|
|
|
|
|
|
Resources |
|
|
|
Antarctica: World Park or Developers' Dream?
| Article
# : |
15136 |
|
|
Section : |
CURRENT ISSUES
|
| Issue
Date : |
4 / 1989 |
3,154 Words |
| Author
: |
Brandon Mitchener
Brandon Mitchener is a wire-service reporter specializing in
economic and environmental issues, who recently relocated to
Frankfurt, Germany. |
Out of sight and out of mind for most of the world, Antarctica has long been out of bounds to oil drillers and mining companies. That isolation may soon end, however, if the U.S. Senate and 15 other legislatures around the world ratify a treaty that opens the continent to "mineral resource activities." Critics say, in no kind words, that the treaty would sacrifice Antarctic wilderness and wildlife to the shortsighted interests of individual developers.
The Antarctic and Southern Oceans Coalition (ASOC), which represents more than 200 conservation and environmental organizations in 35 nations, champions the idea of an Antarctic World Park that would safeguard the continent's ecological integrity by banning all mineral exploitation, including fossil fuel exploitation. Since fossil fuel consumption is known to contribute to global warming, such a ban pragmatically goes beyond environmentalist idealism to confront inexorable realities.
Blanketed almost entirely by a mile-thick, permanent sheet of ice, Antarctica holds 70 percent of the earth's fresh water. Plant life is virtually nonexistent in the continent's interior, but some lichens and mosses cling to coastal rocks. They are so fragile, and grow so slowly, that footprints have been known to last a decade. Commercial harvesting has reduced some fish populations to the brink of extinction, but the continent still boasts large populations of whales, fur seals, penguins, and seafowl, all of which live along its narrow unfrozen periphery.
Scientists' Paradise
Antarctica is larger than both the
... (1996 of 20314 Characters)
Read Full Article
|
|
