Travel Tips

Antarctica is famous for it’s vast and unforgiving ice, snow and wind. Nations around the world with interests in whaling controlled their own various sections of the continent.Land on the Peninsula has been claimed by Chili, Argentina, and Britain.Claims have also been made by Australia, Norway, New Zealand, and France.

The greatest example of nationalism came in 1940 when planes were sent by Nazi Germany to drop stakes with the swastika symbol carved on them over vast areas of Antarctica to allege ownership by the Third Reich.With the exception whaling, the world left Antarctica alone, so it could fight a second World War, and then a Cold War after that.However, science would soon be motivated by celestial events to return to Antarctica.

Sunspot movement became prevalent in the years 1957 and 1958, so nations all across the globe began getting ready for the International Geophysical Year. Antarctica became a focal point due to its one-of-a-kind visibility of a clear spot in the magnetic field of the Earth in which they could examine it while it was being assaulted by solar radiation.The continent was soon home to a 67 country coalition of science personnel.This was such a successful cooperative effort, that the Antarctic Treaty, among the most remarkable international pacts ever created, was negotiated.affordable travel to antarctica

This treaty was signed in 1959 by all the countries with major interests in Antarctica. It was an agreement that made this continent to be used solely for peaceful purposes.The treaty specifically spelled out not allowing any destructive forces to be detonated on the continent, including banning nuke testing and exploding, as well as not allowing countries to dump their toxic waste onto it’s barren landscape or waters.The same went for military presence on the continent. Any military forces on Antarctica are only allowed to support scientific research.The deliberation over land claims were put to rest for the time being.

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.The smaller countries became reluctant to pursue their claims in light of the maneuvering practiced by the more powerful countries.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.Countries established bases in and around the continent along with dozens of science stations in the area.

Bases were opened on King George Island throughout the 1960s and 70s by Chile, Great Britain, Poland, Italy, Argentina, the United States and Soviet Union, with Peru, Brazil, China, Uruguay, and South Korea joining them in the 1980s.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.Essentially, they claimed territories as their own.

However, by the 1980′s the political tide was starting to change from supporting exploitation. It began being more supportive of science.Antarctica is now becoming thought of as communal property and is thought not to belong to one major political power, but to all countries.The Halley Bay Antarctic headquarters, a British base, found the opening in the Earth’s ozone layer, indicating that man’s actions might chip away at the atmosphere so much so that ultraviolet rays can pass through and cause cancer.

Because of this, there was an international ban of ozone depleting toxins like Chloroflorocarbons or CFC’s in 1987. The agreement was that they would be completely gone by the mid 1990′s.This finding emphasized the importance of the Antarctic scientific headquarters. They have since been shown to be essential in keeping track of the “greenhouse” gasses that have been prevalent in the atmosphere for decades.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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