Did you get to visit McMurdo?
What’s the ground like; are you walking in the snow or on the snow?
Bucket list item for me is running a marathon there.
What’s the climate footprint of a pleasure trip to one of the regions most vulnerable to climate change?
Yes, agree, very cool! Do you have pic links?
In Baja Mexico, in the winters the whales swim down from Alaska for the warmer waters. They winter over in Baja’s large lagoons, San Ignacio Lagoon (map-1) and Ojo de Liebre Lagoon (map-2) in Baja California Sur. You can take a guided small boat out onto the lagoon. By law the boat is not allowed to approach the whales, so the boat drivers position it such that the whales approach the boat. They come right up to you, only inches away — a fantastic experience!
Wait a minute, Opus could read just fine.
**Did you get to visit McMurdo? **
Alas, no. We were in peninsular Antarctica. That’s where the majority of wildlife is, and that was my big goal. However, I’d love to see McMurdo.
What’s the ground like; are you walking in the snow or on the snow?
Mixed. Some was rocks and coarse ground; some was light snow; some was knee-deep and accomplished with snowshoes. There are rules about not walking on vegetation, which is sparse and slow-growing. At every site, the expedition team first marked our path or perimeter.
Bucket list item for me is running a marathon there.
I’d walk a half marathon there, anyway, but they may only host the full.
What’s the climate footprint of a pleasure trip to one of the regions most vulnerable to climate change?
Since there’s only one planet, the same as any trip anywhere, more or less.
In terms of wildlife and plant vulnerability, as I’ve noted, there were strict guidelines and briefings and posted information about individuals, Zodiacs, and the ship in relation to wildlife (e.g., not crowding whales).
The ship I was on uses a reverse osmotic process to filter sea water for drinking and showers. Waste water is treated bacterially on board and liquids returned to the ocean, while sludge is packed out. They use a more efficient, less polluting fuel and are part of a consortium working to ban higher polluting fuel globally.
In addition, when I travel I pay a carbon offset (United Nations online platform for voluntary cancellation of certified emission reductions (CERs)). How about you?
Do you have pic links?
Not yet, with family coming in for the holiday. Eventually I’ll get a set of good photos up and I’ll post a link.
[Whales.]
We saw numerous languid humpbacks up close (at the whales’ initiative). We saw fin whales spouting at a distance, and I saw a right whale spouting pretty far away.
There were also elephant seals, fur seals, and Weddell seals around, as well as South American sea lions at Cape Horn.
Opus could read just fine.
True, but he is a special penguin.
Anywhere that’s thousands of miles away.
I try to reduce my travel distance as much as possible, especially for vacation and pleasure. Carbon offsets are at best a small compensation for being part of the planet’s “1%”, and at worst an encouragement to ignore the real carbon emission inequalities in the global economy.
And I recycle, compost, keep the heat at 64, walk to work, have solar heat, and share bathwater. I also donate professional time pro bono and my family makes large contributions to local and global charitable causes. If you’d like to start a different thread about this, have at.
What sort of device are you posting this with, because I bet you that there’s something really problematic about it!
…ewwwwwww. 
To get back on track…
How did you organize the trip? I’m assuming it was a package deal, sort of like when booking a Caribbean or Alaskan cruise. Since I’ve done neither I’m not sure how such things are arranged. If I recall you live in Oregon, as do I. There are some direct flights from PDX to Santiago, which would make the travel easier.
Did you get any souvenirs? Or mail a letter to yourself so you have something with an Antarctica cancellation mark? Is there such a thing as Antarctica postage stamps or does mail from the station you visited use standard British postage? I couldn’t do a trip like that without getting both.
Do you know how often these ships land? I have the impression that most workers at Antarctic research stations are pretty isolated and don’t see visitors. However, from post #11 I get the feeling that ships arrive with some regularity. I wonder if the workers get tired of seeing tourists or if they’re a nice break in the routine.
I’ve never been, but my mom went to Antarctica a couple of years ago. She wants to get all of the big adventure trips out of the way while she’s still young, and then she’ll do the boring places like Europe once she gets old. And “getting old” is probably going to happen pretty soon, since she’s 77 now.
She didn’t bring back any ice, but she did make a point to not clean off her feet after wading before she put her socks on, so she was able to get a little bit of sand that way to add to her collection.
I knew a woman who went to McMurdo with her daughter some years back (at least 15 by now) and IIRC, they embarked from New Zealand.
Toe jam sand is ewwwwwier.
Aww. How cute. Yes, there are lots of problematic things about it. But a CO2-footprint equivalent to 5% of the average American’s yearly output, or 100% of that of an inhabitant in a 3rd world country is not one of them. (That’s data from the link susan provided. US annual per person footprint is 20 tonnes, Afghanistan and Bangladesh 1 tonne, one 13 hour each way round trip flight, 1 tonne.)
Am I perfect? Of course not. Does that change the fact that any vacation choice requiring two 13 hours flights isn’t exceptionally bad from a climate stand point? No.
And having exceeded my “being an asshole”-quota with my very first post, I’ll just stop there.
Next year North Sentinel Island?
Beautiful Indian Ocean island with naked natives dancing with joy over your arrival.
There really wasn’t any need to shit on somebody’s vacation thread. It was super interesting and fun and you’ve changed the whole feel of it.
I thought susan handled it pretty well. I hope we can get back to hearing about the trip.
So, susan, has all of your other travel been bird-related? If so, is this job-related? Or do you travel on some other business? Or do you just have restless feet? And, did you get tired of being cold in Antarctica?
naita, you’ve asked your question about the environmental impact and got an answer as to how the OP’s specific trip tried to minimize it.
If you want a broader discussion about the ecological impact of vacationing in general, start a thread on that in IMHO or GD, but don’t hijack his one further.
Thanks.