The Galapagos Islands are totally hot right now. To tourists, the island chain 600 miles off the coast of Ecuador offers stunning biodiversity (blue-footed boobies!) that infamously inspired Charles Darwin to write The Origin of Species. To residents, the tourism-driven economy offers high wages, top-notch public schools, and a dearth of violent crime. But as more and more humans show up — the resident population has nearly doubled in the past decade to 30,000, while 180,000 tourists are expected to visit this year — they bring with them alien species and increased pollution. In response to a 2007 United Nations listing of the Galapagos as a World Heritage Site in Danger, the government has taken some steps to regulate tourism, but has resisted a hard cap on visitors. It is, however, cracking down on citizens: This year, 1,000 folks without residency and work permits have been kicked off the islands, while 2,000 others have in effect been told they must leave within a year.
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