LAS NUEVAS FRONTERAS DEL TURISMO
in almost everything we do. This is integral to any planning process. Traditional economic goals have focused on expansion and growth, without thinking about consequences. This has produced the environmental, social and economic crises that face us today. Since the environmental crisis is the mother of all crises, it must be analyzed fundamentally and systemically. Our economic principles and resulting logic models are at the very root of this crisis. We must think about what it is that we are doing, what are the long term goals and what are the problems that we are likely to encounter if we have that model wrong. We are moving away from ecological health and therefore, we are moving in the wrong direction (Imhoff 2010, Kimbrell, 2002, Wuerthner & Matteson, 2002, Wuerthner 2007, 2006). If the trends showed that the ecological health and working landscapes1 of the ecosphere were substantially improving, we would feel encouraged. Instead, accelerated climate change is unraveling ecosystems and biodiversity is suffering; the whole ecologic mosaic and balance are disrupted. The global economy, which we have created, is a fundamental driver of these changes and it is now our responsibility to change our creation. Unfortunately, there are still electing leaders who believe in the “myth of progress” and that “technology is going to save the world”. These leaders, and most of of their followers, are tied to a world of traditional views and dogma. But today, there are cracks in this type of thinking. The Wall Street Journal is publishing articles that never would have appeared a few years ago. This is a positive result of the 2008 financial collapse and the various problems related to it. Doubts are surfacing in the minds of journalists, writers, thinkers, financiers and corporate leaders. (Wall Street Journal, 2008, 2009, Reavis, 2009). Nevertheless, they still don’t generally agree that the system itself is wrong;most feel that it has just been managed incorrectly. Another sign of possible fundamental change lies in the “Occupy Movement” (Van Gelder, 2011). This movement poses that the “system” is bankrupt in a fundamental way. Many, perhaps even most, can’t articulate it and they can’t express it well. But, they know that the current economic system and its architecture are fundamentally wrong. They are identifying basic flaws in this system and a desire to articulate and deal with these flaws, in order to begin constructing a new paradigm of thought, vision and action (Huesemann, 2011). Civilization is moving in the direction of a globalized economy. We must realize that globalization brings all sorts of negative side effects (Devall, 1994, Imhoff, 2010, Kimbrell 2002). To reverse the tendencies of globalization, we propose an “eco-local economy” (Berry,1987). Not just a local economy, because the local economy model has also failed; in part due to the fact that it did not
“working landscapes” landscapes influenced by humans beings, used in any way through forestry, agriculture, tourism, aesthetics and so forth. (N. de los E.) 1
114