Tourism and Antarctica

[bgmnts]

9 October 2018 – On 9 October 2018, a stabbing occurred at the Bellingshausen Station (Russian: станция Беллинсгаузен, romanized: stantsiya Bellinsgauzen), a Russian research station on King George Island.[20] The perpetrator was Sergey Savitsky (Сергей Савицкий), a 54-year-old electrical engineer.[21] He stabbed Oleg Beloguzov (Олег Белогузов), a 52-year old welder, in the chest[21] multiple times.[22] According to some sources, the attack occurred because Beloguzov was giving away the endings of books that Savitsky checked out at the station's library

[Twit 2]

Only scientists and Werner Herzog should be allowed to go.

https://youtu.be/mnTU_hJoByA

[mothman]

I've always wanted to go to Antarctica. Couldn't tell you why really. That there are very few people there may have something to do with it. I doubt I ever will, hard to justify financially or environmentally. I even nearly applied for a job with the British Antarctic Survey but my wife wouldn't let me.

[ProvanFan]

Not as good as it used to be

Larsen B was fucking jumping on a Friday night back then

[Twit 2]

Love this Derek Mahon version of Pablo Neruda's Antarctica:

Austral crown, concourse of frozen lights!
Cinder forest of ice dislodged
from the earth skin, re-opening nave
of a blue-green cathedral, crusher
of glass crystals, sub-zero
cliff of nocturnal snow,

grant me your double surface
stirred by victorious vacancy,
your furious wind race, lost horns
of shipwrecks and sunken worlds,
your storm-polished shield
a clear plate of quartz;

your unbreathable frost, your infinite
glittering minerals, empty
air without soil or poverty.
Realm of the harshest meridian,
whispering, dozing icicle harp
against the hostile stars,

the round oceans have concentrated
all their transparency in you,
you are strewn with their salt
castles and cities, a blizzard
roams your gritty solitude
like a snow-scorched jaguar.

Peril grows from your cupolas,
your flowing glacier; life
on your desolate spine is no richer
than a vineyard under the sea,
smoking but unconsumed
and saving its fire for spring.

[Kankurette]

Why would you want to go there as a tourist? It's cold as fuck and there's barely anything there except research stations.

[imitationleather]

Why would you want to go there as a tourist? It's cold as fuck and there's barely anything there except research stations.

To get some sick shots for the 'gram.

[Kankurette]

Aren't there loads of endangered species though[nb]Not that that stops bastard tourists, see Galapagos Islands for instance[/nb]? And isn't it an absolute bugger to get to?

[peanutbutter]

Why would you want to go there as a tourist? It's cold as fuck and there's barely anything there except research stations.

Hinge Prompt: "An interesting fact about me is..."
Wanker's answer: "I've been to ALL SEVEN CONTINENTS"


I'm sure there is some nice scenary and all, but there's no way that kind of thing isn't a huge motivating factor and then they work backwards to find other reasons.

[Kankurette]

The man I know is a geologist. He worked at the (a?) research station rather than swanning around with a camera round his neck and sipping a drink from a coconut.

I thought Norwegian company Hurtigruten did cruises there. They weren't (relatively) prohibitive in cost - about the same as those all inclusive Caribbean hut-on-stilts-no-kids-white-sands holidays. But I could be wrong. It's not something I've looked into.

From an environmental POV I would have thought damage by cruise ships would be the immediate worry - a bit like clod-hopping tourists stomping around the Galapagos. Averaged out I imagine city breaks to Barcelona and Prague and the like would do more damage. It just seems like an unspoilt place that doesn't need to be visited.

They do.

I can understand if you're a naturalist or scientist, but Antarctica is hardly Barcelona. It's pretty to look at, sure, but not much to do there and the last thing the place needs is dickhead tourists, and yes, I am aware that I am a bad person for using the internet, apologies for that.

ETA: I wish people would cool it with climbing Everest, quite frankly. The place is full of litter and dead people and shit and corpse fluids flowing into the streams when the ice melts.

[Buelligan]

And now this -

The world's wealthiest 1% produce double the combined carbon emissions of the poorest 50%, according to the UN.

The wealthiest 5% alone – the so-called "polluter elite" - contributed 37% of emissions growth between 1990 and 2015.

The authors want to deter SUV drivers and frequent fliers – and persuade the wealthy to insulate their homes well.

The authors urge the UK government to reverse its decision to scrap air passenger duty on UK return flights.

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-56723560

AND THIS - FUCK ME, not OK this -

Water companies discharged raw sewage into rivers in England more than 400,000 times in 2020, according to new figures published by the Environment Agency.

Untreated effluent, including human waste, wet wipes and condoms, was released into waterways for more than three million hours last year.

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-56590219

[paruses]

And I had a push notification about a story that Japan are going to pump hundreds of thousands of litres of treated but not clean Fuji-thingy water back into the ocean. Haven't read the story yet so it might all be fine and actually improve marine life. Will check.

[touchingcloth]

I don't expect anyone would know someone who had.

The man I know is a geologist. He worked at the (a?) research station rather than swanning around with a camera round his neck and sipping a drink from a coconut.

I had a friend who worked for the British Antarctic Survey for a bit, which is fine. Another friend is a professional photographer and his dad is a keen amateur/semi-pro, and when the dad retired from his day job he used the golden handshake to take them both on a photography trip where they paid to travel on a research/supply vessel rather than a lesser one. This is less fine.

[Buelligan]

Also this right back in 2000

Matthew Parris will set off tomorrow to spend five months in a hut on Kerguelen Island, 2,000 miles from Australia and South Africa, and 4,000 miles south of India. It must qualify as the coldest and most desolate desert island in the world.

The wind gusts at nearly 200mph: the French explorer after whom the islands are named never got through the storms to land and the native insect species have all lost their wings because attempting to fly carries too great a risk of being blown into the Southern Ocean.

About 50 French scientists live on a base there. All other attempts at settling on the island have failed. Though the wind and almost equally incessant rain or sleet keep parts of the island ice-free, it suits seals and seabirds rather better than human beings and once the seals had been virtually exterminated in the 19th century there was no real use for it.

"I believe it's going to be very beautiful. Many have found the island ugly because the conditions are so dreadful; but I have an idea of a place of silvery grey light and black rocks."

There are other people who share his delight. He is flying as far as Mauritius with a British Airways pilot, David Johnson, who responded to a newspaper article he wrote about his dream. From there, they must take a boat to the islands; no plane can land on them in that wind. It wasn't originally the plan to spend five months there. He had been going to spend a week or so and make a television programme.

"But at the last minute, three weeks ago, the French said the ship would only be there for five days; and there would be French tourists in our party. I was faced with the choice of either cancelling the programme or essentially faking it and trying to keep the tourists out of shot; or I could suggest to the French that the ship sail away with the TV crew and leave me behind with my own little camera. I'm taking a case full of books, CDs, and my laptop. I think I might start writing an autobiography. Of course I won't miss company. I'm perfectly sociable. I love my friends, but I enjoy my own company.

I linked a google list, right up the page, of the companies offering cruises to Antarctica.  It's a thing people do.

[druss]

I would go to Antarctica if I could go on one of those blue whale rides they do, but they can't guarantee that the blue whale will always be willing to give you a ride so I will pass.

[paruses]

I would go to Antarctica if I could go on one of those blue whale rides they do, but they can't guarantee that the blue whale will always be willing to give you a ride so I will pass.

The whales actually enjoy being ridden so go for it.