There are hotspots, and then there are getting hotter-spots. I’m talking about the travel trend that’s known as “Doom tourism,” which consists of dashing off to see the ice caps before they melt, or the rainforest before it’s felled.

Sounds like a bleak form of eco-tourism, not to mention slightly contradictory; after all, as the New York Times noted, by jetting off to admire what’s left of the Arctic or the Amazon, aren’t you hastening their demise with all the fossil fuel it takes to get you there?

But tourists who flock to see a melting glacier also bring money to a community, giving locals an incentive to preserve the features that attract sightseers and their cash. NPR’s Louisa Lim reported on today’s Morning Edition about the Mingyong glacier on the Tibetan plateau, which is shrinking about 150 feet a year. 50,000 tourists came to see it last year, bringing a much-needed influx of money to the region.

But the villagers are fearful that their new livelihood will erode, too. Tibu Zhuoma, an eighteen year-old who works as a guide, told Lim she’s “”very worried”If the glacier continues to melt like this, the number of visitors will shrink dramatically and that will affect our incomes, and maybe we’ll be poor again.”

If you’d like to learn more about “responsible travel to natural areas that conserves the environment and improves the well-being of local people,” take a trip to the International Ecotourism Society’s website.