Antarctica And the Industrial Revolution

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Nations around the world started claiming large chunks of Antarctica for whaling purposes. On the Peninsula itself the countries of Argentina, Great Britain, and Chile have intersecting claims. France, New Zealand, Norway, and are also know to have made claims on this continent.

Even Nazi Germany wanted to have a piece of the Antarctica pie when they planted stakes with 3rd Reich swastikas on them all over the frozen land. 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. Soon, however, events in space caused scientists to turn back to studying The Ice.

Between 1957 and 1958, sunspot activity hit a peak that drove both scientists and governments around the globe to descend upond Antarctica where they could use its unique view of the southern hole in the Earth's magnetic field to study the earth as it was bombarded by solar radiation from sunspot activity. Scientists representing 67 different countries arrived to encircle the continent and establish their bases. Because all the countries got along so well, a new treaty called the Antarctic Treaty, was formed and marks an amazing feat in international law and agreements.

The treaty was fully enforced in 1959 and it was agreed by all signing countries that Antarctica would not be used for any wartime efforts. Nuclear experimentation was prohibited, as was the discarding of the radioactive waste generated. All military activity was limited to that of scientific support. Any claims from differing countries were set aside in the nature of cooperation.

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 clever maneuver also stopped all of the smaller countries from asserting any claims to territory as well.

All this changed in the 1960's and 1970's as the presence of oil, gas, and minerals believed to be on the continent, brought governments and industry searching for these resources. The number of national bases multiplied to great numbers and the population increased to its highest point of 5,000 people during the summer. Most of the bases were on the peninsula and area islands. The people lived mainly in the urban areas around the dozens of science stations located here.

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. The essentially served their countries by creating "squatters rights" in Antarctica.

But science has already begun to take hold in the 1980's, and exploitation of the environment was out, and science was in. Antarctica is following in the footsteps of the world's oceans, as they have begun to be known as community property. At this time, a hole in the Earth's atmosphere was discovered. British scientists at the Halley Bay Antarctic base found that due to the industrial advances most super powers had made caused a hole in the Earth's atmosphere which allowed harmful UV rays in.

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. 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. Anti-whaling sentiment reached a climax during the 1980's, and global movements for a Green planet supported preserving the continent of Antarctica as 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. Today's Antarctica is no longer used as a method to support industry, but instead, is showing the world how industry's actions have impacted the planet and its atmosphere. It is also showing the world ways in which future calamities can be avoided.

Article Source: http://depositarticles.com/

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