Spring Break
Musing before an Antarctic voyage
Phoenix Mourning-Star
Issue date: 3/12/09 Section: Opinion
With an average "permanent" population of around 1,000 people, only about 100,000 square miles of its more than five million square mile area not covered with ice, temperatures that can range from -112 to 59 degrees Fahrenheit and regions near the South Pole recording less than 5 inches of precipitation per year, Antarctica truly is one of the most desolate places on Earth.
And with only 4,000 to 7,000 scientists and just fewer than 40,000 tourists making their way to Antarctica each year, one might say it's the missing link or Holy Grail for most adventure travelers.
Although ozone layer and climate change research tend to be what we hear about most, researchers are also interested in studying and observing the plant and animal life.
The human factor in the great debate on climate change is an issue that swirls around what happens in the Earth's Polar Regions in our media. At the center of most climate change discussions are the greenhouse gas emissions that play a major role in the greenhouse effect, which some people believe and others dispute is causing global warming -- or at least contributing to changes in climate patterns.
As it stands, auto emissions and combustion of petroleum products are major contributors to releasing carbon and the generation of other greenhouse gases. This makes it somewhat counterintuitive that British Petroleum, which Forbes marks as one of the world's riches companies and largest producers of petroleum, is sending students on a renewable energy and climate change expedition to Antarctica.
The "green" reputation of BP, in the eyes of many of my environmental and human rights colleagues, has been a hot topic in my e-mail over the past three months -- most of them citing BP's $1.5 billion renewable energy investment in 2007 in comparison to the company's mega-revenue and the human-rights turmoil stemming from the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan Pipeline Project.
All said, can we as individuals demand cheaper oil and still cry out about how the people we give our money to spend it?
And with only 4,000 to 7,000 scientists and just fewer than 40,000 tourists making their way to Antarctica each year, one might say it's the missing link or Holy Grail for most adventure travelers.
Although ozone layer and climate change research tend to be what we hear about most, researchers are also interested in studying and observing the plant and animal life.
The human factor in the great debate on climate change is an issue that swirls around what happens in the Earth's Polar Regions in our media. At the center of most climate change discussions are the greenhouse gas emissions that play a major role in the greenhouse effect, which some people believe and others dispute is causing global warming -- or at least contributing to changes in climate patterns.
As it stands, auto emissions and combustion of petroleum products are major contributors to releasing carbon and the generation of other greenhouse gases. This makes it somewhat counterintuitive that British Petroleum, which Forbes marks as one of the world's riches companies and largest producers of petroleum, is sending students on a renewable energy and climate change expedition to Antarctica.
The "green" reputation of BP, in the eyes of many of my environmental and human rights colleagues, has been a hot topic in my e-mail over the past three months -- most of them citing BP's $1.5 billion renewable energy investment in 2007 in comparison to the company's mega-revenue and the human-rights turmoil stemming from the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan Pipeline Project.
All said, can we as individuals demand cheaper oil and still cry out about how the people we give our money to spend it?
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