Antarctic tourism: Should we worry about damage to the ice and ecosystems?
JANUARY 5, 2023
by Elizabeth Leane, Anne Hardy, Can Seng Ooi, Carolyn Philpott, Hanne E.F. Nielsen and Katie Marx, The Conversation
As tourist numbers have grown, operators have moved to offer activities like kayaking. Credit: Shutterstock
As the summer sun finally arrives for people in the Southern Hemisphere, more than 100,000 tourists will head for the ice. Travelling on one of more than 50 cruise ships, they will brave the two-day trip across the notoriously rough Drake Passage below Patagonia, destined for the polar continent of Antarctica.
During the COVID summer of 2020-21, just 15 tourists on two yachts visited Antarctica. But now, tourism is back—and bigger than ever. This season's visitor numbers are up more than 40% over the largest pre-pandemic year.
So are all those tourists going to damage what is often considered the last untouched wilderness on the planet? Yes and no. The industry is well run. Tourists often return with a new appreciation for wild places. They spend a surprisingly short amount of time actually on the continent or its islands.
But as tourism grows, so will environmental impacts such as black carbon from cruise ship funnels. Tourists can carry in microbes, seed and other invasive species on their boots and clothes—a problem that will only worsen as ice melt creates new patches of bare earth. And cruise ships are hardly emissions misers.
More:
https://phys.org/news/2023-01-antarctic-tourism-ice-ecosystems.html