Most guided tours give people a chance to gaze with wonder at famous monuments. The Los Angeles organization Communities for a Better Environment offers tourists a better look at the backside of "La La Land": the pollution that haunts minority neighborhoods and forgotten industrial corners of the city.
The famous salty waters of the Dead Sea are disappearing fast. Last year alone levels dropped by one metre. Plans have been drawn up to pipe water from the Mediterranean to save the lake and its dependent industries, but it may be too late.