(Beijing flights) The Story of Antacrtica

January 21st, 2010 admin Posted in travel |

By Stephen Ma

Throughout Antarctica, nations with economies that were dependent on whaling claimed ownership of large parts of the continent. On the Peninsula itself the countries of Argentina, Great Britain, and Chile have intersecting claims. Other countries that have claims to this area include France, New Zealand, Norway and Australia.

In 1940, Nazi Germany claimed their own piece of the pie by dropping swastika-etched stakes from planes across huge pieces of Antarctica, when nationalism was in full swing. When WWI started and was followed by the Cold War, Antarctica was left to rest except for the hunting voyages of whalers. However, science would soon be motivated by celestial events to return to Antarctica.

During 1957 to 1958, sunspot eruptions were beginning to peak, and scientists and their governments all over the world setting up stations in Antarctica to study the resulting solar emissions, taking advantage of the hole in the planet’s magnetic field at the South Pole. The continent was soon home to a 67 country coalition of science personnel. Because all the countries got along so well, a new treaty called the Antarctic Treaty, was formed and marks an amazing feat in international law and agreements.

This Treaty, signed in 1959 by the countries with primary interests in the continent, enacted a mandate that Antarctica’s only use would be for peaceful intentions. This treaty protects the land physically by banning nuclear testing or explosions, as well as any dumping of radioactive waste. The only reason military activities were to be allowed on the continent was in the logistic support of science. The issues surrounding territorial claims were put to rest.

A good example of this occurred during the Cold War when the superpowers of the world refused to establish any claims on the land and would not acknowledge any from their allies. However, they did state that they had the right to make claims in the future. In one fell swoop, no country could stake any more claims to the continent.

In the decades that followed, nations and business organizations started to desire the natural resources thought to be in Antarctica. There was a flurry of national bases erected, mainly on the peninsula and surrounding islands. Antarctica’s summer population of approximately 5,000, largely due to the fact that it’s only a three day cruise, dozens of science posts are home to most of these visitors.

By the end of the 1970s, bases from the US, Soviet Union, Britain, Italy and others propped up on King George Island, followed by more bases from China and South Korea in the 80’s, among others. Although there was scientific research going on at these bases, they were actually more of a political statement, as the swastika stakes of the Nazis in the 1940’s. Everyone has managed to create “squatters rights” for each of their countries.

But science has already begun to take hold in the 1980’s, and exploitation of the environment was out, and science was in. Antarctica is following in the footsteps of the world’s oceans, as they have begun to be known as community property. It was Britain’s Halley Bay Antarctic base that first discovered the hole in the Earth’s ozone layer. This proved that industrial activity was degrading the atmosphere, allowing cancer-causing ultraviolet radiation to reach the Earth’s surface.

This discovery brought about the 1987 international agreement to phase out any use of chemicals that were destroying the ozone layer by the year 2000. All of this information increased the value of having Antarctic science bases, along with discovering the “greenhouse” effects due to carbon emissions that have caused damage since the Industrial Age started. It was also in the 1980’s that the disgust for whaling reached its highest point. It was also during this time that the Green movement of the world supported using Antarctica as a world park.

The Antarctic Treaty nations came to an agreement by 1991 to stop all gas and oil exploration, along with mining and irreversible exploitation of the continent for 50 years or so, as well as bringing environmental concerns to scientific levels of importance. Antarctica is important today as it was during it’s hey-day because instead of being exploited and ruined in the name of wealth and greed, it’s teaching us how those very things that marked progress are creating a very unstable world. Hopefully, through the studies conducted we will be able to learn how to reverse some of those issues and challenges we will face in the future.

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