Contribution of the Balearic Islands tourism sector to climate change

Abstract

[eng] Tourism activity has experienced significant growth worldwide since the 1950s and has been considered one of the main engines of growth in many countries around the world due to the large revenues it generates and also the high economic development it entails (Pulido and López, 2014). This paper presents the case of the Balearic Islands (BI), as it is one of the major tourist powers in the world (Torres and Moranta, 2020). Bearing in mind that the economy of the BI is based on the tourist monoculture, we can then guess the importance of analyzing the development of this sector and its impacts, not only economic or social, but mainly environmental. The intensive tourist industry in the BI has significant effects on the degradation of the environment due to the disproportionate urbanization of the territory, the excessive consumption of natural resources, the continuous emission of greenhouse gas pollutants, the consumption of energy, etc. All this has turned the BI into a tourist destination that contributes significantly to one of the phenomena most feared by humanity: Climate Change (CC) (Ramis, 2020; Deyá and Tirado, 2011; Pulido and López, 2014).