Protect Antarctica With Treaties
Comments (0) Antarctica teems with wild life like blue whales, emperor penguins and leopard seals from its towering mountain ranges to the seas; and is set aside as a wilderness preserve by international agreement. This pristine ecosystem has been protected from mining and oil drilling since 1998 and will stay protected for at least 50 years. The protection focuses on conservation rather than developing the continent. Very few things that would be a danger to the wildlife here are allowed. This means that everything from pesticides to dogs are banned.
The accord is called the Environmental Protection Protocol to the Antarctica Treaty. Fundamentally, it is a stipulation by the countries of the world to preserve one location without commercialism and industrial development. In 1991, the treaty was ratified by the 26 main countries that have scientific pursuits in Antarctica. These countries included, the U.S.A., Russia, India, China, Argentina, Japan, Brazil, and nearly all of Europe.
The regulations set forth by this treaty ended over 15 years of lobbying by environmental groups and put as stop to diplomatic talks. The rules banned oil drilling and mining. It requires that the nations who run Antarctica’s 35 scientific research outposts clean out their garbage dumps. Antarctic waters are also protected from scientific stations and tourist ships dumping raw sewage into them.
When the first person to reach the South Pole, Roald Amundsen, got there in 1911, he got around the continent with sled dogs. However, this recent treaty has placed a ban on dogs, based on their tendency to kill native birds and penguins. Antarctica can also never see non-sterile soil, pesticides and polystyrene packaging.
This harsh land is trapped beneath mile-thick ice and cannot support much botanical life aside from grasses and mosses that survive near the shore. Seventy per cent of the planet’s fresh water comprises Antarctica’s ice. You can find a rich ecosystem containing plenty of marine like and animals around Antarctica.
The Antarctic ecosystem can be easily damaged, more so than many other areas of the planet. Since the temperature is almost always below zero, it takes a long time for anything to grow. Many years will pass before any damage can be completely repaired. As an illustration, a footprint left behind in some moss could stay there for 10 or more years.
The first Antarctic Treaty was ratified in 1959, and made nuclear and military activities illegal in Antarctica. In addition, it decreed that Antarctica did not belong to any one country, and made stipulations for land use. While no country may possess Antarctica, literally every square inch of the land is claimed by some country or the other.
Once scientists learned in the early 1980’s that oil, coal, gold, copper, zinc, iron, manganese, uranium and more were present in and around Antarctica, environmental entities started to pressure their governments for regulation of land use. When oil became scarce in the 1970’s, a few organizations began talking about extracting oil from Antarctica. Drilling for oil in Antarctica will probably become a highly-debated topic if the cost of oil continues to go up.
Each of the 26 nations involved will enforce the rules on their own. If one country has a person that goes against the rules there will be pressure from the other nations for that nation to rectify the problem. Many are in agreement that the treaty constitutes an environmental success story.
For resources on affordable antarctica tours check out this site. Get more help on the topic of adventure antarctica tours.
Themocracy