100 Years Of Antarctic History
Whaling nations laid claim to massive territories across the continent of Antarctica.Land on the Peninsula has been claimed by Chili, Argentina, and Britain.France, New Zealand, Norway, and Australia are also know to have made claims on this continent.
The highest point of nationalism hit this continent in 1940. It occurred when Nazi Germany dropped swastika-engraved stakes over large areas of Antarctica to claim it for the Third Reich.Antarctica sat largely unnoticed as the global war raged, followed by the Cold War, and only the whalers, continuing their predatory ways, ventured to this icy continent.However, celestial events occurred that allowed science to come back to Antarctica for a long time.
In 1957, there was evidence of increased frequency of sunspots on our star, so the International Geophysical Year was begun then, allowing multinational efforts to look at the effects of solar radiation on the planet through Antarctica’s special place on the planet.Over 60 different countries took part and set up camps all around Antarctica.This movement, and the cooperation among the scientists in this community were a drving factor in the Antarctic Treaty, an amazing international agreement.cruise travel to antarctica
The primary countries with the most invested in Antarctica signed it in 1959, making interaction on the continent purely scientific.It set regulations preventing the continent from being used for nuclear testing, nuclear explosions, and dumping of radioactive waste.The only military actions allowed had to be related to science.There would be no further talk of territorial claim staking.
This period marked an odd time in the Cold War where the superpowers both put aside their differences for the moment, staking no claims on Antarctica or recognizing any others as well.In one fell swoop, no country could stake any more claims to the continent.trips to antarctica
The minerals, gas, and oil that was thought to lie in and off the shores of Antarctica became attractive during the 1960′s and ’70′s.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.
King George Island became home to bases for Poland, Argentina, Chile, Italy, Britain, the United States, and the Soviet Union in the 1960′s and 1970′s, and in the 1980′s South Korea, Brazil, China, Uruguay, and Peru followed suit.Even though these bases are carrying out legitimate scientific work, just like the swastika stakes the Nazis were dropping via planes, they also serve as individual political markers.In this, the countries basically became “squatters” on land that did not truly belong to them.
But science has already begun to take hold in the 1980′s, and exploitation of the environment was out, and science was in.The oceans have long been recognized as belonging to the world rather than any one country, and Antarctica is becoming the same way.The Halley Bay base in Antarctica, a British-run facility, showed us the first glimpses of the ozone layer depletion we were doing to the earth, increasing UV exposure exponentially.
This discovery paved the way for an international accord that was signed in 1987. This agreement aimed to gradually eliminate those chemicals that have been found to degrade the ozone layer. This was to be done 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.The 1980s saw anti-whaling movements at their peak, as well as the Green movement, which helped convince countries to leave Antarctica alone biologically.
By 1991 Antarctica received protection from ravaging of it’s natural resources with the Antarctic Treaty where participating nations agreed to ban exploration for oil and gas, mining and any other irreversible exploitation for at least 50 years.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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