While bouncing around the Net looking for connections between climate change and the tourism, I uncovered The Daily Green's report on a brand-new subsection of world travelers: Climate Change Tourists. These are people who travel to places like Norway's chilly Svalbard Islands to see reindeer, seals, polar bears … and evidence of dramatic climate change.

Who knew that global warming itself could become an attraction? On the one hand, it's encouraging that influential people, including Hillary Clinton and John McCain are seeing for themselves the alarming and rapid changes occurring in remote places such as this.

But does this trend risk devolving into just another form of disaster tourism, exploiting victims and complicating efforts to understand and correct the problems? To be honest, I'm not entirely sure.

Managed responsibly, such trips could benefit local economies while providing individuals with a deep personal connection to what's happening to our world. These tourists could even supply a source of manpower for scientists and others who are working to make a difference.

Or, if it gets out of hand, trips to these sensitive areas could actually exacerbate the problem, not unlike rubber neckers jamming up traffic in order to gawk at someone else's tragedy.

So … what do you think? Is Climate Change Tourism a sign of hope, or just another example of humans looking for new ways to make a greenwashed buck?