RR Tourism by Mei Xuan

I agree with the writer that mass tourism threatens to destroy a country's culture and environment and affect the local people.

Firstly, tourism affects a country's environment by destroying animal's habitats and increaing carbon emissions and air pollution. The writer states that "When coastal areas are converted to beach resorts, mangrove areas and corals that serve as fish sanctuaries are damaged or even completely removed." This shows that when the governent's need for land to accommodate mass tourism increases, they would then cut down forests and use the area to build what they need. This would affect the environment by destroying animal's habitats and increasing air pollution. When a forest, which serves as a home for many forest animals, is cut down, the many forest animals that rely on it would not ba able to survive. When too many animals of a particular species cannot survive with the removal of the forest, the species would be endangered, and if the condition goes on, the species might be extinct. This would affect the food chain which will untimately affect the local people. The writer states that "Carbon emissions and air pollution also significantly increase, as more air and land-base vehicles are needed to transport tourists from one destination to another." This shows that as more tourist residences are built by cutting down forests, the carbon emissions would increase significantly due to the loss of trees which helps to reduce carbon emissions. With the increase of carbon emissions, global warming will hasten. With increased tourism, since there are more vehicles on the road, the amount of air pollution will increase. In Singapore, we have lost 90% of our forests, 67% of our birds, about 40% of our mammals and less than 5% of our amphibians and reptiles. Out of our total amount of original mangroves, only less that 5% is left. 39% of all native coastal plants are extinct. A large proportion of the remaining species are endanger d and their habitats are threatened by urban development and land reclamation. Through all forms of harm to the government, tourism affects the environment in a negative way.