Currents Summer 2024 (1) - Flipbook - Page 17
For now, Antarctica remains among the most protected regions on Earth. It is troublesome
that the tourism industry can exploit it for profit and even expand its business in the
meanwhile. More concerning is that tourists willingly oblige. In growing numbers, leisure
travelers to Antarctica are buying into the illusory premises they are being sold while
simultaneously overlooking their own feet-on-the-snow, exhaust-fumes-in-the-air impact.
There is a reason Antarctica has earned its name as the last continent. Getting there is still a
strenuous effort if not increasingly commonplace. The other six continents have been
stitched together through a network of globalization and international industrial tourism. As
tourists permit a place as remote and disconnected as Antarctica to succumb to exploitative
forces, the fates of other destinations in more accessible places intrinsically lie in the
balance. There is a prophecy of degradation well-known to scientists that is now on display
for tourists as well: what happens to the planet happens to Antarctica, and what happens to
Antarctica happens to the planet.
***
At the end of their final day in Antarctic waters, passengers sip hot chocolate out of plastic
mugs. The owner of the Seventh Continent flag looks at his laptop, a 20 dollar wifi card in
hand. He scrolls through his photos from the day, searching for images to assemble into an
Instagram post.
8Which one do you like better for the cover photo?9 he asks two other passengers that have
found seats on the cushioned sofas beside him.
8The close-up of the whale9s tale is quite nice,9 one of the passengers says.
8You9ve got a good camera there, your pictures are incredible,9 the other adds.
The man toggles for a minute between the shot of a humpback whale and an image of
himself, holding the blue-and-white flag.
8Actually, I9m gonna go with this one first, and then the whale,9 he says. Satisfied, he posts the
curation, the flag picture prominently featured on the cover.
Julia Tilton is a journalist trained in the environmental sciences who examines the ethics of socioenvironmental activity in vulnerable spaces across the planet.
18
