26 June 2013 Lore and law: environmental factors in the Ross Sea region

Lincoln University researchers suspected something more than law was motivating people to protect the Antarctic environment and were keen to explore the degree to which values influence behaviour. They surveyed and interviewed field scientists on the ice and discovered an unwritten lore that had never before been explored in this unusual environment.

Antarctica is unarguably one of the most beautiful and pristine places in the world. It is also the coldest, the driest, the windiest and most inhospitable continent, a land that no-one initially cared for because of its hostile environment, lack of resources and isolation. But with burning inquisitiveness explorers and scientists started visiting the ice in the last century, and in 1959, the Antarctic Treaty was signed to prohibit all military, nuclear and mining activities, protect the ecozone, and support scientific research.

Today, Antarctica remains the least known of the earth’s land masses, and although ongoing experiments are conducted by more than 4,000 scientists from over the world, fewer than 200,000 people have ever been there.

Not only do scientists have to cope with the challenging physical features of the ice, their work in this region is also often largely unsupervised. Their perspectives and values regarding Antarctica are therefore critical to the maintenance of this relatively unspoiled environment.

To study the way people on the ice behave and which factors influence those decisions, Lincoln University researchers, led by Dr Gary Steel, surveyed and then interviewed field scientists and base support personnel during the Antarctic summer of 2011-2012. Using on-site interviews and quantitative social science techniques, their research examined the human values associated with performing environmentally related behaviours while in the field.

“Initial results suggest that scientists and support personnel collectively hold a very strong pro-environmental set of values based on self-transcendence and conservation. It is also clear that experience on the ice has a distinctly modifying effect on one’s sense of place,” says Dr Steel.

The outcomes are aimed at national programme managers and principle investigators who organise the teams that go to the ice.

“Carrots and sticks can be important motivators, but if something is intrinsically valuable to someone, then they are much more likely to see the action as a valuable motivator in itself. Yes, the Antarctic Treaty is a motivator, but we found in most cases that lore resonated more with Antarctic personnel than law.”

For more information, read the full article on page 50 of the University’s research profile publication Transform.