Caribbean Urged to Face Global Warming Risks

The Caribbean tourism industry, the lifeblood for many island economies, needs to brace itself for stronger hurricanes, more frequent droughts and rising sea levels resulting from global warming, scientists said Monday.

The Caribbean, where more than half the population lives within a mile of the coast, faces some of the greatest risks from climate change, according to the expert panel at the Caribbean Tourism Organization meeting in San Juan.

Trotz said governments should limit development along eroding coastlines, protect natural resources including reefs and mangroves and take other steps before global warming accelerates in the coming decades, as some experts forecast.

Many have launched campaigns to emphasize sustainable or "green" tourism. Barbados, which already suffers a scarcity of fresh water, has required new golf courses to build desalination plants for irrigation.

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