Write your lawmakers to urge action against greenhouse gas emissions. And join the Virtual March on Global Warming. Consider it a small investment in making your future Caribbean travels the best they can be.