First, at the end of November, a well-tested, ice-strengthened Antarctic cruise ship sank near the Antarctic Peninsula. The 154 people onboard were all safely rescued. The ship sank to the bottom of the ocean, with all the fuel, machinery and furniture that was onboard. The environmental impacts are being closely monitored. However, with today’s technology, there is precious little that one can do to a ship (spilling oil or not) that is 1000m below the surface and in ice-covered seas with strong currents.
The incident brings into focus the human and environmental safety of Antarctic tourism, the scale to which the industry has grown and the lack of legal regulation. Tourism is now the single largest and fastest-growing human activity in Antarctica. The number of tourists arriving in Antarctica has grown by nearly 4 times over the past 10 years.
It wouldn’t be surprising that within our lifetime, hotels, restaurants, gift shops, etc. will pop up around Antarctica.
Following on that, the Australians inaugurated their new runway in Antarctica, which allows their scientists to cut their travel time to Antarctica from 10 days to 4 hours. For now, the air service will only be used for scientific logistic support. But government officials have been known to make remarks about its possible future uses for tourism.
Be prepared for romantic weekend getaways in Antarctica!
Then, even more recently, Russian scientists announced their plans to drill through to the pristine subglacial Lake Vostok over the next few months. Vostok is the largest of the interconnected lakes underneath the Antarctic ice sheet and will be the first to be sampled. Scientists worldwide argue that there is a high risk of contaminating Vostok and hence the interconnected lake system and that more exploratory work should first be done on smaller and less sensitive lakes. Many scientists feel that national pride is now propelling this project forward, leaving considerations of scientific merit or environmental responsibility far behind.
We inherited an Antarctica that was a natural reserve, devoted to peace and science from the last IPY. Will there still be much this last great wilderness left to be inherited by the next IPY?