The Earth's Last Frontier Now Facing Huge Environmental Concerns


by Angel Sudsing - Date: 2010-10-19 - Word Count: 687 Share This!

Despite Antarctica's ice, snow, isolation, high winds and raging seas and for hardy types, precisely for these reasons, the continent will be visited by an estimated 11,200 people this tourist season, all but about 130 of them on cruise ships. Despite the fact that this year saw only 400 times more people as compared to the tourists season last year, the fact remains that this is still 70 percent higher than the tourist seasons before it, specifically 6,585 of them. Watchers of Antarctica are getting worried toward the environment of Antarctica and also forecast an annual flood of visitors rising up to the thousands.

Cruising around the White Continent entails paying $20,000 for just one person, for an average two week cruise amounts to $6,000 to $7,000 however this does not stop for he will still have to purchase a round trip ticket as he will originate from Tierra del Fuego found in Ushuaia, Argentina, where 90 percent of the travelers choose to depart from. Today's nature experts maintain that Antarctica is not invincible the way people perceive it thanks to its tough climate and geography, along with the high cost of getting there for the throng of tourists grow every single year, posing a large threat to the ecosystem of this frozen kingdom.

The distinguished director of the Antarctic Project said that while he is all for people seeing the great beauty of Antarctica, there must be a cap on the number of visitors per year and a strong limit on exploiting new sites. This secretariat for more than two hundred environmental organizations spanning over 40 nations is based in Washington. There is still harm in the fact that people heading to Antarctica come back committed to its conservation as this is a very fragile land and there can sometimes be too many visitors flooding in most of who are getting to love it too much.

One area which has the biggest concentration of seals, birds and penguins is the one place frequented by many tourists so this director is pushing for a 6,000 yearly limit for visitors especially in this 800 mile long Antarctic Peninsula. Although tour groups setting foot on land rarely exceed 100 visitors at a time. Between visits, animals do not get to rest and neither do they have the chance to gather food for their babies.

She adds that even science can't tell if this will have a long term impact. Among the concerns are that tourists will touch plants and leave garbage behind. With the proper reinforcement of the Treaty of Antarctica, we know understand the reason why many experienced staff see to it that travelers going ashore do not make much or any impact, and also this sheds light as to why most tour operators strictly operate with these guidelines and rules. With the series of agreements namely the Antarctic Treaty of 1959, since signed by 43 different countries, along with an environmental protocol that since January 14, 1998 has been promulgated, has put a stop to oil drilling and mining, and also created environmental safeguards, like fishing limits and of course, Antarctic cruises on certain occasions.

The tour association members based in New York voluntarily took the 100 person limit for shore tours where they employ zodiacs which are motorized boats made of rubber. We shall see 9 out of 15 Antarctic vessels raging in the skies with Russian flags. After the breakup of the Soviet Union, an opportunity for tour operators rose as several small sea vessels became available for them. Passengers, around forty to eighty should be able to stay in those ships, one of which is an icebreaker, all who possess hulls that are hardened to resist the tough ice. But meanwhile, environmental concerns are plaguing the White Continent. The ideal scenario would be us, looking back heaving a sigh of relief that all our worries went down the drain as there was nothing to be worried about in the first place. But until science comes up with the answers, we owe it to Antarctica and to ourselves to put limits on our travels there.

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