Is Antarctic Exploration Destined To Come To An End?

February 16, 2010 | Leave a Comment

One hundred years ago, the whaling ship “Antarctic” sailed to the wind-battered, volcanic coast of Antarctica. She sent her longboats on the treacherous journey across the Ross Sea to the rugged shore. The party with their Captain, Leonard Kristensen, leading them landed and left the very first set of human footprints on the shores of Antarctica. January 24,1895 was the date of their historic landing, and was only one part of their endeavor to hunt whales in unexplored waters.

The continent of Antarctica’s baptism was bloody. Millions of seals were killed for their coats, whales and penguins for their oil – which was used to grease the cogs of the industrial Revolution’s new age machinery. On Marquarie island alone, hundreds if not thousands of penguins were herded up into giant vats of boiling oil, until they became oil themselves.

The Frozen Continent was explored for a century, and utilized solely in the interest of earning a profit. Now, humankind is deciding to dedicate these territories to science and nature instead. There may even be a world park established on this great land. For science, Antarctica serves as a base for studying pollutant threats that affect the whole world, including ozone depletion and the greenhouse effect. Our perspectives on Antarctica have changed rapidly, when you consider our minimal, but violent, presence in the area. Small areas of the coastline, some trails to the South Pole and a few islands were explored up until 1958.

The presence of people in Antarctica has been a wild story; a story of ferocious tenacity, nationalist, idealism, and unrestrained butchery of nature, with the occasional scientific discovery peppered in for good measure. Whaling heightened during World War I, as the glycerin extracted from the oil of whales was valuable for the making of artillery shells. Whale oil continued to be a commodity after World War II, as the Soviet Union and the United States began to require more of the substance for use as a jet engine lubricant. Until the advent of the IGY, most of Antarctica was termed “Terra Incognita” – which is a medieval map making term for thed southern continent that was thought to exist.

It is important to note that even the first person to be born in Antarctica, who is still not an adult, was born here for the sake of patriotic affectation. It was at Argentina’s Esperanza Base that Emilio Marcus Palmer was born in 1978. His mother was flown in solely for the purpose of giving birth to him, so Argentina could lay claim to a large area of Antarctic territory.

This incident occurred only nine years after America ‘claimed’ the moon by planting a US flag when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed there. However, Roald Amundsen’s 1911 trip to the South Pole, honoring King Haakon VII of Norway, still stands as the most single-minded and successful exploit to date. The same sort of trip was done for the glory of Great Britain’s empire by Robert F. Scott and team, however they also gathered up fossils and rock samples and hauled them back on their sledges.

However, as a result of finding out Amundsen had won the race to the Pole by a full month, in accumulation with eating a poor diet, having to haul the heavy rock samples, and bad luck, Scott and his team became the first people to die on this continent in the name of science. America earned its claim to the South Pole when Richard Byrd flew over it in 1929 in a Ford Trimotor. The Soviets made a similar claim in 1821, as Russian Admiral Thaddeus Bellingshausen’s voyage brought him past the Antarctic Peninsula, which they determined was enough to give them rights to the continent.

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Is Antarctic Exploration Destined To Come To An End?

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