Climate Change, Time and Tourism Knowledge: The Relativity of Simultaneity

Climate clocks are currently ticking down to a point in time when it will be impossible to arrest the rate of CO2 emissions within the bounds of the parameters set by the Paris Climate Agreement. The tourism academy has been at the forefront of efforts to draw attention to the climate threat and to develop adaptation and mitigation responses in conjunction with industry. However, whilst the tourism academy is generally said to be in lock-step with the urgency of the climate threat and tourism’s need to respond, outliers do exist. Why might a tourism scholar view the urgency of the climate threat differently from his or her colleagues? Drawing on conceptual insights from Einstein’s Special Theory of Relativity, the present paper explores the sociological framing of time in relation to tourism academics and the implications for the development of a tourism knowledge force-field as a foundation for tourism knowledge creation.