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Environmental Impact of Tourism on Antarctica Essay

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Environmental Impact of Tourism on Antarctica

This essay discusses the environmental impact of tourism on Antarctica.
The subheading Description will give an overview of the continent, highlight the unique landscape, weather patterns and research stations making up some of the tourist attractions of this continent.
The subheading Tourism in Antarctica gives an account of the type of tourist Antarctica attracts and their primary motive identifying scientific research staff as tourists as well as highlighting the current trends and growth towards ecotourism.
The History of the Australian Antarctic Territory will be discussed highlighting past errors in environmental management and the current trend of educational theme tours …show more content…

It is covered by 90 per cent of the world's ice which has an average thickness of about 2,000 metres. Scarcely five per cent of this land mass is without permanent ice or snow, and only the coastal rock outcrops and highest mountain peaks project through the ice sheet. The Antarctic climate varies with altitude, distance from the sea and sea level. In winter the coastal temperature is between -15 to -30 degrees C. and -40 to -70 degrees C in the interior. The warmest weather visitors can expect during the hight of summer is zero degrees C. ( Bromley, 1985 p. 37).
There are three permanent Australian stations on the coast of the Australian Antarctic Territory, Casey, Scott and Mawson, providing headquarters for the scientific exploration of Antarctica. The stations main research disciplines are biology, botany, earth and atmospheric sciences, meteorological and medical research (SCAR / COMNAP, 1992, introduction.).

Historic development

Eric Lars Lindbland (cited in Luyendyk, 1995, p. 1) Stated that people search for challenge and education as well as relaxation on their vacations. This motive can be seen as the driving force behind the first tourism expeditions to Antarctica in 1958 aboard a Argentinian Naval transport vessel the Les Ecaireurs. Paul Dudley Hart in his account of the growth of tourism in Antarctica recounts the use of this and other government

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