Thanks to all the publicity and funding devoted to global warming climate change research, scientists and eco-tourists have flocked to Antarctica.
Unfortunately, all of the human traffic associated with researchers and eco-tourists is killing Antarctica!
Scientists warn of tourism threat to Antarctica
Tourist numbers have exploded from less than 5,000 in 1990 to about 40,000 a year, according to industry figures, and most people go to the fragmented ice-free areas that make up less than one percent of Antarctica.
A growing number of research facilities are also being built, along with associated infrastructure such as fuel depots and runways, in the tiny ice-free zones.
It is these areas which contain most of the continent’s wildlife and plants, yet they are among the planet’s least-protected, said a study led by the Australian government-funded National Environmental Research Programme (NERP) and the Australian Antarctic Division.
Who did the scientists warn? Themselves?
Sometimes, to study an environment, you have to kill it.
