Can Obama Save Antarctica?
As Obama continues to sculpt his superhero status, there are some things that he just can’t abide: The affects of humans on Antarctica. This debate has been going on for decades, but it’s Obama that has brought it back to the public eye. This hot-button topic in the travel and scientific worlds (over 400 officials and civilians) are coming to a head in Baltimore, Maryland, USA over the next two weeks to discuss what’s been happening in the last 50 years since the signing of the Antarctica treaty.
To kick the meeting off, the Obama administration gave their thoughts on how implementing mandatory limits on the size of cruise ships taking tourists and scientists down there and the amount of passengers they bring ashore. This is a major statement because now there are no laws that limit ship size and number of people.
The proposal coming from the Obama camp can be summarized in this simple summary, “[we need to] ensure that tourism is conducted in a safe and environmentally responsible manner.” This means that Antarctic tour operators would be barred from taking ships with more than 500 passengers. Additionally, it would restrict landings to one ship at a time per site while limiting the number of passengers on the shore to 100 at a time. As it stands now, these regulations are recommendations that operators are expected to honor. The Obama proposal wants to make them law.
This is no small task, however. Altering this 50 year old treaty is difficult, as one can imagine. It requires that all of the 40+ countries that have signed the agreement come to an unanimous agreement on any changes made. That’s a tall order, but could be a boon for limiting travel to an area that is greatly affected by global warming.
Should this go into affect, it could affect the numerous tour operators that account for the 40,000+ tourists that are shipped down there each year. Smaller operators, like Ice Axe Expeditions ,could be forced to cease their backcountry snowboarding and skiing expeditions all together.
Ironically, just as the Obama administration was making their proposal known the infamous Wilkins Ice Shelf, the largest of the at-risk ice shelfs in Antarctica, made its own statement by collapsing.
