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Tourism a bit dull!

Sorry, I apologise for today’s lesson, I thought it was a bit dull ,but we had some odds and ends to round up. We started by discussing why Antarctica is a good example of an extreme environment. This has been a question asked in the exam.

We did this with ease, discussing how the climate and landscape make life difficult for humans.

We then moved onto tourism. I showed a BBC clip about tourism in the Antarctic and we discussed motives, again you sorted this with ease.

I then introduced the research task that I wanted you to do for homework. Following on from this, we discussed whether Antarctica was ready for mass-tourism. As a starter we used an article from the BBC website about invasive species. After a discussion we came up with a number of negative impacts; but only one real positive, we decided that the opportunity for people to experience Antarctica, may have an impact on an individual’s understanding of the fragile and beautiful nature of the environment, and therefore their motivation to support conservation.(Good point from Jaime there!) But is Antarctica ready for mass-tourism? You will need to decide this, under FUGIS, this is definitely a future consideration.

After this I gave you time to complete the penguin adaptation exercise, whilst some of you went on your own expedition to find a computer!

After settling down, it took some time , we discussed strategies that could be used to limit the impact of tourism in Antarctica. I think we came to the conclusion that education is the most important strategy, educate them to treat the environment with respect and leave it how they found it. Remember within the FUGIS concepts underpinning the course, this is sustainability, the ability to use an environment in a way, that makes it available for future generations.