0298 Saving Mt. Fuji

Mt. Fuji, or Fujisan is it is known here in Japan, has just been added to Unesco’s World Heritage list as a cultural asset, honoring it for providing thousands of years of inspiration to artists, poets and religious pilgrims. This is good. This is also bad because it is expected to vastly increase the number of visitors to the country’s tallest and most sacred mountain. And with an increase in people comes an increase in eco-degradation. Already, the nation’s most recognizable landmark is visited by millions every year and that has taken its toll: traffic is horrendous and though tons of legal trash are hauled away annually, tons of illegal trash litter the forests. Will Fujisan’s designation as a cultural asset draw so many more visitors that the very attributes that made it a cultural asset will be lost? Environmentalists, politicians and local officials are working to prevent this mountain from becoming a molehill. #Japan #Hacker #CEAS