Just listened to a long discussion on local radio about the staffing challenges some tourism operators on PEI are facing this summer, which are serious for businesses small and large. They touched on lack of transportation, affordable housing, having to be more flexible with lengths of shifts and contracts, and affordable and accessible child care as some of the reasons they have difficulty attracting staff for service jobs.

While this discussion was specifically about labour stresses, I think we would do well to talk more about how the climate crisis is going to change the tourism industry, which is a major economic driver on PEI. I wonder how long tourism will remain a viable business in light of drastically increased fuel prices and the climate crisis. It’s not even officially summer yet, and already over 100 million US citizens were told to stay indoors this week because of extreme heat, and that’s just the most startling of many similar articles I read this week about extreme weather.

How long will it be seen as ethical to encourage people to jet somewhere for a winter break in the sun, or a week on PEI’s sandy beaches? Will tourism become limited to where you can drive in an electric vehicle or on public transport and not round-the-world excursions?

Our ability to imagine and plan for the future is one thing that seems to set humans apart from other animals, but as a society we don’t seem to have changed much about how we balance what we do today against how it will affect the future. I don’t see much change yet, and the clock is ticking.

Our house is still on fire, and we are toasting marshmallows on the flames.