Heart of Whiteness

For the final field trip in Environmental Policy, we went to the Antarctica Center in Christchurch. Christchurch is considered one of the "Gateways to Antarctica" of the world, and is the port that the US uses (and I think a few other countries). Other Gateways are Capetown, South Africa, a city whose name escapes me in Argentina, and I believe there's an oddball in there. Perhaps not the informative sentence I've ever formed.

We were greeted and had a small lecture with Gabrielle who had the coolest accent I've ever heard. She's Chilean, has spent a whole bunch of time on The Ice, and works in the tourism sector. She had just gotten back two weeks ago. She spoke English with a strange hybrid of New Zealand and Chilean accenting. With her voice and her overwhelming passion for Antarctica, I could have listened to her all day.

Gabrielle gave us a series of funfacts (and actually elaborated on several issues, but if I explained them, you'd be here far longer than you intended to be). Because of the politics of nation sovereignty and a couple of countries are quietly (or maybe not so quietly, we live behind an information fog in the US) bickering about who deserves what, seven babies have been born in Antarctica so that a country can say that they have citizen's who trace their ancestry to The Ice. I love it. There's also a pact/regime to regulate tourism to the real down under, called IAATO, as well as issues about how wild Antarctica should remain. Some companies are letting people climb mountains that haven't even been named yet. Some tour companies are taking so many people on their boats that if the worst happens, and if all people somehow make it onto lifeboats, no science research station can house them until help arrives. Scary. There are also issues with who should get a modern day piece of the Antarctic Pie these days. It was last carved up pretty much during the Cold War. Are those claims still valid? One example of a player that wants in and why was Saudi Arabia; I guess they see Antarctica as a freshwater resource. That's kind of a big deal.

Overall though, it surprised me at how "doable" it seemed to get a job on The Ice or at least go for a visit in some capacity other than tourist, or even as a tourist. I will go there before it melts.

Other attractions about the center itself include a colony of rescued blue (faerie) penguins, and Hagland rides. The Hagland is the primary mode of transportation on the ice and the center offers rides to show how cool they are on this mock-up dirt course that includes nearly ninety degree hills (I'm only exaggerating a little) and crossing fairly wide crevasses, and even paddling across a deep puddle. I thought I was going to die--almost as fun as bungee jumping and skydiving. There was also a room where you could experience an Antarctic storm. It was really cool and filled with home made snow and had an ice slide that bordered on dangerous. The Antarctic storm was like walking to school in February when every other school in the district has cancelled school, but StePo stayed strong--pretty much no big deal. Gabrielle said that they kept it fairly warm so people didn't complain too loudly, and that people from Wisconsin, Minnesota, and the UP always say that.