Environmental Impacts of Tourism


After watching the video on YouTube and the film, it’s clear that there is a problem that could have been minimized before it got as large as it did, but it didn’t. Businesses as large as BP and Exxon who deal with a material that has a lot of room for error and impact on our environment certainly do have responsibilities that they need to uphold. Maybe not so much to tourism, but to society and our environment.

A global corporation cannot solely focus JUST on their business and bringing in money. This is the case with all businesses, but especially those who are mega corps. These large corporations can have a big impact on this earth for the better, or for worse. Being as big as Exxon and BP are, I believe they need to uphold and push for environmentally friendly, or at least one that isn’t so impactful to help preserve our planet.

In situations such as the oil spills, they take initiative to start the cleanup and document the process. The problem is, eventually the public forgets and moves past the issue and they seemingly do to. This can be seen especially so with Exxon in the YouTube video. There is still much to be done to reverse the footprint they have left behind. Sadly, they don’t seem to be doing much about it anymore and the impacts are still clearly present 28 years later. This is a problem.

Our other problem is that we don’t know for certain that everything is being done to minimize these situations or that the proper care is being made. It’s hard to hold these businesses accountable for these actions long term because they show initiative from the start. Taxing the businesses is one method to help keep them accountable, but with corporations as large as these, it won’t be as impactful due to the sheer amount of revenue they’re bringing in. Potentially placing a trade ban or trade restrictions if certain guidelines aren’t met could make for a more meaningful difference in order to keep them in line. It’s a tough topic to find a solution on without knowing everything about the companies and all of the current regulations in place. Especially if there are loopholes in them.


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