Our penchant for global travel is destroying the very places we're trying to see. Whether it's going off trail for the perfect instagram picture, or it's more invisible like carbon dioxide melting around 90% of the world's glaciers, these fragile environments are breaking down right in front of our eyes.
Tourism isn't new. Even the Pharoahs of ancient Egypt visited monuments like the Great Sphinx built 1000 years previously. But we aren't going for these grand, month-long tours of different countries. Most tourists now are from the emerging middle class, and they only have time for a week. So ports of call in beautiful locales are swamped with picture-hungry tourists who only have a few hours to prove to their friends back home how much fun they're having.
At least 259 people died while trying to take a selfie last year. That statistic alone proves how messed up our social-media driven culture is.
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