Should tourists be banned from Antarctica?

[oxmox 73]

Should tourists be banned from Antarctica?

This season around 37,000 tourists are expected to visit Antarctica - home to about 20 million pairs of breeding penguins. But is it ethically acceptable to go on holiday to such a pristine environment?

.......Which begs the question: Should I be here? Am I, just by setting foot on this extraordinary continent, disturbing a pristine environment and polluting the last great wilderness on earth?

All visitors leave a footprint, admits my tour leader, Boris Wise of One Ocean Expeditions, and we all tend to go to the same places - the accessible coastline - which is also where the penguins and seals go to breed.

Without a native population of its own, Antarctica needs advocates and tourism creates a global constituency of people ready to support - and indeed fund - its preservation.

About half the tourist ships are, like ours, flagged to Antarctic Treaty countries making them legally bound by the treaty's environmental standards.

As a portable amp sets the rhythm with the music of aptly-named bands, Passenger and The Black Seeds, we biosecure ourselves, hoovering our clothes and kit and disinfecting our boots to ensure we introduce no alien species to Antarctica.

There is no eating or smoking on land and we are instructed to take nothing away except photographs and leave nothing behind, not even a bit of yellow snow.

"So don't drink too much at breakfast," grins Boris.

Adelies, and the little helmeted chinstrap penguins, however, are in decline.The Antarctic Peninsula has warmed by an average of 3C in the last 60 years, and winds have shifted, changing the pattern of the sea ice.

It is global warming that is changing the penguins fortunes, McDowell suggests, not tourism.

"It is better to have a certain level of responsible tourism than for it to go under the radar," says Jane Rumble, Head of Polar Regions at the British Foreign Office.

There are concerns for the future however. Tourist numbers look set to rise and membership of IAATO is voluntary.

Tourist ships are starting to offer activities like kayaking, mountaineering and diving which are potentially more invasive than simply looking.

The impact isn't clear and more monitoring is certainly needed.

http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-30709924

Edited January 12, 2015 by oxmox

[vran. 13]

I fully support penguin autonomy and sovereignty on Antarctica... ;)

[oxmox 73]

I fully support penguin autonomy and sovereignty on Antarctica... ;)

:o me too

[Sgt.Spoetnik 10]

same here,but its all about money(again) tour operators want to make big bucks letting tourist trampel nesting sites,scaring the animals etc for some bucks, wait till big corps come in to drill for oil or mine or whatever,sadly no place on earth is free from the human greed and love for bling. :(

[Sooke 13]

Lol, at first I read : "Should terrorists be banned from Antarctica ?"

And I thought, hmm, that might be an idea to solve our problems, a one way trip to Antarctica :D

But yeah...I too think tourists shouldn't be alllowed there. We've already colonized enough place on earth for those people to fullfil their thirst of so called adventure.

It really shows how fucked up we are if we are not even capable of protecting a pristine environment if we can't make profit on it at the same time.

[mistyronin 1181]

Should tourist be banned from Antarctica?

IMHO no.

Should tourism be limited in Antarctica (quotas, time, etc.)?

IMHO yes.

[froggyluv 2136]

I fully support penguin autonomy and sovereignty on Antarctica... ;)

^What Happy Feet said!!!^

[eddo36 16]

Penguins aren't endangered, Antarctica should be open for tourism otherwise the tourists will go mess up somewhere else where the animals are actually endangered.

Edited January 16, 2015 by Eddo36

[Sooke 13]

So we should wait for species to be endangered before we do anything ?

The least we can say is we trully suck at that when you consider our planet lost around 50% of its biodiversity in the last 40 years.

Only the asteroid who wiped out the dinousaurs is coming close to this "achievment". It is estimated that species disapear at a rate 100 to 10.000 times faster than when we were not around.