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Will Scientific Probes in Antarctica Discontinue?

By: Donna Richardson

It was one hundred years ago when the whaling ship called Antarctic lowered its anchor of the volcanic coast of this wind-battered landmass. Soon it sent a longboat to the landmass through the rough waters of the Ross Sea. The land was found as part of a journey to unclaimed waters for the purpose of killing whales. Captain Leonard Kristensen and his party were the first people to place their feet on this continent.

Antarctica proceeded to be baptized with blood. Millions of seals were slaughtered and their fur was collected. Penguins and whales were killed for their precious oils, which were used in the machinery used by the Industrial Revolution. It was on Macquarie Island that hundreds of thousands of scared penguins were rounded up, forced up boards leaning on pots of boiling oil, and forced to fall in to add their own oil to the mix.

It took 100 years, but mankind has thankfully become much wiser and finally set priorities in the right direction. Rather than exploiting the amazing Frozen Continent for money, Antarctica is now designated as a nature preserve and used only for scientific research. There's even talks of establishing a park where people from all over the world can visit. For science, Antarctica serves as a base for studying pollutant threats that affect the whole world, including ozone depletion and the greenhouse effect. Considering the short and experimental nature of mankind's occupancy in Antarctica, the reversal has been astoundingly quick. It was not until the 1957-1958 International Geophysical Year (also known as IGY) that more coastline, islands, and a handful of paths to the South Pole were even investigated.

Our introduction to Antarctica was murderous, idealistic, nationalistic, and ferocious - with the occasional effort towards scientific advancement between this barbarism. The whaling industry experienced a boom during World War I because of the oil needed to make glycerin for artillery shells. After the end of World War II, it became the Soviet Union and the United States that hunted the sperm whales for the extra-fine oil they produced, which was needed as lubricant for jet engines. Mapmakers of the Middle Ages labeled the abstract southern continent "Terra Australia Incognita", and it remained so until the International Geophysical Year.

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 occurred nine years after Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin set foot on the moon and placed America's flag on it as a symbol of America's dominance over other nations. In one of the most ambitious attempt to show dominance was when Roald Amundsen rushed to the South Pole in 1911 to honor Norway's King Haakon VII. The British Empire gained honor through the works of Robert F Scott and his group who undertook a similar journey, with the addition of rock and fossil sample collection which they carried with them in their homemade sleds.

Due to a combination of being demoralized by Armundsen getting to the South Pole a month ahead of them, an unhealthy diet, hauling the rocks out, and basic overall bad luck on the return trip, Scott's group became known as the first martyrs of Antarctic science. America's claim to the South Pole was entrenched when Richard Byrd flew a Ford Trimotor over the Pole in 1929. In 1821, the soviets utilized Russian Admiral Thaddeus Bellingshausen's voyage passed Antarctica in 1821 to justify their interests in the continent.


Article Source: http://www.e-learnet.org

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