Polar Tourism

While doing an assignment for another class, I came across this video: Polar Tourism by AUT University (Auckland University of Technology). This video is relevant because it does not get more glacier themed then at the North & South poles.

Fun Facts from the video:

• Antarctica is a frozen continent surrounded by oceans, whereas the Arctic is a frozen ocean surrounded by continents. 
• Arctic melts 10 million square kilometres in the summer, which does not affect sea levels 
• Since the Antarctica is home to 90% of Earth's ice (29 million cubic kilometres), the oceans would rise by 65 metres should Antarctica melt. 
• In Antarctica, between January 2007-February 2009, four cruise ships ran aground and sunk, while a fifth hit an ice berg and sunk. 
• Cruise ships produce: 800,000 litres of Grey Water (from showers & sinks) a day; 114,000 litres of Black Water (untreated sewage) a day; and +50 tonnes of solid waste a week. All of which is potentially dumped into the ocean.

Sad thing is, even though the tours and tourists claim to be "environmentally aware",  the dumping done by cruise ships completely negates "being green", and as a result these tours and tourists are in fact guilty of "green washing" (saying they are environmentally friendly when they are not). 

On a more lighter note....

(from ICanHasCheezeburger.com)

As the video mentioned, tourism to the Arctic has been around for a long time. With the invention of the railroads and steamships, mass tourism to the Arctic has been thriving since the mid 1800s. Even Thomas Cook had Arctic tour packages at this time. Back then tourists were travelling to Alaska as well as the Scandinavian Arctic, but thanks to advances in technology tourists, for the most part, can now access all of the Arctic no matter what season. Antarctica, on the other hand, has only been receiving tourists since the late 1950s. However, in the last decades, land based tourists had increased by 757% (over 10 years) and ship-borne tourists increased by 430% (over 14 years).

According to GRID-Arendal, a collaborative partner with United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP), there are five polar tourism markets: mass market (site seeing); sport fishing & hunting market; ecotourism market; adventure tourism market; and culture & heritage tourism market. Each market segment has different needs and expectations while on expedition. However one thing that is common across each market segment is the environmental impacts associated with polar tourism.  Majority of the impacts are associated with the wildlife and their habitat. With the changing climate these are the only habitable areas left for these ice dwelling creatures.

Despite the negative impacts surrounding polar tourism, there is one positive impact: education. Visitors to these destinations not only become aware of the need to protect these regions, but they also become more aware of other sensitive areas in the world and 60% of them (according to the video) are motivated to do something about it. The more educated people are about an issue, the more likely they will assist in resolving it.

Sources

GRID-Arendal/UNEP: Tourism in the Polar Regions