Antarctica is the coldest and most desolate region of Earth. Antarctica is the only place that all nations agreed should be shared. However, as our natural resources start to run out, more nations are now looking at Antarctica as an additional source of natural resources. Read this site if you want cruises to antartica information.
The great potential of the region in terms of iron, coal and oil has moved the focus away from protection and conservation towards a focus based on exploitation. The international cooperation of scientific research in the region could well be replaced by the more nationalistic activity of natural resource acquirement, leading to confrontation.
The scientists at stations such as the main U.S. Antarctica bases have always praised the decades of tranquil atmosphere surrounding the research and the sharing among the different nations. The challenges of the environment are said to bring people closer together, along with their common interest for the science that they undertake.
There is a park dedicated to the work and vision of Admiral Richard Evelyn Byrd near the headquarters of the National Science Foundation which controls the activities of U.S Antarctica. Richard Byrd was the first to fly over Antarctica and led five successful expeditions. He saw the Antarctic as a prime example of a region where nations could live together in harmony and one of international cooperation in the area of scientific research. His ideas were noble, but how will they be affected by the world’s appetite for energy and minerals? When you would like to get more information on best antarctic cruise check out this site.
The full potential of the Antarctic as a region of mineral resource is not yet known, but there is growing interest over its potential. Before, Antarctica was just an issue for the scientists to deal with but now politicians have started to get involved. Perhaps, under the full depth of the ice that covers 98 percent of the area and under the deep, icy seas there is a large source of essential minerals and oil.
The Antarctic and the surrounding areas geologically resemble other oil, gas and mineral rich continents. The United States has already completed some small scale exploratory off shore drilling and confirmed the likely existence of hydrocarbons. Large deposits of coal and iron have been discovered on land, as well as concentrations of chromium, nickel, cobalt, copper, gold, titanium, lead, tin, uranium and other metallic minerals.
The extreme conditions of the region has meant the exploitation of the region has laid beyond the acceptable, until now that is. New technology now exists to make the process more easily achievable and with the ever increasing costs of natural resources governments are now seeing the task as more economical so the Antarctic scientists are becoming concerned.
Antarctica is now one of the very few areas on Earth that have managed to stay unpolluted and untouched and this makes the exploitation of minerals there even more of a concern for environment groups worldwide. The exploitation of the region will certainly conflict with the environment and the International Institute for Environment and Development and the Sierra group are both aware of the prospects of this happening.
They want to see studies carried out to assess the risks to the environment caused by the exploitation of the region at the same time as any exploration which is needed to confirm exactly the resources the region holds. But they worry that the facts of the exploration will speed up the decision to exploit the region. What worries them the most is the oil development because of the likelihood of a spill. Much of Antarctica’s wildlife is concentrated along the coasts and could be seriously affected. The region could sustain more damage from an oil spill than other regions because the speed at which oil breaks up and degrades is less in colder regions.
Antarctica became a scientific preserve following the landmark treaty in 1959 which controls a lot of the activities that go on in the region. There were 12 nations involved in signing the treaty, later joined by Poland, jointly administer the region and ensure that no military activity, including nuclear weapon testing takes place and that no radioactive waste is disposed there. The land claims in the Antarctic by different nations have been side-stepped by the treaty.
