Footprints

Footprints. Specifically carbon footprints. And climate change.

Those who have been following this blog - or my twitter postings - for a while know that I’ve got a real weakness for visiting wild/remote/snow-covered places.   I’ve been lucky enough to have been to the south Atlantic/Antarctic on several occasions and to have explored a variety of Arctic locations.  My website name (North South Images) picks up the penguin and polar bear theme too.

I’ve periodically gone through the exercise of figuring out which remote set of northern or southern islands I want to get to next.  My last ‘new’ northern island was Jan Mayen, off the Greenland coast.

Jan Mayen Island

Walrus in Svalbard

Polar Bears along the Northwest Passage

In 2011 I was able to spend a bit of time around South Georgia, and at that time I spotted the South Sandwich Islands as being an interesting remote group to try to add to my southern list.

Gentoo Penguins in the Falkland Islands

King Penguins on South Georgia

The challenge was how to get there - it’s off the regular ‘tourist’ circuit that covers South Georgia, Falklands and the Antarctic peninsula - and there are only very occasional tours that make the effort - and the sea miles - to go there.

I left it with one of the tour companies to let me know if they came across a voyage that featured the South Sandwich Islands.  And finally last week, they got back to me with a voyage that includes the South Sandwich Islands along with South Georgia, the Falkland Islands and the Peninsula - it’s a long trip, and it’s eye-wateringly expensive but I can (just about) afford it.  That’s the problem.

While I can afford the trip - can I justify it?  I’ve given lots of talks about the remote places I’ve been to over the years, and I’ve been able to combine the “ohh and ahh” appeal of penguins and polar bears with a narrative about climate change and pollution, and the risks to these once-pristine places - but where’s the tipping point?  Do I do more damage by flying 18000 miles and spending 25 days on boats than I can ever hope to repay by talking earnestly about climate change?

Don’t get me wrong, I think the trip would be fantastic - I’d love to spend more time on the beaches of the Falkland Islands and South Georgia, I’d love to get back to the ice of Antarctica.  And I’d love to add the South Sandwich Islands to my travel CV. 

But, the question remains - is this sort of tourism defensible at this point in the 21st Century.