London: Over 40,000 eco-tourists visiting
Antarctica every year are adding to global warming that
results in melting of the polar ice caps, a new research has
found.
Most of these tourists to the snow-covered South Pole
travel in cruise ships to view the ice caps and wildlife such
as penguins, causing "horrendous" pollution from ship fuel and
rubbish, said the study by the Netherlands Organisation for
Scientific Research.
It also stated that the flow of tourists to the region
is disturbing wildlife in one of the last pristine landscapes
left on Earth.
"The visitors to the snow-covered landmass are
endangering not just the Antarctic region by their actions,
but also the rest of the world. It could even be making global
warming worse," said Machiel Lamers, the lead researcher.
Tourism is a boom industry in Antarctica, which was
witnessing just a few hundred tourists some 20 years ago, has
attracted 40,000 sight-seers last winter, The Telegraph
reported.
Asserting on the need to balance the benefits of
Antarctic tourism with the environmental impacts, Lamers said,
"The local environment is under pressure, more and larger
ships are going there, tourists are perpetually looking for
'tougher, faster, more' and there's actually no-one to keep
this all on the right track."
PTI
First Published: Thursday, December 24, 2009, 21:44