Antarctica witnesses record number of tourists visiting the island

Antarctica has been witnessing a record number of increase in tourists visiting the area. This season nearly 80,000 visitors are expected, a 40 per cent increase compared to last year. Off the Antarctic Peninsula, blocks of ice of all sizes float by a sea. A 58-year-old Norwegian, Even Carlsen, traveled 14,000 kilometers (8,700 miles) and spent a lot of money to reach the Antarctic. Antarctica has been best known as a land of adventure and is often termed as "Heart of the Earth", according to Marcelo Leppe, director of the Chilean Antarctic Institute. He said the beautiful land expands and contracts like a heart.

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'Take nothing but photographs'

He added that the current revolving around the continent is like a circulatory system that absorbs warm currents from other oceans and redistributes cold water. It is also home to penguins, sea lions, whales, and seals. Climate change and a lot of other factors are rapidly warming the current stretch of islands that stretches towards  South America. Its glaciers are melting and its ecosystem has been affected by microplastics carried by currents. Tourists are flocking to the area in greater numbers. The tour operators in the region are promoting responsible tourism. Their motto is, "Take nothing but photographs, leave nothing but footprints, keep nothing but memories".

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Climate change posing a major threat

But tourists have questioned the sort of tourism. The carbon emissions, soot or black carbon in the exhaust gases of cruise ships are posing a threat in the region. The chinstrap penguins on Half Moon Island named for the black stripe on their chin walks with their head upright in the spring breeding season raising their beaks and screeching from their rocky nests. The penguin population on the island has been gradually declining over recent years. Climate change has been posing a major threat in Antarctica gradually decreasing its flora and fauna in the region. Global warming has resulted in the melting of ice at a large scale increasing the levels of the ocean.

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