To save everybody the trouble, this article only elaborates on reasons around the environmental impact and carbon footprint of traveling to an isolated place such as Antarctica.
> Traveling to Antarctica is a carbon-intensive activity.<p>> By one estimate, the carbon footprint for a person’s Antarctic cruise can be roughly equivalent to the average European’s output for a year, because cruise ships are heavy polluters and tourists have to fly so far.<p>> Almost all travel presents this problem on some level. But “this kind of tourism involves a larger carbon footprint than other kinds of tourism,”<p>Other kinds of tourism, like NA and EU tourists going to Asia? Like ultra long haul flights from Australia & New Zealand to the US? Singapore to New York?<p>I think reading this article is a waste of time because it's acting like going to Antartica is something special. Yes, there are plenty of tourists who only drive or take the train to get to their destination, but there are millions of tourists who fly 12-20 hours each way to go to the other side of the world which is significantly more than the 100,000 visitors Antarctica gets.<p>I'm saddened to see that The Atlantic, which once published the amazing piece "My Family's Slave", is also publishing this garbage with gems like<p>> As a species, we’re not very good at self-restraint (see: AI)
The title of the article implies there are reasons why you wouldn't want to go there, and the body of the article tries to guilt you into pressuring your legislators to prevent people from going there.
If tourism to Antarctica is really spiking and it's legitimately bad for the ecosystem / environment, I'd say writing an article about it in a major publication is just about the worst possible thing you could do to help the situation.
I know that's not the point of this article, but I really don't understand the appeal of going to Antarctica (unless you're going for work).<p>I'm sure it's beautiful out there, but all I see is a very expensive trip out to somewhere that's freezing cold with very little infrastructure beyond the bare necessities for people who are working out there. That sounds like the opposite of a good time.