I’m always scanning the travel news, and this week I came across two items that I’d have to call “Extreme Adventure Travel.”

One of them was about a group of Danish tourists visiting the glaciers in Uummannaq, on Greenland’s western coast. While they were taking pictures, some big chunks of ice fell of the glaciers into the water, creating a wave so big that two of the tourists drowned.

My condolences to the two men’s families, but–hello! Global warming anyone? Seeing the glaciers before they disappear could be a noble adventure, but wasn’t the proximity to open water a clue? I mean, I live in Florida on the Gulf coast and after Katrina most of us keep life vests just in case. Adventure travel usually means a certain amount of risk; we can’t just run around the planet without taking some care.

And talk about a noble effort: I just read an article about tourism to Afghanistan’s Grand Canyon, which comprises that country’s first national park. It takes “eight bone-shaking hours” to drive there from Kabul, but it’s a popular picnic spot for Afghanis, and you can even tour the lake by swan boat for $8. The views are breathtaking, as is the serenity - which is notable because there are so few people. That’s attributed to the “deteriorating security situation in the surrounding provinces.” As the author says, “This beautiful and peaceful part of a violent country has huge potential to make Afghanistan a lot of money, but only when the majority of foreign visitors here aren’t carrying guns.”

That’s an understatement. There’s a big difference between being an intrepid traveler and being a foolish one. If there’s an advantage to our foreign policy of recent years, it’s that news coverage has conveyed the fact that the world is not an especially safe place right alongside the fact that Americans aren’t totally welcome and beloved everywhere. Caution is warranted, and adventure requires a certain amount of common sense.

I applaud the fact that people don’t let their fears get in the way of their travels. By all means, go off the beaten path. But before you go to a war zone, or a place in the process of being reclaimed by the sea, think about going in a context where you can be an instrument of change rather than another strain on the infrastructure. As the saying goes, “If you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem.”

- Mary Hunt, editor, eFlyer