Travel destinations "dying" due to climate change feels like a new type of powerlessness that millennials may face
I hope this is an appropriate place to post this!! Wasn't sure where to post this.
So as a millennial I really never got the chance to travel yet (one of my dreams) because my jobs never paid me a living wage and i married an immigrant and neither of us have generational wealth so there was no money for savings and no money for vacations because all our money pretty much goes to rent (i live in NY), car insurance and bills and to his family in his home country 🙁 So uh. Yeah. So anyway. As a millennial now climate change is really impacting the world so it's kinda crazy to me that there are places or things I never rlly might ever get to see even when I finally do get the money. Like the great barrier reef literally mostly died. So I can't see that. That was on my bucket list since I was a kid. Swimming with whalesharks too, and they're still huge but they actually are smaller in size than they used to be when I was a kid due to climate change and overfishing. I always wanted to see Los Angeles, California but LA is currently on fire and whole neighborhoods have burnt down recently. It's a powerless feeling for a millennial. Something that maybe needs to be grieved, but I'm a stubborn idealist and I don't want to accept it. I still wana travel and see the world. I still have hope. Bora Bora is my biggest destination dream. But the island of Bora Bora is experiencing rising sea levels, more frequent extreme weather events, and ocean acidification which is affecting the wildlife and bleaching the coral there. I just hope it's still there and not underwater when I'm finally ready to go see it. It seems that by the time I finally get to travel the world, the world is changed. It's already changed from when I was a kid, and it's only getting worse. But I still hold on to my dreams. Growing up all I day-dreamed about was going to some of these beautiful places, but the places are dying. I think this is a new unique concern for my generation and people after us. I don't think that's something my parents or my grandparents had to be concerned about. I mean obviously they had wars and stuff to worry about - and they didn't have the luxuries of Amazon and doordash - but this "places-dying-due-to-climate-change" is a new type of powerlessness.
Sidenote: And sure I'm aware that this might sound privileged and first-world-problemmy, like "boo hoo woe is me i won't be able to see LA or Bora Bora in a romanticized way when i'm ready to travel there recreationally" (yeah, ok fine, that's literally pretty much what i'm saying, kinda. and that sounds kinda pathetic when you put it in perspective compared to ppl facing real problems...), but, the world literally being on fire and/or sea levels rising above the world is a legitimate concern and a real problem, first-world and beyond.