by Lauren Spohrer

Costas Christ on farther frontiers

On today's show we interviewed Costas Christ, National Geographic Adventure editor and columnist, about adventure travel. He's been to more than 120 countries across six continents, including some of the world's most remote wilderness areas and archaeological sites. We had one more question for him to answer off the air, and that is:

Q: What can you tell us about the tiny pockets of the planet that are popping up because of global warming?

Here's what he told me off the air:

There are little pieces popping up because sea levels fall and land is exposed. For example, in Greenland, people have found what appears to be an island, something like a big sandbar. As ice melts, land is exposed. The tricky thing is that we don't know how quickly that ice will melt. The flip side of icebergs melting and exposing land is that we'll actually end up with fewer places, for example, the Maldive island could completely disappear due to global warming.

I'd like to return to something Alison asked me about on the air, and that's the idea of responsible travel. Tourism can be an opportunity or a threat and when we travel in responsible ways, for example, patronize companies that contribute to protecting nature and sustaining the well-being of local people in the places they are visiting, that's known as sustainable tourism. It's transforming the tourism industry, and I think it is one of the most revolutionary ideas in the history of modern travel.

A vacation is not just the experience of a lifetime. We should give back to the places we visit and not let them be loved to death. We've got to protect the final frontiers for future generations to explore.