Should Antarctica Be Developed Into A Tourist Attraction?

Antarctica, a landmass that is 14 million km and covers 10% of the earth. A continent that has no owner but is shared equally through all countries who are willing to share its wondrous treasures. The home of millions of species of Fish, Bird and other Marine life. Although 1.4 X bigger than the U.S its population is only 4,000.

Many people believe that Antarctica should be developed into a more tourist attractive continent. Others believe that it’s purpose as a Scientific environment is better in the long run.

These contrasting ideas create the question, Should Antarctica be developed? I will show many different aspects as too why it should and should not be developed.

It Should Be Developed

Many people believe that Antarctica should be developed into a more useful continent.

MInerals are a key aspect of this, as Antarctica is home to the largest coalfield in the world. Billions of tonnes for coal are located underneath the ice. With all this added energy, the price of oil would go down as more coal could be used to burn. Another very important mineral that is underneath Antarctica is iron. This is used to make many ferrous metals (steel..etc..). With this extra iron, the process of making metals could be cheaper, meaning that cost of construction goes down. This could affect land prices in other countries as houses are less expensive to build, if houses are cheaper in an area more people will move their making it a larger city with more opportunities.

Billions of tonnes of oil are also below ground in Antarctica. This would have a massive effect on the economy around the world.

Fishing, this is another very important reason as too why Antarctica should be developed. The number of fish in Antarctic oceans is great. With all of these fish many companies could make profit from selling and buying them. This would affect the food economy as some food types would now be cheaper as there are more of them.

Tourism, the Antarctic, being a very barren continent attracts only 15,000 tourists a year. Unlike other countries which can attract millions. The plans of many countries are too develop Antarctica into a more tourist safe continent. There would be no worries about the environment as the Antarctic Treaty System of 1961 depicts all that is wrong. Some of the examples of rules that the treaty system abide to are; No Military Action, No Nuclear Wastage allowed and All scientific results must be shared.

Many people believe that Antarctica has great potential to become a large tourist attraction. Large hotels have already started planning ‘Antarctic Getaways’.