I wrote a post last week about how the Westminster Hotel in Dawson City burned down and that got me thinking about tourism and disaster tourism. Last night I had an odd thought: what if all tourism now is disaster tourism?

The world is changing so fast. We are in the grips of a climate catastrophe. Maybe everywhere we go and everything we want to see is a “see it now before it’s gone,” situation or a “see what happened to it,” situation. I don’t know. But I’m thinking about it. Maybe the very idea of disaster tourism has to be expanded to include how we add to the disaster through our carbon-propelled travel.

And yes, I can think about this even while planning a driving trip to the Yukon. Maybe BECAUSE I’m planning a driving trip to the Yukon I should be thinking about it more than ever.

You may have noticed that I edit pretty freely on blog posts even after I’ve published. Many people would call that cheating. I say, “It’s my blog and I can do whatever I want with it.” I clean up typos and rearrange ideas for clarity after the fact. Usually I would just add new thoughts to the post that it is related to. Just sneak them in there. Blog posts are like first drafts for me. They are thinking out loud. I forget anyone is reading, and when someone mentions a post to me I am often shocked.

But it works for me. So thanks for listening in on my thoughts. You might be watching me write a book of essays.

Maybe.