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Hillary Clinton urges tougher controls on South Pole tourists

By Paul Bignell

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says Washington wants tighter controls on tourism in Antarctica to prevent further environmental damage.

Speaking at conference of Antarctic and Arctic powers and polar experts, Mrs Clinton said more needed to be done to prevent further degradation of the environment around Antarctica caused by the increasing numbers of vessels going to the region. "We have submitted a resolution that would place limits on landings from ships carrying large number of tourists," she said. "We have also proposed new requirements for lifeboats on tour ships to make sure they can keep passengers alive until rescue comes," she added.

Tourism to the Antarctic has increased five-fold since the early 1990s as thousands of people cruise to see icebergs and wildlife.

Last year saw a record 46,000 visitors, the majority in cruise ships. There are growing fears that it is only a matter of time before the boom results in a major maritime disaster. In the last five years there have been four incidents involving cruise ships in the Antarctic of which the sinking of the MV Explorer was the most serious.

Tourism groups argue there is no evidence that tourism damages Antarctica and point to its good safety record until the sinking of the Explorer. Nevertheless, though many government and environmental critics agree that tour operators have set themselves strict standards for operating in the area, they fear it is only time before disaster strikes.

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Hidden Agenda?
[info]bishbashbong wrote:
Sunday, 12 April 2009 at 01:22 pm (UTC)
I think that Hilary Clinton doesn't want people in Antarctica because she doesn't want anyone noticing the increasing amount of Ice there!
What hope
[info]stickytruth2 wrote:
Sunday, 12 April 2009 at 07:33 pm (UTC)
Since when has Hillary Clinton been interested in the Antarctica and the environment, take care the Yanks are trying to take over again.
What about the whales
[info]rosiewoods wrote:
Sunday, 12 April 2009 at 08:51 pm (UTC)
If the Obama administration is so worried about Antartica why don't they remove Bush nominated William Hogarth from his head job at the International Whaling Commission. Instead of turning Antartica into a whale sactuary and change the Commission into an organ to protect whales he wants to make a deal with the illegal whalers to kill these wonderful mammals somewhere else! By the way for the climate change deniers, a sheet of ice the size of Jamaica broke off from the continent last week.
Re: What about the whales
[info]derekcolman wrote:
Monday, 13 April 2009 at 02:45 am (UTC)
That chunk of ice breaking off was normal for the time of year, and represents 2% of the total. That is a total that is much larger than it was 30 years ago. There is no significant reduction or increase in global sea ice area since records began in 1979, as recorded daily by the University of Illinois. Check it out.
Re: What about the whales
[info]rosiewoods wrote:
Monday, 13 April 2009 at 03:51 pm (UTC)
I am no expert on the diminishing Wilkins Ice shelf but most scientists agree that the melting has vastly increased in the last 20 years. Living in the northern tropics of Brazil I witnessed hundreds of lost penguins wash up here last year, never heard of before. If that isn't change I don't know what is.
Re: What about the whales
[info]derekcolman wrote:
Monday, 13 April 2009 at 11:11 pm (UTC)
The Southern Ocean has warmed by around 3 degrees C. This may be caused by changing currents or global warming, or a bit of both. As the Wilkins ice shelf juts out into that ocean it is adversely effected by that. However the total area of Antarctic sea ice has progressively increased over the last 30 years, a fact that the global warming alarmists somehow always omit to mention. Instead they seek to concentrate the world's attention on one small piece of that ice.
Re: What about the whales
[info]garyt1205 wrote:
Tuesday, 21 April 2009 at 01:31 am (UTC)
Come on guys

Humans are at the point as a species where we have a choice; either learn to cooperate with each other or face extintion from the planet. It's that simple. All mother nature has to do is change the magnetic poles, create some volcanoes blowing up, or severe storms and 90% of us are gone in a instant. Global warming or new ice age, it's all the same thing. When the planet warms and the artic and antartic ice begins to go, the melted water goes into the ocean and moves oceanic streams which affect weather. If the gulf stream moves east, most of the eastren and middle atlantic states and europe will be in ice, thus your ice age.

What a shame that we are so caught in a materialistic world that we have lost our ability to connect with nature, the universe or each other, or anything outside of our selfish selves. We are destroying our planet and ourselves and are unconscious spiritually, no matter how many times we claim Jesus as Lord. We will not listen to the wisdom of others who have come before us and are more spiritually conscious than we are. Jesus was a man of wisdom and truth who preached and died as a man of peace, but his teachings have been so polluted by man made doctrine/dogma that it now has little left of what he taught and little if any value except political and spiritual control in a material world gy the organized churches.

It's time for mankind to grow spiritually, become awake/mature, overcome outdated chimp tribal thinking or be done with. Humans have faced a number of extinctions in history accoring to the achients, at least five or six. Mother nature will keep a balance regardless of what we think or what we do. It is our arrogance to think we can get away with this rape of the planet without there being consequences. It is our collective ego and denial that refuses to do anything about it.
Tourists in Antarctica
[info]sandn09 wrote:
Monday, 13 April 2009 at 09:08 am (UTC)
Is it strange that The Independent Nature page should be featuring an ad for Antarctic tourism or has The Independent decided that Antarctic tourism has no effect on the environment....... not what the recently terminated Fourth International Polar Year has inicated!
how much this time??
[info]ebbi581 wrote:
Monday, 13 April 2009 at 04:54 pm (UTC)
who is paying you a large sum of money this time mrs hilary clinton!!! remember the medicare programme ????
Nifty...
[info]junkkmale wrote:
Tuesday, 14 April 2009 at 07:10 am (UTC)
But I wasn't sure if there was any space, what with all the pols and enviro-journos flying up there to see the impact of...er... flying up there.
Antarctica
[info]tzeph wrote:
Monday, 20 April 2009 at 03:06 am (UTC)
Those NWOers are REALY up to something now. Many of us know about High Jump, Byrd, and the guy they threw out a window. Bill Cooper would tell you too. Those alio-tyrantian-Nephlo-vomituses only wanna keep people away from the 'big hole' down there, the Vatican's observatory, and all the millenium-spadz they store there.

Let the learned understand...

Sholom,
Tzehanyahu
[info]piglet10 wrote:
Sunday, 26 April 2009 at 02:56 am (UTC)
Typical politician... Leave the border wide open to illegals, steal money
from taxpayers, restrict liberty, create a police state, but let's save
the fragile South Pole from tourists!

Antarctica is a powerful machine that does not need any saving.
It can produce ferocious weather that no man can acclimate to.
190 mph winds and 90 degrees below 0.

There is no end to Antarctica. It goes on.. and on.. and on.. and on.

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