Arctic First Nations People Prepare For The Next Big Thing - Extinction Tourism - Guardian

In a few days, one of the world’s largest cruise ships, the Crystal Serenity, will visit the tiny Inuit village of Ulukhaktok in northern Canada. Hundreds of passengers will be ferried to the little community, more than doubling its population of around 400. The Serenity will then raise anchor and head through the Northwest Passage to visit several more Inuit settlements before sailing to Greenland and finally New York. It will be a massive undertaking, representing an almost tenfold increase in passenger numbers taken through the Arctic on a single vessel – and it has triggered considerable controversy among Arctic experts. Inuit leaders fear that visits by giant cruise ships could overwhelm fragile communities, while others warn that the Arctic ecosystem, already suffering the effects of global warming, could be seriously damaged.

“This is extinction tourism,” said international law expert Professor Michael Byers, of the University of British Columbia. “Making this trip has only become possible because carbon emissions have so warmed the atmosphere that Arctic sea ice in summer is disappearing. The terrible irony is that this ship – which even has a helicopter for sightseeing and a huge staff-to-passenger ratio – has an enormous carbon footprint that is only going to make things even worse in the Arctic.”

The Serenity is by far the biggest cruise vessel to traverse the fabled Northwest Passage, whose exploration has claimed the lives of hundreds of seamen. The ship has a crew of 655 and carries 1,070 passengers, who have paid between £19,000 and £120,000 for a voyage that Crystal Cruises says will take them on an “intrepid adventure” from Anchorage in Alaska to New York over 32 days.

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This point was backed by Okalik Eegeesiak, chair of the Inuit Circumpolar Council. “Far too many people will be descending suddenly into these communities and bringing far too much garbage with them,” she told the Observer. “These places lack the infrastructure and the training to deal with the incredible numbers of people that will start arriving on these boats.” Apart from Ulukhaktok, the Serenity is also scheduled to visit the Inuit communities of Pond Inlet, Cambridge Bay and Sisimiut. Eegeesiak added that the Inuit were already experiencing problems thanks to global warming. As sea ice disappears, this removes a highway on which locals can ride their snowmobiles and dog sleds to hunt and visit friends. Disappearing ice means increasing fragmentation of communities and limits the ability of people to hunt, a problem that is only likely to worsen as the region’s shrinking ice-cap opens it up to mining, oil drilling, tourism and more shipping.

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https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/aug/20/inuit-arctic-ecosystem-extinction-tourism-crystal-serenity