February 15th, 2010
Returning from the South Pole in 1912, Captain Robert Falcon Scott suffered a horrible death.Suffering from hypothermia and starvation, Captain Scott and the individuals accompanying him, met their death.It has been said that Scott faced his impending doom with great courage, unfortunately it came after losing his race to the South pole and his stature as a hero.
It has taken us decades, if not centuries, to gain what knowledge we have of the harsh environmental challenges that Antarctica can dish out to her visitors.In Antarctica’s winter, temperatures can fall to 90 degrees Celcius below zero, with average wind speeds of 67 kilometers per hour.Scott would have faced conditions such as these, with unfortunately an insufficient knowledge about the continent’s real dangers.antarctic cruises
As a scientist working in the Polar Regions, Scott frequently wrote to his wife about the feelings of isolation.Even with all our modern communication skills, scientists today still feel that same sense of isolation.Scott was survived by his wife, and a young son.
His body was discovered months after he expired. The letters written to his wife were among his things.The camp with his equipment was eleven miles away.The wife-made-widow of Captain Scott was waiting in New Zealand from him when she was made aware of his passing.
The letters that Scott left behind gave historians a great deal of information about his expedition. Towards the beginning of his journey, he wrote about being in excellent physical health, and spoke of how he found enjoyment in having a good meal.His letters mentioned the cold, and his complaints about it, but he claimed the hot meals the team enjoyed kept the freezing temperatures away.antarctica trip
As the letters progressed with time, Scott wasn’t as positive about his trek. He begins to describe how the cold has become more bitter and unrelenting.He and his men were only able to consume one hot meal with two days of cold food in order to move another 11 miles.
Scott was one of the brave men of the early age of exploration but it seemed as if his expedition was cursed.He lost the race to be the first person to reach the South Pole to the Norwegian Roald Amundsen.Scott made his appearance on January 18, 1912, while Amundsen had already been there on December 21, 1911.
Prior to undertaking his final expedition, Scott was considered a national hero for his invasion of Antarctica between 1902 and 1904.Nearing the end of the 1912 expedition, along with Lt. Henry Bowers and Dr. Edward Wilson, he fought for survival until the very end.Petty Officer Edgar Evans and Captain Lawrence Oat unfortunately would be overtaken by the elements and die.
With just twenty miles until the next depot, the expedition stowed their provisions.The small group was down to the last of their food and fuel.In one of his later letters, Scott gave his wife permission to remarry in the event of his death as he then described the brutal seventy degrees below zero temps while only having a tent around him.
His last missive shows no regret for the decision to take the trip which took his life.He described the journey, saying he preferred it over relaxing at home in comfort.The young people of Britain have been greatly encouraged by the strength and perseverance that Scott displayed.
Captain Scott’s expedition finished second to Roald Amundsmen in the race to the South Pole, arriving several weeks after Amundsmen.Scott died on March 29, 1912.In 1913, Scott’s journal was published under the title “Scott’s Last Expedition.”
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February 15th, 2010
In all parts of Antarctica, countries whose primary industry is whaling, claimed large portions of land.On the Peninsula, three nations claims overlie each other. Making the Peninsula shared by Britain, Argentina, and Chile.Claims to Antarctica have also been declared by New Zealand, Australia, France, and Norway.
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.With the world pre-occupied by WWII, Antarcitica found itself alone except for the whalers who came to hunt the great animals.However, science would soon be motivated by celestial events to return to Antarctica.
Sunspot movement became prevalent in the years 1957 and 1958, so nations all across the globe began getting ready for the International Geophysical Year. Antarctica became a focal point due to its one-of-a-kind visibility of a clear spot in the magnetic field of the Earth in which they could examine it while it was being assaulted by solar radiation.The continent was soon home to a 67 country coalition of science personnel.The scientists worked so well together, that they were able to pave the way for the Antarctic Treaty, which turned out to be an amazing accord.antarctica travel experience
This treaty sets preserves and saves Antarctica for the sole purpose of peaceful research, and was signed in 1959 by countries that had key, vested interests in the continent.Nuclear experimentation was prohibited, as was the discarding of the radioactive waste generated.The only permissible activity of the military here, was to help in the coordination of scientific exploration.Any territorial claims that caused conflicts between countries were just ‘put on a shelf’ and labeled as an issue.
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 agreement made it difficult for less powerful nations to assert their claims.antarctica vacation
By the time the 1960s and 70s rolled around, various industries and governments began expressing a desire for the possible gas, oil, and minerals that could be contained in or around Antarctica.National bases began to spring up on the peninsula and nearby islands, and peak population still occurs in the summer with around 5,000 people who tend to fill up the dozens of science stations built like urban sprawl on the peninsula and some of the islands.
It was during the 1960’s and 1970’s that Poland, Chile, Argentina, Britain, Italy, the United States, and the Soviet Union began setting up bases on King George Island. It was not until the1980’s that china, South Korea, Brazil, Uruguay, and Peru officially started their bases.Although these sites were involved in genuine scientific research, they also served as political symbols like the stakes the Nazis had dropped in the 40’s.In other words the bases also allowed each country to create “squatters rights.”
However, by the time the 1980’s rolled around, the use of Antarctica moved toward scientific research and retracted from using the continent for its resources.So now the Antarctic joins with the oceans in being defined as communal property belonging to the entire world.The Halley Antarctic base that was established by Great Britain was responsible for discovering the ozone layer, and they demonstrated how its degradation is promoted by the earth’s industrial activity, allowing damaging UV radiation to pass through.
This discovery began the discussions for an international agreement in 1987 that would ban the use of ozone-depleting chemicals from being used by the end of the 1990’sThis put Antarctica back on the map because the scientific research conducted at this location on Earth gave people a better view of how industry was changing Earth structurally and physically.The Green movement was largely responsible for rejection of whaling in the 1980’s and protection of the continent.
The same countries that signed the Antarctic Treaty, decided to disallow the removal of natural resources such as gas and oil from Antarctica for the next 50 years, and possibly longer. They also decided to make environmental issues equal to scientific issues.Antarctica is important today as it was during it’s hey-day because instead of being exploited and ruined in the name of wealth and greed, it’s teaching us how those very things that marked progress are creating a very unstable world. Hopefully, through the studies conducted we will be able to learn how to reverse some of those issues and challenges we will face in the future.
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