A number of years ago we were planning to go to Cape Verde, it didn’t happen in the end but I did read up on the history at the time. It has a tragic past and this did put me off visiting at the time. Someone subsequently said to me, well you should visit to help people there as it’s their economy.
Today for some reason it came to mind and I decided to search on you tube for the country. What I found once again put me off visiting.
I though it would be good to share this heartbreaking video about the inequity of life on these beautiful islands. The damage of mass tourism and the dreadful toll on nature of humanity’s desire to see every inch of this planet.
Thanks for this. You highlight an interesting and perhaps increasingly significant issue - ethical tourism. Or rather, the risk of unethical recipients of tourist money. I did not know about Cape Verde. There will be other places where the push for tourists creates a damaging impact.
One thing I hate about the western world. People think they can just waltz into any country they wish regardless of the upset and pollution they cause to the local residents.
I could never holiday in a place where you were so close to the hardships of the local population, and for this reason, among others, I would never visit Africa…
Hasn’t tourism and globalism turned out to be a great idea…
And just a point about Climate…
It’s not static and never will be, what are now habitable places will eventually become uninhabitable and visa versa, and all the best will and money in the world will never change it.
The climate cares not about the life it supports…
Yay, we agree! But it is a fine balance when a country might benefit greatly from the spending by tourists (assuming the money goes to locals and not just to big companies owning resorts). That is why I dislike cruise ships and them disgorging tourists to small places. Often these cruises are all inclusive so the spending by the tourists that are dropped off is minimal.
my issue is not with climate change OGF but with plastics clogging up the sea and killing marine life. That is a very visible an real symbol of unnecessary damage caused directly by humans to innocent plants and animals. That animal life sustains our entire ecosystem.
The other points in this video demonstrate how tourists are being entertained by sharks and turtles that are being lured away from their normal habitat and migration cycle by a diet deliberately manipulated by humans for the entertainment of other humans.
The desalination plant and it’s effect on marine life is also upsetting. I was just having a real life discussion with a friend about desalination the other day. She was saying its a great solution, but I was saying it was a very expensive way to obtain water, I didn’t think of the implications for ecosystems because I didn’t know that the by products in less sophisticated desalination projects are pumped straight back into the sea where the high concentration of salt kills marine life.
I think you could have been misinformed about desalination plants.
Maldon salt is famous the world over, it just lets the seawater evaporate, releasing water in to the atmosphere and leaving lots of salt to be collected and used for cooking.
Salt was a very expensive commodity millenia ago, especially in hot climates.
It is where the term Salary came from, you were paid in salt.
Pouring salt back into seawater from desalination plants is just plain stupid, it just costs more to remove it to provide freshwater.
Refined sea salt is used in cookery, highly refined sea salt is sold at very expensive prices to idiots like me who keep marine aquariums.
Unrefined salt is also valuable, used in vast quantities as the basis for many Chemical Industries.
When I read the title of your post I thought you were posting about the number of tourist deaths on Cape Verde due to very poor hygiene
That’s what the video says they are doing in Cape Verde and it destroys sea life by the coast. The desalinated fresh water goes to the tourist resorts not to the locals. Instead the locals have to pay for a limited amount of fresh water from local pumps in containers which they walk miles to fill. When the pumps break they have to pay exhorbitant fees to contractors who bring water in trucks from a privately-owned well.
Local produce isn’t used in the tourist resorts, they import food from all around the world instead as it’s cheaper for them to provide for the all-inclusive appetites. The tourist resorts are seemingly luxurious, but the ordinary island inhabitants face drought and hardship and if they work on the resorts are paid very little.
I see there was a news story recently about tourist deaths from stomach bugs on Cape Verde. I hadn’t seen those reports before I posted the thread, but it’s not surprising something like this could happen in these resorts given the background described on the video.
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