Traveling can expand your horizons and help you feel more comfortable as a citizen of the world.
Unfortunately, some people may ruin it for the rest. One Redditor showed a good example when they posted a photo from Iceland. In it, people dressed in winter clothes are running away from a wave that is quickly coming up the beach behind them. They captioned it, "A tourist's folly."
Disrespecting the ocean takes a lot of different forms. When tourists like these don't take the time to understand what is going on so they can stay safe, they can suffer severe injuries and even death. Guide to Iceland explains that waves like the one in the picture can sweep people out to sea, where they can drown or freeze to death.
The end result can be that fewer people get to enjoy close-in experiences of nature like this Icelandic beach. One study showed that spending more time in nature leads to a greater respect for and desire to protect the natural environment as a whole. Making sites like these inaccessible because of the poor choices a few people made could make it harder for people to fall in love with the natural world.
Unfortunately, this isn't the only case of tourists missing or ignoring warnings and putting themselves in danger. It's happening more and more, and one of the risks is that beautiful, inspiring places will be closed to tourism because of these few people causing safety risks.
If you worry about the natural world and travel, you can choose eco-friendly travel destinations. You can also educate yourself ahead of time and make sure you take the time to read and follow all signage when you travel, so you don't inadvertently do something like the tourists in this photo.
Other Redditors agreed that the ocean needed to be treated with more respect than the people in the picture were giving it.
"That area is going to get closed for good. If we as a society are that ignorant then it should be honestly," one person said. Someone who had been to the beach in question added, "I was super stressed out by it. … I took a handful of pictures and left." Another person proclaimed, "It's like they're asking for a Darwin award."
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