Tourism in Antarctica: what does it mean for the world’s last great wilderness?

Antarctica, the only continent with no native population, is a place for academic cooperation between all nations: a place for science. It’s also increasingly a place for tourism.

With no local communities on Antarctica, it’s hard to see how it’ll benefit from more visitors. “The rate of climate change around the Antarctic Peninsula is rapid,” says John Durban, a British killer whale researcher with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). “Increasing tourism obviously means burning more fossil fuels here.”