Hanne Elliot Fønss Nielsen

With Antarctica facing many urgent environmental challenges, it is becoming increasingly important to ensure that members of the public are supported to understand, care about and protect the southern polar region. Research to date has taken a variety of approaches to Antarctic public engagement, framing it as a challenge for science communication, the media, education and/or the arts. In this paper, we take a social approach by examining public engagement with Antarctica’s communities, applying theories of place attachment, social capital and structuration. Using the Antarctic gateway city of Hobart as a case example, we ask what Antarctic communities are present in the city, how they are perceived by residents and what factors influence local public engagement with Antarctica. Through in-depth interviews, we identify three separate but overlapping Antarctic communities present in Hobart: the expeditioner community, the gateway community and the diplomatic community. We find that four key factors influence participation in these communities: not only communication, but also built environment and infrastructure, availability of shared activities and the existence of an ‘experience hierarchy’ that prioritizes the perspectives of people who have travelled to Antarctica in person. These results suggest that if we want to move society towards engaging to protect Antarctica, the current engagement focus on science communication may not be sufficient; rather, we should prioritize community-building strategies to strengthen ties between Antarctic communities and the broader public.

Understanding the diverse pathways between science and policy is crucial for assessing the impact of research. In this context, ‘research impact’ refers to the broader societal benefits of scientific research that extend beyond traditional research evaluation metrics. Metrics of academic and scientific excellence, such as h-indexes or bibliometric analyses, often fail to capture the impact of science on policy. To investigate one aspect of how research can influence policy, and therefore probably have impact, this study analysed ice core publications from the Australian Antarctic Program. A dataset of 266 Australian-authored and/or -funded East Antarctic ice core publications was examined, revealing that 123 were cited in 284 international and Australian (domestic) policy and policy-related documents. To analyse the policy influence of the research, key information was categorized into authoring countries, institutions, research themes and the contextual use of publications by the documents. This categorization highlighted the different uses of information and interpretations of ice core publications by separate forums, with some more active compared to passive uses. The ‘Active-Passive’ spectrum developed in this study provides a framework for understanding how research is being used, and it underscores the relevance of ice core science to local Australian governance. The results show that domestic uptake of ice core publications by some Australian states demonstrated more ‘Active’ inclusions in policy to support an area of national interest: water security. The mixed methods piloted in this study can be used to assess scientific publications from national Antarctic programmes with more nuance, thereby offering an improved avenue for measuring research impact.

Human activity in the Antarctic is supported by a wide network of government agencies, policies, businesses and workers back home. This polar workforce is particularly important in the so-called ‘Antarctic gateway cities’, which foreground their economic and cultural connections with the far south. Rather than focusing just on the Antarctic continent as the place of work, this paper therefore takes a broader approach by turning attention to the people back home that enable Antarctic logistics, modelling, policymaking and public awareness to be executed successfully. The paper outlines a matrix for mapping polar work capacity, with Antarctic roles classified as direct or indirect and as in situ or ex situ . By bringing together stakeholders from a range of Antarctic workplaces (including local and national government, academia, tourism and local business owners and training providers) from Christchurch (New Zealand) in October 2024, a workshop event identified the key challenges facing the Antarctic sector over the coming 5 years and highlighted areas where international collaboration could help to address these challenges into the future. Key suggestions include the implementation of an overarching Antarctic strategy; training and education to improve local talent and pathways; enhanced visibility of existing skillsets; establishing exchange opportunities across the Antarctic gateway cities; and developing Antarctic identities, including through tourism opportunities.

The Anthropocene presents unique challenges for humanity’s relationship with remote environments. Transboundary environmental problems, such as climate change or plastics pollution, affect places that are beyond most people’s direct experience. Mobilising public support on these issues requires people to care about their impact on places they may never visit. While place attachment theory can help us to understand someone’s concern for a particular place, research usually focuses on the perspectives of people who have direct physical experience of that place. Broadening place scholarship to include attachment formed without immediate experience gives insight into the bonds between people and remote environments. To investigate this idea of “remote” attachment, we focus on a remote and endangered place, Antarctica, in relation to the southerly port city of Hobart, Australia. We conducted in‐depth interviews (n = 37) with residents—15 of whom had visited Antarctica—to explore and compare their Antarctic place attachment. We found evidence of remote attachment constrained by several factors including local social dynamics that positioned non‐visitors as Antarctic outsiders. We conclude that future engagement strategies should aim to bridge the social divide between community members who have and have not visited such places. Our findings inform place attachment scholarship in a range of settings, including remote national parks, the deep sea, and outer space.

Antarctica is often cast as a last wilderness, untouched by humans and set aside for peace and science. Yet it also has a nuclear past that foreshadowed a shift in human interactions with the continent, away from development and towards protection. This paper examines the discourse around the installation and the dismantlement of PM-3A, the first and only large-scale nuclear reactor to have been used on the Antarctic continent. Affectionately known as “Nukey Poo,” the reactor was greeted with optimism by the USA and was seen as a catalyst for a more comfortable and technologically advanced future for the humans at McMurdo Station. This techno-optimism spurred visions of a resource-rich Antarctic future. When it became apparent a decade on that the reactor was too costly and had been leaking, the narration shifted to centre on environmental protection, resulting in the removal of a mountainside of gravel in the name of ecological restoration. The reactor is gone, but not forgotten – the site is designated as a Historic Site and Monument under the Antarctic Treaty System. Spanning from the Cold War to the Madrid Protocol era, the story of Nukey Poo provides a useful lens through which to track the evolution of attitudes towards Antarctica and to reflect on imagined Antarctic futures.