The Future Of Antarctica

As global great power competition intensifies, there is growing concern about the geopolitical future of Antarctica. This book delves into the question of how can we anticipate, prepare for, and potentially even shape that future? Now in its 60th year, the Antarctic Treaty System has been comparatively resilient and successful in governing the Antarctic region. This book assesses how our ability to make accurate predictions about the future of the Antarctic Treaty System reduces rapidly in the face of political and biophysical complexity, uncertainty, and the passage of time. This poses a critical risk for organisations making long-range decisions about their policy, strategy, and investments in the frozen south. Scenarios are useful planning tools for considering futures beyond the limits of standard prediction. This book explores how a multi-disciplinary focus of classical geopolitics might be applied systematically to create scenarios on Antarctic futures that are plausible, rigorous, and robust. This book illustrates a pragmatic, nine-step scenario development process, using the topical issue of military activities in Antarctica. Along the way, the authors make suggestions to augment current theory and practice of geopolitical scenario planning. In doing so, this book seeks to rediscover the importance of a classical (primarily state-centric) lens on Antarctic geopolitics, which in recent decades has been overshadowed by more critical perspectives. This book is written for anyone with an interest in the rigorous assessment of geopolitical futures - in Antarctica and beyond.

Proceedings of a conference whose multidisciplinary approach provide an overview of the debate about appropriate future environmental protection of Antarctica, particularly in relation to possible exploitation of its little known mineral resources.

A dramatic chronicle of Antarctica's penguins that bears witness to climate changes that foreshadow our own future The towering mountains and iceberg-filled seas of the western Antarctic Peninsula have for three decades formed the backdrop of scientist Bill Fraser's study of Adélie penguins. In that time, this breathtaking region has warmed faster than any place on earth, with profound consequences for the Adélies, the classic tuxedoed penguin that is dependent on sea ice to survive. During the Antarctic spring and summer of 2005-2006, author Fen Montaigne spent five months working on Fraser's field team, and he returned with a moving tale that chronicles the beauty of the wildest place on earth, the lives of the beloved Adélies, the saga of the discovery of the Antarctic Peninsula, and the story—told through Fraser's work—of how rising temperatures are swiftly changing this part of the world. Captivated by the tale of these polar penguins and a memorable field season in Antarctica, readers will come to understand that the fundamental changes Fraser has witnessed in the Antarctic will soon affect our lives.

Since its inception almost 50 years ago, the Antarctic Treaty System has evolved to provide a stable and remarkably effective regime for management of the coldest, driest, and windiest continent on earth. New challenges to this legal regime are now posed by contemporary problems such as climate change, tourism, fishing, and whaling in the Southern Ocean. From State Parties to the web of treaties that make up the Antarctic system of governance, the 21st century brings new demands for environmental protection while ensuring reasonable access for scientists and tourists alike. The papers in this collection were presented at a conference organized by the British Institute of International and Comparative Law and the UK's Foreign and Commonwealth Office to coincide with the Twenty-Ninth meeting of the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Parties held in Edinburgh in June 2006. The authors, experienced Antarctic 'watchers, ' discuss their views on: illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing; vessel-based pollution; navigation through ice-covered waters; Antarctic Treaty Secretariat; liability of operators and their States for environmental damage; and tourism. Included with these scholarly papers are all the international agreements that make up the Antarctic Treaty System along with the measures, decisions, and resolutions of the Twenty-Ninth Consultative Party Meeting and the Edinburgh Declaration supporting the scientific research of the forthcoming International Polar Year starting in March 2007

The melting of ice at the bottom of the globe, thousands of kilometers away from you, is going to affect your profession, your livelihood, your finances, your home, your lands! And not only your life, but even the very future of your children! Shocking?? But that exactly is what is happening now!! Antarctica has an enormous 2 km thick ice-cap! Global Warming threatens to melt this vast ice-cap. What happens?! Melting Antarctic ice has potential to raise global sea levels by 70 meters, yes, 230 feet! A colossal SLOW MOTION TSUNAMI has been triggered!! In coming decades, major cities will start disappearing! And then, a second tidal wave of climate-refugees will be triggered! By 2100, about 400 crore refugees will swamp other cities!! This book gives the scientific foundation of these dire predictions; listing cities getting wiped out; hints of financial planning; and potential scientific discoveries that might still save the earth! The melting of ice will also expose a huge continent of AntarcticaÑwhere your children will settle down! The first author has decades of experience of working in Antarctica; read a first-hand story about this strange land and its coming impact on YOUR life!!

Antarctica and the surrounding Southern Ocean remains one of the world's last frontiers. Covering nearly 14 million km² (an area approximately 1.4 times the size of the United States), Antarctica is the coldest, driest, highest, and windiest continent on Earth. While it is challenging to live and work in this extreme environment, this region offers many opportunities for scientific research. Ever since the first humans set foot on Antarctica a little more than a century ago, the discoveries made there have advanced our scientific knowledge of the region, the world, and the Universe-but there is still much more to learn. However, conducting scientific research in the harsh environmental conditions of Antarctica is profoundly challenging. Substantial resources are needed to establish and maintain the infrastructure needed to provide heat, light, transportation, and drinking water, while at the same time minimizing pollution of the environment and ensuring the safety of researchers. Future Science Opportunities in Antarctica and the Southern Ocean suggests actions for the United States to achieve success for the next generation of Antarctic and Southern Ocean science. The report highlights important areas of research by encapsulating each into a single, overarching question. The questions fall into two broad themes: (1) those related to global change, and (2) those related to fundamental discoveries. In addition, the report identified key science questions that will drive research in Antarctica and the Southern Ocean in coming decades, and highlighted opportunities to be leveraged to sustain and improve the U.S. research efforts in the region.

Antarcticness joins disciplines, communication approaches and ideas to explore meanings and depictions of Antarctica. Personal and professional words in poetry and prose, plus images, present and represent Antarctica, as presumed and as imagined, alongside what is experienced around the continent and by those watching from afar. These understandings explain how the Antarctic is viewed and managed while identifying aspects which should be more prominent in policy and practice. The authors and artists place Antarctica, and the perceptions and knowledge through Antarcticness, within inspirations and imaginations, without losing sight of the multiple interests pushing the continent’s governance as it goes through rapid political and environmental changes. Given the diversity and disparity of the influences and changes, the book’s contributions connect to provide a more coherent and encompassing perspective of how society views Antarctica, scientifically and artistically, and what the continent provides and could provide politically, culturally and environmentally. Offering original research, art and interpretations of different experiences and explorations of Antarctica, explanations meld with narratives while academic analyses overlap with first-hand experiences of what Antarctica does and does not – could and could not – bring to the world.

Antarctic Climate Evolution is the first book dedicated to furthering knowledge on the evolution of the world’s largest ice sheet over its ~34 million year history. This volume provides the latest information on subjects ranging from terrestrial and marine geology to sedimentology and glacier geophysics. An overview of Antarctic climate change, analyzing historical, present-day and future developments Contributions from leading experts and scholars from around the world Informs and updates climate change scientists and experts in related areas of study