The Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station has been conducting research in Antarctica for more than 50 years, and it has been the southernmost continually inhabited place on Earth over that period. For more than 30 of those years, the iconic image of the place has been that of a giant geodesic dome towering more than five stories above the ice. But now, the dome has been decommissioned, and is scheduled for demolition soon, which has spawned calls from former residents of the station to save what has been called an important piece of American history.
According to this story in the New York Times, a portion of the dome is set to be disassembled and sent back to the States as part of a museum that is currently under construction in California. But most of the structure will be cut into pieces and scrapped. But critics of the plan say that the entire dome should be brought home and rebuilt as a monument to U.S. exploration in Antarctica. To do so would require each piece to be disassembled by hand, bolt by bolt, and shipped stateside to be reassembled, at an estimated cost of more than $500,000, far beyond the budget allowed for the operation. The dome was rendered obsolete two years back when a new station was built to take its place. In its prime however, it was home to more than 200 scientists and support crew during the busy Antarctic summer. That number dropped below 50 during the winter, but the station remained occupied and in operation at all times, conducting all kinds of experiments and recording data on everything from changing weather conditions to the levels of x-ray bombardments from outer space.
At this point, it seems unlikely that the dome will survive the scrapyard. But for 30 years it has been a symbol of exploration and research in Antarctica, and while its time may have has passed, its contribution to the science is undeniable. It is safe to say, the dome will be missed.
Taking a hot air balloon ride over the Valley of the Kings near Luxor, Egypt has become a “must do” for travelers visiting the ancient temples and tombs of that region. The morning skies have often been filled with the colorful balloons as they drift slowly over the desert landscapes below. But that all changed back in April, when a balloon crashed, and the government was forced to put a halt to all flights.
The crash occurred when a pilot set off in less than ideal weather conditions and without permission from the control tower. High winds pushed the balloon off course, and it ended up colliding with a cell phone tower, before slamming to the ground, injuring the 16 passengers on board, and forcing the Egyptian Tourism Board to ground all flights pending an investigation.
This week, after six months on the ground, the balloons once again took to the air. The pilots have all gone through extensive safety training and each of the companies operating the balloons were required to introduce new safety measures as well. Furthermore, the world’s first hot air balloon airport was created not far from town, and all flights take off from that spot now.
Egypt is notoriously protective of their tourism industry, and with good reason. Much of the country’s income is based on travelers feeling safe and comfortable, and any threat to that safety can harm the industry as a whole. As a result, the government is quick to step in and enforce regulations when necessary, as was once again demonstrated here.
It was built to keep out foreign invaders, but apparently the Great Wall of China can’t protect itself from the greed of Chinese corporations.
The Hohhot Kekao Mining Co. is accused of destroying 330 ft (100 m) of China’s most famous structure while prospecting for gold. The damage occurred in Inner Mongolia, where the company is prospecting. This stretch of the wall is one of the oldest, dating to the Qin Dynasty (221-207 B.C.).
This isn’t the first time the Wall has been damaged. Local farmers often steal stones for building materials, much like what happened to parts of Hadrian’s Wall in England, and last year five miners were sentenced to up to three years in jail for damaging the Wall while operating heavy machinery nearby. Officials said those responsible for the new damage could face up to ten years because of the greater amount of destruction.
As China goes through its Industrial Revolution, its cultural heritage faces greater threats. The Industrial Revolution in England destroyed many of that country’s ancient buildings and stone circles, and the expansion of St. Louis, Missouri, in the nineteenth century destroyed virtually all trace of a prehistoric Native American town. St. Louis used to be called “Mound City” because of the numerous prehistoric earthen mounds there, but now only one survives. it would be nice if China could learn from other countries’ mistakes.
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It would be wrong on its face to say that tourism is the biggest problem facing the Galapagos today. Simultaneously, it is accurate to say that the growth in tourism in the one-of-a-kind archipelago is the primary reason the islands are “in danger.” Those are not my words, but UNESCO’s, in 2007 … the same year Ecuador’s new president claimed the islands were at “great risk” and signed a decree making their protection a national priority. You get the sense that just defining the exact problem facing the Galapagos, for both locals and outsiders, is tricky.
With ninety seven percent of the islands off-limits and under national park protection – small, guided tours limited to 60 designated sites – the system that introduces tourists to the nineteen Galapagos islands has long been regarded a model of eco-tourism. But the success of that model is what puts them at such risk today: In 1991 there were 41,000 visitors, this year there will be close to 200,000; during that same period human population has risen from a few thousand to 40,000. Those are a lot of combined footsteps – as well as ship and plane traffic — for such a fragile eco-system (the so-called “Mona Lisa of biodiversity”).
The sudden arrival of so many people from so many parts of the world introduces parasites which threaten both flora and fauna; permanent residents arrive desirous of re-creating their mainland lifestyles, including cars, dogs and cats, and air conditioning; tour operators are pushing to expand their offerings to include sport fishing and skydiving. The Ecuadorian government has tried, with limited success, to limit migration and is considering raising the national park fee paid by every tourist from $100 to $135, an attempt to slow the numbers.
Jack Nelson is one of the Galapagos’ most-veteran tour operators, coming to the islands to live permanently in 1967. Like others like him in different settings around the world who have watched their own personal paradises become overly popular, he is alarmed. “To a tourist, things look good. You still see a lot of animals, and not many other people,” he says. “But get outside those controlled (national park) parameters, and you’ll find a big mess nobody can figure out what to do about.”
While we were filming in and around the islands we met longtime Galapagos guide Sylvia Vargas on a few occasions. A native Ecuadorian, she’s been coming here for more than twenty years and has lived in Puerto Ayora off and on since first visiting as a teenager. She feels both blessed to be working in such an incredible place and worried that tourism and migration may be taking too big a toll.
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“Personally, I think tourism should be capped for the moment. Higher entry fees haven’t worked to slow the growth. One tour operator I work for recently told me that the people who are coming to the Galapagos today are coming with a different idea about the place – they don’t ask as much anymore about wildlife, their first questions are about the comfort of the ship. They want more air-conditioning, more service, nicer cabins, a massage, a more comfortable mattress and expect a lot of chemicals on board to keep things clean and tidy … all of which have a direct impact on the Galapagos. More energy used, more garbage created, more pollution.
“I came first in 1984 when there were two thousand people living in town and two cars. I knew everyone on the street and was offered food by friends every day. The electricity on the island used to shut down at night. Now there are twenty times as many people and two hundred times as many cars. And we have electricity twenty-four hours a day. I miss the peacefulness of back then.
“But I have talked with people who work as guides in other places and they always say that we Galapagos guides are spoiled because we see such incredible wildlife every day. I guess they are right. But for me the most popular sites are too crowded, sometimes there are so many people I feel … embarrassed.
“My biggest worry is that more people living here means more demand for everything. I don’t see people thinking about having a different lifestyle than what they have on the mainland. They will tell you they came to the Galapagos to live in a peaceful place, but they expect to have exactly the same things that they had on the mainland. Why would you have a pet dog or cat here? Why would you have a car if you live in town? Why would you build a new house with air conditioning, when electricity is so hard to create? At Christmas on the mainland we decorate our houses with lots of outdoors lights and now they do the same thing here even though the power comes from a gas generator and the gas comes from far away.”
After being partially or completely closed for the past three years, the museum’s vast collection is finally open to the public again, with twice the exhibition space it once had.
The Ashmolean is the oldest public museum in the world, having opened in 1683, and while there have been a lot of changes over the years, none have been as big as this £61 million ($101 million) project. The expansion includes four temporary exhibition galleries so the Ashmolean can host blockbuster traveling shows, something it couldn’t do with its previous space.
The permanent collection has gone through some major changes too. More of it is on display now, of course, but also the style of the displays has been revamped with the new idea of Crossing Cultures Crossing Time, which allows visitors to see how civilizations developed as parts of an interrelated world culture. This is an an improvement over the old-style way of displaying civilizations as separate entities when in reality they influenced one another on many levels. It also echoes the global perspective that Oxford’s other world-class museum, the Pitt-Rivers, brings to its own collection.
The museum is best known for its collections of Anglo-Saxon, predynastic Egyptian, Asian, and Renaissance art and artifacts, but has a good sampling of treasures from just about every period and culture, everything from crocodile mummies to medieval beer mugs. Museum junkies will not want to miss the new Ashmolean.
If the pictures in the gallery below aren’t enough for you, check out this collection of photos by yours truly and Mrs. yours truly.
