A 20Th Century View Of The History Of Antarctica
In all parts of Antarctica, countries whose primary industry is whaling, claimed large portions of land.The countries of Great Britain, Chile, and Argentina have competing territorial claims on the Antarctic Peninsula.Claims to Antarctica have also been declared by New Zealand, Australia, France, and Norway.
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. With the world pre-occupied by WWII, Antarcitica found itself alone except for the whalers who came to hunt the great animals.Soon, however, events in space caused scientists to turn back to studying The Ice.
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 scientific brain power from sixty-seven countries established bases for their operations on the continent.Thanks to the high level of teamwork and cooperation among these visitors, negotiations soon began, which culminated in the Antarctic Treaty, an amazing international agreement still marveled at today.exciting travel to antarctica
All of the countries possessing a key interest in Antarctica signed the treaty in 1959, setting aside this continent to be used for peaceful purposes only.Nuclear experimentation was prohibited, as was the discarding of the radioactive waste generated.The only reason military activities were to be allowed on the continent was in the logistic support of science.All of the contention over territorial claims were simply put away on a shelf.
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.This cleaver act made smaller countries follow their lead and did not press their territorial claims either.antarctica trip
By the 1960s and 1970, other countries began to realize the extent of oil, gas and minerals that lie in and around Antarctica, and they also began to realize the value of those resources.National bases began to spring up on the peninsula and nearby islands, and peak population still occurs in the summer with around 5,000 people who tend to fill up the dozens of science stations built like urban sprawl on the peninsula and some of the islands.
In the 1960’s and 1970’s, the Soviet Union, Argentina, Poland, Italy, Chile, Britain, and the United States established headquarters on the Island of King George. Peru, Uruguay, China, South Korea, and Brazil followed in the 1980’s.Though they were there for ostensibly scientific purposes, their actions were not unlike the Nazi stake dropping in that they wanted to stake political claim.Everyone has managed to create “squatters rights” for each of their countries.
In the 80’s, however, science became the much more prevalent purpose of expeditions coming to Antarctica.Antarctica is in the process of becoming the jointly-owned property of the entire planet, similar to the political definitions of ocean ownership.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 brought about the 1987 international agreement to phase out any use of chemicals that were destroying the ozone layer by the year 2000.It also showed how important Antarctic science bases were. The bases are still used for measuring how carbon emissions are causing the “greenhouse” effect which began with the start of the Industrial Age.The 1980s saw anti-whaling movements at their peak, as well as the Green movement, which helped convince countries to leave Antarctica alone biologically.
In 1991, that dream became a reality when the nations who created the Antarctic Treaty voted to ban all exploration of natural resources for a period for 50 years so that the natural environment could grow and thrive and scientific research could flourish.This same country that once helped to move the Industrial Revolution through whaling is now helping man learn how to better take care of the planet and its resources.
