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Will Exploration In Antarctica Soon Cease?
By: Dwight Hearne

It was just over a hundred years ago that a whaling ship named Antarctic anchored itself and then launched a longboat toward a wind-swept shore through the dangerous waters of the Ross Sea. On January 24, 1985, this landing group, led by Captain Leonard Kristensen, was the very first humans to step onto the continent of Antarctica. Their mission was to hunt for whales in territories that were still unclaimed.

The result of this first mission was a blood bath of great measure. Millions of seals were slaughtered for their fur and the whales and penguins in the area were killed for their oil which was used to grease machinery during the Industrial Revolution. Many thousands of the shy penguins on Macquarie Island were gathered and driven up planks into large kettles of boiling oil, where they were cooked and melted down for the oil in their bodies.

It is only now, after centuries of abuse of Antarctica's resources, that this Frozen Continent is being appreciated for it's natural and scientific wonders. Humans have made the decision to forgo the easy money made through destruction of Antarctica's resources, and instead chosen to treat it as a preserve of nature and science. Recently, there have been discussions of establishing a park there. Scientists are discovering incredible new things in Antarctica, including pollutants and threats to our ozone, and new information about the greenhouse effect. Considering the short and experimental nature of mankind's occupancy in Antarctica, the reversal has been astoundingly quick. There is so little of Antarctica that has actually been explored - just a few parts of the coast, some islands, and routes that scientists took to the South Pole. That is, until the 1957-1958 Internation Geophysical Year.

From the time that Antarctica was first explored, its history is littered with fierceness, nationalism, idealism, and uncontrolled killing. Only occasionally would there be any attempts at scientific research. Whaling was stepped up in World War I, as refined oil was used to make glycerin for artillery shells. Then, after World War II, America and the Soviet Union made voyages to this area to kill sperm whales so that their extra-fine oil could be used as a jet engine lubricant. Mapmakers of the Middle Ages labeled the abstract southern continent "Terra Incognita", and it remained so until the International Geophysical Year.

The birth of the first individual in Antarctica was a witness to dutiful conceit. That person has not yet reached adulthood. Emilio Marcus Palmer's mother was specifically flown to Argentina's Experanza Base in 1978 for the purpose of giving birth, and to emphasise the claim Argentina made to a large portion of Antarctic territory.

Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin had planted the American flag on the moon's surface nine years earlier, as a show of America's dominance. Before that, the most amazing exploit that man had known was when Roald Amundsen made his dash to the South Pole in 1911 in honor of his king - King Haakon VII of Norway. This journey was also made by Robert F. Scott and his team for the British Empire. However, on their journey they stopped to collect rock and fossil samples which had to be transported using man-pulled sleighs.

Due to a combination of being demoralized by Armundsen getting to the South Pole a month ahead of them, an unhealthy diet, hauling the rocks out, and basic overall bad luck on the return trip, Scott's group became known as the first martyrs of Antarctic science. The South Pole was claimed by America in 1929 when Richard Byrd flew over the area using his Ford Trimotor. The battle to claim the continent continued when the Soviets attempted to justify their interests when the Russian Admiral Thaddeus Bellingshausen passed the Antarctic Peninsula during his voyage in 1821.

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