14 DAY TRIAL // I suppose it is human nature to make the best out of a really nasty situation and, from this standpoint, it really is hats off to people living in Peru.
The country has been home to a massive block of ice best known as the Pastoruri glacier for some time now. Needless to say, people from all over the world have been flocking to this country to see it.
The bad news is that, about two decades ago, the Pastoruri glacier became acquainted with climate change and global warming, and started to melt.
According to Smart Planet, it is now about twice as small as it used to be. What's more, it is likely that it will disappear altogether in another ten years.
Once the glacier started to shrink, so did the number of people that came to the area so see it. Thus, out of 100,000 people that visited the massive block of ice annually back in the 1990s, merely 34,000 showed up in 2012.
Fewer tourists means less money from tourism (Captain Obvious explained at a recent symposium), so people in Peru had to figure out a way to make this situation work to their advantage.
By the looks of it, they plan to market the Pastoruri glacier as proof of climate change and global warming, and are urging people to come see it before it is too late and there is nothing left to see.
This “rebranding” of the glacier is set to officially take place in next year's March, when a marketing scheme will also be launched.