International Agreements Can Serve To Safeguard Antarctica
by: Fred Moore
Date: Sun, 2 May 2010 Time: 5:29 PM
The total continent of Antarctica, from its massive mountains to the seas replete with blue whales, emperor penguins and leopard seals, is, by means of international agreement, classified as a wilderness preserve. This agreement was enacted in 1998, and makes mining and drilling on one the of the globe's most frigid areas for natural resources illegal for a period of 50 years. Conserving the environment is a priority over developing it. The accord also bans a great number of potential dangers to its wildlife, such as dogs and pesticides.
The continent is protected through the Environmental Protection Protocol to the Antarctica Treaty. It binds the world nations in an agreement that leaves one location free of commercialism and industrial development. The treaty was approved in 1991 by 26 leading nations including the United States, Russia, China, India, Japan, Argentina, Brazil and most major European countries who had interests in the area.
By delineating regulation, the treaty served to end more than fifteen years of lobbying by environmentalists and diplomatic discussions. In addition to making the mining and drilling of natural resources illegal, all of the scientific stations in Antarctica must dispose of their trash properly. Moreover, cruise ships and scientific outposts cannot drain their sewers into the seas of Antarctica.
Explorers from the likes of Norwegian Roald Amundsen, who was the first man to reach the South Pole in 1911, had to rely on sled dogs for their transportation. The accord, however, prohibits any dogs on the continent, as penguins and other native fowl have been killed by pets belonging to researchers. Antarctica can also never see non-sterile soil, pesticides and polystyrene packaging.
There is land on Antarctica, but it's hidden under a mile of ice, and the amount of plant life found there is minimal. Almost three-quarters of the Earth's fresh water is in the Antarctic 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.
Signed in 1959, the original Antarctic Treaty banned nuclear testing and military activity in the area. It also kept any one nation from owning all of Antarctica and gave rules for research. Even though there is no nation that claims ownership of the continent, every inch is claimed by overlapping countries.
In the beginning of the 1980s, environmentalists began lobbying for conservation laws once scientists located offshore oil reserves and deposits of coal, copper, gold, iron, zinc, manganese, uranium and various other minerals. When oil became scarce in the 1970's, a few organizations began talking about extracting oil from Antarctica. With technology advancement and increases in the price of oil, interest in these deposits will probably become more intense.
While it is law in all twenty-six countries, each nation would enforce the regulations individually. But if someone belonging to a particular nation goes against the treaty, and the government does nothing, the other 25 countries will exert pressure to remedy the issue. There are many people who see this accord as an environmental success story.
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