« Singles Vacation | Home | How to get rid of cruise misconceptions as you travel ? »
A Brief Summary of Antarctica in the 20th Century
By CruiseDirector | January 29, 2010
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. Those countries include England, Chile and Argentina. They each have land portions which overlap one another on the Peninsula. Other countries that have claims to this area include France, New Zealand, Norway and Australia.
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. Antarctica was essentially forgotten during the time when World War II was raging, and even as the Cold War was established. The only interest came from the whaling nations. Soon, however, events in space caused scientists to turn back to studying The Ice. You will find that further information on antarctica travel adventures is on that site.
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. Based on the success of their cooperative efforts, negotiations took place to create the Antarctic Treaty – which became one of the most extraordinary international agreements the world has seen.
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. Nuclear testing/explosions were banned as well as any radioactive waste being dumped there. 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. Visit this site for further information on antarctic travel.
Although the Cold War wasn’t widely known as a time of cooperation, the superpowers dropped all claims, and ignored those of their ally nations, but made known their belief that their claim would still be valid at some future time. This cleaver act made smaller countries follow their lead and did not press their territorial claims either.
It was in the 1960′s and 1970′s that governments and industry started to desiring the oil, gas, and minerals that were known to be in and around Antarctica. Countries established bases in and around the continent along with dozens of science stations in the area.
Countries opening bases on King George Island from the 1960s to the 1980s include Poland, Chile, Argentina, Britain, Italy, the United States, the Soviet Union, China, South Korea, Brazil, Uruguay and Peru. True, most of these bases were established to conduct scientific experiments, but it was also a sign of political prowess for a lot of countries. The essentially served their countries by creating “squatters rights” in Antarctica.
However, by the time the 1980′s rolled around, the use of Antarctica moved toward scientific research and retracted from using the continent for its resources. In a manner similar to declaring the oceans international territory, the Antarctic has become a shared continent. Discovered by Britain’s Halley Bay Antarctic base, the hole in the ozone layer is proof that the atmosphere does incur damage, in the form of cancer-causing ultraviolet radiation, from industrial activity.
In 1987, this discovery spurred an international decree that the end of the 20th century would see the end of chemical usage that damaged the ozone. 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. In the 1980′s, whaling was falling out of favor, and the global Green campaign championed the idea of declaring Antarctica a world park.
Exploitation of the continent for oil and gas exploration and mining, and any other irreversible exploitation, was banned by the Antarctic Treaty in 1991, and nations agreed to observe this treaty for a minimum of fifty years. Environmental concern was elevated to the same priority as scientific research on the continent. 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.
Topics: Caribbean Cruise | No Comments »