The Press SATURDAY, JANUARY 11, 1975. Tourists in Antarctica

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33739, 11 January 1975, Page 12

The Press SATURDAY, JANUARY 11, 1975. Tourists in Antarctica

Antarctica has, until very recently, been the preserve of explorers and scientists. Increasing numbers of tourists, not to mention politicians, in the last, few years have been visiting the continent. While Christchurch has remained the staging point for much of the scientific endeavour taking place in Antarctica, numbers of cruises have been sailing each summer from southern ports in South America to the Antarctic Peninsula, a more hospitable and interesting area of the continent than that immediately south of New Zealand. Fears have been expressed that, if larger numbers of casual visitors begin to flood into Antarctica, such pollution and destruction of the environment will occur that the worth of the continent as a scientific laboratory will be lost. Disposal of wastes created during scientific programmes has already proved difficult enough at times. The influx of large numbers of people not carefully selected or trained to deal with the harsh Antarctic climate may also lead to grave emergencies which would seriously disrupt regular scientific programmes. A limited number of tourists could probably visit Antarctica each year without seriously harming the continent’s environment More sensible than a blanket ban on all tourism would be a plan to follow the suggestion made recently in Christchurch by the Director of the National Science Foundation of the United States (Dr G. Stever). He proposed that the signatory nations of the Antarctic Treaty co-operate to control the traffic of tourists to Antarctica. The problems may be less serious than they at first appear because trips to Antarctica are likely to attract — as they have so far — only enthusiasts and those amateur naturalists who are already concerned about the protection of the environment Allowing tourists to visit Antarctica under strict supervision need not endanger that continent’s environment merely to amuse the wealthy or bored. The problems associated with increasing tourist traffic to Antarctica are trivial compared with those which will arise if the commercial exploitation of the continent’s mineral resources becomes feasible. If the Antarctic Treaty nations can co-operate to solve the minor problems raised by tourists, such co-operation will raise hopes that they will also be able to solve subsequent and larger problems in the spirit with which the treaty was originally signed.