Antarctica
Antarctica is the southernmost continent, located almost entirely within the Antarctic Circle. It is the fifth-largest continent and is covered by ice that averages 1.9 kilometers in thickness. Antarctica is known for its extreme cold, unique wildlife such as penguins and seals, and its importance in scientific research related to climate change and environmental studies.
6 Key excerpts on "Antarctica"
eBook - ePubTourism in the Antarctic
Opportunities, Constraints, and Future Prospects
- Thomas Bauer(Author)
- 2013(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...Sometimes visible, always detectable by a sudden change in temperature and salinity, it is the most generally accepted boundary defining the Antarctic region.” The last of the defining boundaries, the one used for the purposes of this book, is 60 degrees southern latitude. The region within this boundary is covered by a unique international instrument, the Antarctic Treaty. The treaty and its associated instruments will be discussed in greater detail in the latter part of this chapter. The reason this definition is the most appropriate one is that it is the unique political situation that makes the management of tourism activities different from any other tourist destination. THE NATURAL ENVIRONMENT: GEOGRAPHY, WILDLIFE, AND FLORA Geography Unlike the region surrounding the geographic North Pole, which consists of frozen sea ice, Antarctica is a continent. In its publication Looking South, the Australian Antarctic Division (1995:2) provides a concise summary of the physical characteristics of Antarctica: For millions of years snow and ice have built up on the land, so that now all but two percent of the land is buried under a permanent ice sheet. The ice sheet holds 90 percent of the world’s ice–30 million cubic kilometers–which is 60 to 70 percent of its fresh water. The thickness of the ice sheet averages 2.4 km (4.7 km at its thickest point). If all the ice were to melt, the level of the world’s oceans would rise by 65 to 70 meters, and if the weight of the ice were removed it is estimated that the underlying rock would rise by 700 m to 1000 m. Without the ice we would see a single mass of East Antarctica and a smaller archipelago of rugged mountain islands–West Antarctica. The issue of the possible melting of the polar ice caps by way of an increase in the earth’s temperature (often referred to as global warming) has been discussed by numerous writers (see, for example, The Antarctica Project 1997:3) and is discussed frequently in the popular press...
eBook - ePubThe Global Commons
An Introduction
- Susan J. Buck(Author)
- 2017(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...Chapter 3 Antarctica Great God! This is an awful place! —Robert F.Scott (1912) The “highest, driest, windiest, and coldest continent,” 1 Antarctica is so inhospitable that it has no native terrestrial mammals. The region was first explored and exploited in the late eighteenth century, but the development of a regime did not begin until late in the nineteenth century. Bound by fairly clear geographical limits and governed by a treaty system that originated with scientific exploration, Antarctica presents the most coherent regime of all the global commons. There have been few practical demands on the continent itself; until recently, its principal value has been as a location for scientific research. In 1959, Antarctica was designated an international scientific reserve in the Antarctic Treaty by the twelve nations conducting scientific research on the continent (Argentina, Australia, Belgium,Chile, France, Great Britain, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, South Africa, the Soviet Union, and the United States). Recent discoveries that suggest the presence of substantial oil, gas, and mineral supplies on the Antarctic outer continental shelf have strained relations among the signatories, and a 1989 oil spill alerted environmentalists to the dangers of ecotourism. These new developments may bring substantial change to the existing treaty system. This chapter begins with the history of the Antarctica region. Factors that discouraged the formation of a management regime before 1959 include conflicts over sovereignty, international tensions, internal bureaucratic conflicts, and a lack of American leadership. The next sections cover the origins of the International Geophysical Year (IGY) and its effect on the formation of the management regime. The formation of the Special Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) and the subsequent Antarctic Treaty are discussed next...
eBook - ePubThinking Theory Thoroughly
Coherent Approaches To An Incoherent World
- James Rosenau(Author)
- 2018(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...8 The Politics of the Antarctic The continent of Antarctica (see Figure 8.1) belongs to no nation, although a number of states have made claims on sections of it. This unusual state of affairs was created by the 1959 Antarctic Treaty, which came into full force in 1961 and is often referred to as the Antarctic Treaty System (ATS). Australia, Argentina, Belgium, Japan, Norway, South Africa, France, Chile, Great Britain, the Soviet Union, New Zealand, and the United States negotiated the original treaty, and since then forty-one nations have signed it, thereby showing approval of the treaty's aims and committing themselves to its execution. For the first thirty years of the agreement, the treaty could only be revised through unanimous agreement of the voting members. After thirty years, any voting member could call a conference to review the treaty. The treaty has five unusual features: It was the first arms control agreement of the Cold War—it stipulated that neither military forces nor nuclear weapons could be placed in the Antarctic (although armed services personnel and equipment could be used to move scientists there). The agreement set aside territorial claims for the duration of the treaty; claims over territorial waters were left unaffected. Thus, it did not solve the territorial question, it just put it on hold. It set aside the continent as a preserve for science. It permitted researchers to visit any area at any time. It established procedures for coordinating research and solving any new problems that might arise. FIGURE 8.1 Map of Antarctica Source: David B. Newsom, ed., The Diplomatic Record, 1989-1990 (Boulder: West-view Press, 1991), p. 157. States that have signed the treaty do not automatically get to make decisions about the management of the Antarctic. Voting on Antarctic issues is confined to the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Parties (ATCPs)...
- Érico Duarte, Manuel Correia de Barros, Érico Duarte, Manuel Correia de Barros(Authors)
- 2018(Publication Date)
- Palgrave Macmillan(Publisher)
...Countries that have claimed territory and still maintain this position, as is the case of the three analysed in this article, should try to exercise that sovereignty fully, which could lead to a conflict, as already happened in 1982, with the dispute over the Falklands/Malvinas Islands—between Argentina and the UK, two countries which, by the way, have almost identical claims on the Antarctic continent. Brazil does not seem to need to exploit mineral resources in Antarctica, at least for a predictable time horizon—considering the prohibition included by the amendment to the Treaty in 1991. For Brazil, the importance of Antarctica would be more related to other factors, such as the environment conditions, research and the security of the South Atlantic. The meteorological influence of the Antarctic continent in the Brazilian climate seems to be a consensus on the part of the scientific community. A significant change in the environment of that continent due to a possible change in the current rules that prohibit mineral exploration can bring great negative impacts to the climate of Brazil, the sixth country geographically closer to Antarctica. The world population, currently at 7.3 billion, continues to grow, with an expected population of 11.2 billion in 2100. With the inclusion of Antarctica in PND 2012 and the theme’s deepening in the 2017 document as to increment Brazilian participation on the Antarctic scene decision-making process, Antarctic is definitely part of the Brazilian strategic environment plan. The government, with its the military apparatus, should plan the next steps of the Antarctic programme, taking a more strategic view, considering the status that the country aims for in the international scenario and the positioning of other interested actors in that continent. The country must discuss the Antarctic issue in more depth, not only from the point of view of scientific research but also from the point of view of defence and security...
eBook - ePubAntarctic Security in the Twenty-First Century
Legal and Policy Perspectives
- Alan D. Hemmings, Donald R. Rothwell, Karen N. Scott, Alan D. Hemmings, Donald R. Rothwell, Karen N. Scott(Authors)
- 2012(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...Some of these designations will animate particular political possibilities while marginalising and rejecting alternatives. One example to illustrate this starting position would be Antarctica itself. How have our political and scientific understandings of Antarctica been shaped by the modern geographical imagination? In little more than a 100 years, the Antarctic shifted from a barely known space to a continent mapped, photographed and surveyed by scientists and military personnel from their ships, aeroplanes and satellites. The geographical construction of Antarctica was an essential element in the shaping of its governance. Its place-based attributes (e.g. as a potential resource frontier) continue to matter, as we consider how the continent has been imagined, often concurrently, as a space for science, resource intrigue, international co-operation, demilitarisation, national advantage, global common and the like. One implication that follows, following on from Chapter 2, is that the manner in which we conceptualise Antarctica (and not just security itself) is also diverse, and context-dependent. The invocation of geographical representations and tropes is an essential element in security claims. The objects of security such as places and people remind us that the geographical is never divorced from the political...
eBook - ePub- J. R. V. Prescott(Author)
- 2014(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...The islands of Norway, South Africa, and France do not share a common continental margin with Antarctica, and claims to an economic zone 200 nautical miles from these islands would not extend south of parallel 60° south. It is only necessary, therefore, to consider the South Sandwich and South Georgia Islands of Britain and the Heard and McDonald Islands of Australia. Southern Thule in the South Sandwich Group lies only 40 nautical miles north of parallel 60° south, so any claim to a full exclusive economic zone from this island will extend into the area covered by the present Antarctic Treaty. Both the South Sandwich Islands and the South Georgia Islands lie on a sinuous portion of the continental margin linking South America and the Antarctic Peninsula. This means that it would be necessary to fix a seabed boundary somewhere along this Scotia Ridge. The Heard and McDonald Islands lie on the Kerguelen-Gaussberg Plateau. This aseismic ridge, which is distinguished from the surrounding seabed by morphological and geophysical characteristics, extends for about 700 nautical miles south–south-east to parallel 64° south. The apparent limit of Australia’s claim to this continental margin, according to the 1982 Convention, lies in parallel 64°48′ south – very much closer to Antarctica than to Heard Island. Conclusions Antarctica is the only continent which contains unclaimed territory; that is, the sector of Ellsworth and Byrd Lands between 90° and 150° west. So long as the Antarctic Treaty continues in its present form, that sector will remain unclaimed and the international boundaries proclaimed by Chile, Argentina, Britain, Norway, Australia, France, and New Zealand will be of no relevance to activities carried out by scientists and administrators on the continent. In applying the provision of the Antarctic Treaty that relates to the conservation of living resources, the members of the treaty have already created areas defined by specific boundaries...
