Latest / Journey to the Fringe / Fringey Mini: Ice, Ice Maybe

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Fringey Mini: Ice, Ice Maybe · Journey to the Fringe

• 0:00
  Okay, Chelsea, because you are in the somewhat
• 0:04
  in the travel industry in your real life. I think
• 0:08
  we've mentioned that in the podcast before. I'm
• 0:10
  not doxing you in any way. It's come up briefly.
• 0:14
  Yeah. I thought I would pull this article for
• 0:17
  you, and it does have to do with an episode we
• 0:19
  did in season one a long time ago. It's from
• 0:22
  a website called The Conversation, written on
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  July 21st, 2026. Article title, I can't work
• 0:30
  in the farce of climate change cruise tourism
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  anymore. Why Antarctic guides quit their dream
• 0:35
  jobs. You'd see massive glaciers calving and
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  just, you'd want to cry. But all the guests would
• 0:41
  be cheering, and you'd be like, can you not put
• 0:43
  two and two together? These are the words of
• 0:46
  former Antarctic tour guide we interviewed. For
• 0:48
  anyone interested in nature, few jobs sound more
• 0:51
  enviable. You spend months among penguins, orcas,
• 0:54
  and glaciers, helping visitors experience one
• 0:56
  of the world's most extraordinary and unspoiled
• 0:58
  places. But for some guides, like those we quote
• 1:01
  in this article, that privilege slowly became
• 1:03
  impossible to reconcile with their beliefs. Watching
• 1:06
  climate change unfold while helping thousands
• 1:09
  more visitors reach the continent eventually
• 1:11
  led them to leave the jobs they'd once dreamed
• 1:13
  of. Antarctic tourism is growing fast with over
• 1:16
  120 ,000 visits in 2025 -26 and up to 450 ,000
• 1:21
  expected each summer within a decade. Our new
• 1:25
  study reveals how Antarctic tour guides grapple
• 1:27
  with the dilemma at the heart of their work,
• 1:29
  bringing more and more people to an ecologically
• 1:32
  vulnerable area and helping cause some of the
• 1:34
  greatest CO2 emissions of any form of tourism.
• 1:37
  Quote, I was down there on the hottest day ever
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  recorded in 2020, hiking up a glacier in my t
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  -shirt, driving boats without gloves. It was
• 1:44
  really sad. The impact of climate change absolutely
• 1:46
  hit you in the face. We interviewed 25 former
• 1:49
  Antarctic guides who decided to quit their job.
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  All quotes are anonymized. These guides couldn't
• 1:55
  align their morals with their effects of tourism
• 1:57
  they were witnessing day after day. Quote, very
• 2:00
  often for long periods of time, the penguins
• 2:02
  had maybe a few hours break during the night.
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  Otherwise, there were hundreds of people walking
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  through the colonies nonstop. End quote. While
• 2:10
  tour operators often argued that visiting Antarctica
• 2:13
  can heighten tourist awareness of environmental
• 2:15
  issues, former guides were struck by guests'
• 2:18
  ignorance of human impact. None of the guides
• 2:21
  quit overnight. Their decision emerged through
• 2:23
  years of reflection, uncertainty, and moral conflict.
• 2:26
  Quote, we are always in conflict in our minds
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  with two parts. The excitement to go to Antarctica,
• 2:31
  to work in remote places we like, and being complicit
• 2:34
  in tourism industry development. End quote. Quote,
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  I can't work in the farce of climate change cruise
• 2:40
  tourism anymore. It's just how can I go there?
• 2:43
  Tell people about climate change and not do anything
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  about it. End quote. The former tour guides show
• 2:49
  meaningful change is often painful and gradual
• 2:51
  process rather than a single dramatic moment.
• 2:54
  For many years of acting against their values
• 2:57
  affected their well -being. Quote, I think what
• 2:59
  it comes down to for me is, you know, if I think
• 3:02
  about being on my deathbed and trying to look
• 3:04
  my kids in the eyes and saying I tried. I don't
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  know if I could have done that if I kept doing
• 3:09
  what I was doing, end quote. The story of guides
• 3:11
  who left one of the world's most extraordinary
• 3:13
  tourism jobs powerfully illustrates how abandoning
• 3:16
  unsustainable lifestyles can come with real personal
• 3:19
  costs. Quote, to this day, Antarctica stays in
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  the forefront of my head as the most incredibly
• 3:24
  raw environment that deserves all the care and
• 3:27
  protection, and I just think tourism and us being
• 3:29
  there was doing the opposite of that completely.
• 3:32
  end quote. Many of the research participants
• 3:34
  still felt deeply connected to Antarctica, and
• 3:37
  they sometimes regret leaving. Mixed feelings
• 3:39
  and ambiguity are an inherent part of decisions
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  we take out of concern and care for others, including
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  remote environments. Quote, do I wish I was getting
• 3:47
  on a flight and heading to the flow edge to take
• 3:50
  people out on the ice? Yes, there's a big part
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  of me that wishes I was doing that right now,
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  and I also know that I would feel like shit after
• 3:57
  doing it." In the case of people we interviewed
• 4:00
  caring about Antarctica meant walking away from
• 4:03
  the Antarctic tourism. The interview suggested
• 4:06
  that distance doesn't necessarily weaken responsibility.
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  For these former tour guides, caring for Antarctica
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  ultimately meant leaving it, and many felt better
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  after they quit. Sometimes the best way to protect
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  a place you love is to leave it alone. Quote,
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  I was working very much against what I knew wasn't
• 4:23
  right, and I think that was coming out in my
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  body as well. And then, when I made that decision
• 4:28
  to walk away, I just felt so much better and
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  it was like I could breathe again. End quote.
• 4:32
  If you ever question whether your work aligns
• 4:34
  with your values, these former Antarctic tour
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  guides offer a thoughtful perspective on balancing
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  career well -being and environmental responsibility.
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  Their stories may also inspire a deeper appreciation
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  for protecting Antarctica by leaving it untouched.
• 4:46
  That's the end of the article. I have thoughts.
• 4:49
  about it, kind of. I mean, is this a case of
• 4:52
  ignorance is bliss and they just go, I can't
• 4:54
  watch this anymore? Ah, I feel better. It's still
• 4:58
  gonna happen and good for them with their morals
• 5:00
  leaving. Unfortunately, they're gonna be replaced.
• 5:04
  Yeah, by people who aren't as necessarily conscious
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  of the issue, too. Yeah, I mean, unfortunately,
• 5:11
  tourism, you know, we have the, we could do the
• 5:13
  best coverage of tourism. Tourists are almost
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  the worst. I mean, they're going to a place for
• 5:21
  a brief amount of time and are they caring about
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  the impact that they have on the environment
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  most likely no they want to go and they want
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  to see it and they want to check it off their
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  bucket list and they don't care what kind of
• 5:34
  impact that has because it's adding to the experience
• 5:37
  of their life unfortunately yeah i don't think
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  a lot of people are caring about the impact that
• 5:42
  they're having on a destination they're going
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  to i mean the cruise industry is one of the worst
• 5:48
  industries out there for the planet And they're
• 5:51
  just giant corporations that don't care. And
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  I love that these people quit. That's amazing
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  that they had strong enough morals to not be
• 6:00
  able to continue to do it. But guess what? There
• 6:02
  are people who don't and they'll go do it and
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  the cruise line will pay them to do it because
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  who's monitoring this? The tourism industry is
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  something you don't even have to make something.
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  You just are transporting people there and making
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  money off these people that, you know, you think
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  you're making a difference. Perhaps they're an
• 6:23
  ecological tour company, but in the end... Yeah.
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  Just like the person who quit. You're still watching
• 6:29
  the environment collapse around you because.
• 6:32
  Yeah. And it doesn't seem like the people who
• 6:33
  are actually witnessing it care at all. Yeah.
• 6:35
  And, you know, as a tourist, you want to see
• 6:38
  the penguins. But, you know, and yes, I mean,
• 6:41
  I would prefer to see a penguin there, but then
• 6:44
  in a zoo. But like, you know, you don't think
• 6:47
  of it this way necessarily that the penguins
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  just want to be left the fuck alone. Yeah. Like
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  they don't want to be surrounded by people. tourism's
• 6:56
  the worst and you just look at all these places
• 6:59
  in europe that are just inundated with tourists
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  and they get pissed off at the tourists they
• 7:04
  come and they leave garbage and they act like
• 7:07
  people like do you remember that article about
• 7:10
  the chinese government telling people like not
• 7:13
  to pee in sinks yeah Like that's tourism. Like
• 7:19
  you just get people that's not their home. They
• 7:21
  don't, they're not going to treat it like their
• 7:23
  home and they probably treat their home like
• 7:25
  shit too. Yeah. And it always makes me so sad
• 7:29
  that like, man, we kind of were able to get to
• 7:32
  Antarctica at a point in time where we weren't
• 7:35
  in this late. stage capitalist situation we are
• 7:38
  now where they actually said like okay let's
• 7:41
  just leave antarctica alone maybe we do a bit
• 7:43
  of science there but we leave it alone and that
• 7:47
  is just getting eroded every day yeah yeah it's
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  gonna be bad uh yeah yeah it's it's surprisingly
• 7:56
  enough trump hasn't tried to claim it yeah don't
• 7:58
  say that out loud i don't understand how he'll
• 8:02
  hear you yeah Anyhow, this makes me angry. Yeah,
• 8:07
  you guys got 48 hours. Make sure Trope doesn't
• 8:10
  find out about this place. Okay, bye. Bye.