Elizabeth Leane – The Conversation

Oleksandr Matsibura/Shutterstock

July 3, 2025

Antarctic research is in decline, and the timing couldn’t be worse

Elizabeth Leane, University of Tasmania and Keith Larson, Umeå University

In a world impacted by climate change, Antarctica holds the key to everyone’s future.

VCG via Getty Images

July 7, 2025

More and more tourists are flocking to Antarctica. Let’s stop it from being loved to death

Darla Hatton MacDonald, University of Tasmania and Elizabeth Leane, University of Tasmania

Visitor numbers to Antarctica could reach 450,000 a year within a decade, according to one scenario. How do we stem the tide?

Christopher Wood/Shutterstock

January 14, 2024

Antarctica is the only continent without a permanent human population, but it has inspired a wealth of imaginative literature

Elizabeth Leane, University of Tasmania

Five recent novels about the Antarctic make for cool reading on a hot summer day.

January 4, 2023

More than 100,000 tourists will head to Antarctica this summer. Should we worry about damage to the ice and its ecosystems?

Elizabeth Leane, University of Tasmania; Anne Hardy, University of Tasmania; Can Seng Ooi, University of Tasmania; Carolyn Philpott, University of Tasmania; Hanne E F Nielsen, University of Tasmania, and Katie Marx, University of Tasmania

More of us than ever want to see the ice continent. But is the environmental awakening many return with worth the emissions and possible environmental damage?

Image: Elizabeth Leane

November 30, 2020

Custodians of Antarctica: how 5 gateway cities are embracing the icy continent

Juan Francisco Salazar, Western Sydney University; Elizabeth Leane, University of Tasmania; Katie Marx, University of Tasmania; Liam Magee, Western Sydney University; Marina Khan, Western Sydney University, and Paul James, Western Sydney University

‘Antarctic cities’ residents care deeply about the continent, with environmental concerns outweighing economic priorities. Asked about its future, they feel a mix of hope, pessimism and sadness.

The Aurora lying at anchor in Commonwealth Bay, Antarctica in 1913. National Library of Australia

October 16, 2018

Remembering Sidney Jeffryes and the darker side of our tales of Antarctic heroism

Elizabeth Leane, University of Tasmania and Kimberley Norris, University of Tasmania

Sidney Jeffryes achieved a world first by establishing wireless contact between Antarctica and Australia. But his mental illness meant he gradually vanished from history - until now.

Celebrity cows: Southern Girl and Iceberg enjoy a ‘hay cocktail’ at the Commodore Hotel in New York. Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center, contact for re-use

August 13, 2017

Cows in Antarctica? How one expedition milked them for all their worth

Hanne E F Nielsen, University of Tasmania and Elizabeth Leane, University of Tasmania

What would possess an Antarctic expedition to take dairy cows to the icy continent? Back in 1933, Admiral Byrd did so for reasons of image-making, publicity and territorial ambition.

Reuters

October 7, 2016

Five cities that could change the future of Antarctica

Juan Francisco Salazar, Western Sydney University; Elizabeth Leane, University of Tasmania; Liam Magee, Western Sydney University, and Paul James, Western Sydney University

Antarctica hangs in the balance. Five cities have the chance of securing the future of this fragile continent.

Australia (whose flag is pictured on the right) is one of several countries with a big stake in the South Pole. Josh Landis/US NSF/Wikimedia

July 6, 2016

Why Australians should care about the South Pole

Elizabeth Leane, University of Tasmania

It’s one of the remotest places on Earth and yet is still claimed by six nations – including Australia.

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