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There’s a romanticized idea in movies that travel editors only luxuriate in fancy resorts in faraway archipelagos. But I prefer exploring salt marshes.

Since I was a child, my favorite vacation has involved spending hours each day swimming and kayaking in an estuary in southeastern Massachusetts, where my family owns a home. But during my annual summer visits, particularly in the past 15 years, I’ve witnessed disturbing changes: There are now few signs of once-plentiful local species, like periwinkles and hermit crabs, and too much algae in the brackish water. Most worrisome, there are the disappearing marshes and eroding coastline, brought on by an encroaching sea.

I’m not alone in seeing these differences in the natural world and reading the alarming reports of our warming planet. Back in the New York Times office, my fellow journalists in the Travel department and I discuss climate change on an almost daily basis.

We have to. Not only are our favorite destinations changing, the travel industry itself is warming the planet, contributing between 8 and 11 percent of the global greenhouse gas emissions, according to estimates from the World Travel and Tourism Council. Food waste and road transportation are culprits, but the biggest, of course, is air travel and transport — it contributes nearly 4 percent of the emissions changing our world.

But travel is also a global economic driver, making up 10 percent of the world’s G.D.P. One in 10 jobs worldwide is in the travel and hospitality sector. From Iceland to Kenya, the Falkland Islands to the Faroe, tour guides, bartenders and cruise pursers feed their families on tourism dollars.

And travel is an opportunity. Travel is study abroad. Car camping. Beach days. Ski trips. Adventures. Marriages. Transformation. It’s unsurprising that many a coming-of-age story is one on the road (“Y Tu Mamá También”) or at the seashore (“Luca”) or in the wilderness (“Stand by Me”). For those lucky enough to partake, travel is a beloved pastime, one that I’ve enjoyed sharing with Times readers.

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