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https://theconversation.com/i-cant-work-in-the-farce-of-climate-change-cruise-tourism-anymore-why-antarctic-guides-quit-their-dream-jobs-286216>
"“You’d see massive glacier calvings, and you’d just want to cry. But all the
guests would be cheering. And you’d be like … ‘can you not put two and two
together?’”
Those are the words of a former Antarctic tour guide we interviewed. For anyone
interested in nature, few jobs sound more enviable. You spend months among
penguins, orcas and glaciers, helping visitors experience one of the world’s
most extraordinary and unspoiled places.
But for some guides, like those we quote in this article, that privilege slowly
became impossible to reconcile with their beliefs. Watching climate change
unfold while helping thousands more visitors reach the continent eventually led
them to leave the jobs they’d once dreamed of.
Antarctic tourism is growing fast, with over 120,000 visits in 2025-26 and up
to 450,000 expected each summer within a decade. Our new study reveals how
Antarctic tour guides grapple with the dilemma at the heart of their work —
bringing more and more people to an ecologically vulnerable area, and helping
cause some of the greatest CO₂ emissions of any form of tourism.
“I was down there on the hottest day ever recorded in 2020. Hiking up a glacier
in my T-shirt, driving boats without gloves. It was really sad. The impacts of
climate change absolutely hit you in the face.”
We interviewed 25 former Antarctic guides who decided to quit their jobs (all
quotes are anonymised). These guides couldn’t align their morals with the
effects of tourism they were witnessing day after day."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
