Who Actually Owns Antarctica?

this video was made possible by Wix if you're ready to create a website head on over to Wix calm / go / infographics 2019 to try out one of their premium plans right now Antarctica a vast land of snow and ice in the southern hemisphere at the bottom of the world not much there except the South Pole in some polar bears wrong polar bears are native only to the Arctic Penguins are native to Antarctica so no polar bears and penguins have never toasted each other with sugary soda during cozy holiday parties because they live at opposite ends of the world anyway Antarctica is an enormous frozen land with glaciers penguins seals and tardigrades do any people live there and who owns Antarctica is it even a country could you invade Antarctica and declare yourself ruler at roughly 5.4 million square miles Antarctica is the fifth largest of the seven continents it's about 1.3 times the size of Europe Antarctica is the coldest driest and windiest continent though the coldest temperature ever officially recorded at ground level on earth was negative 128 point six degrees Fahrenheit at the Soviet Vostok station in Antarctica on July 21st 1983 most of Antarctica is a polar desert with yearly precipitation of only about eight inches along the coast and even less inland about 98% of Antarctica is covered by ice however on the Antarctic Peninsula and some outlying islands the rocky soil supports some plant life mainly grasses mosses and lichens on average the ice blanketing Antarctica is 1.2 miles or 6,200 feet thick the continent contains roughly 90% of the world's ice locked up in the ice is about 70% of the world's freshwater if all of the ice in Antarctica were to melt sea levels would rise about 200 feet Antarctica is surrounded by the Southern Ocean it is about 70 813 miles from Florida the southernmost state of the geographically contiguous US native to Antarctica are many types of algae bacteria plants and organisms known as Protista about 1,150 species of fungi have also been found in Antarctica the ocean around the continent teams with plankton several kinds of fish such as the Antarctic silver fish and large schools of krill Antarctic krill is considered the keystone species of the ecosystem of the southern ocean and is an important food organism for whales seals squid penguins and many other animals living in the Antarctic and sub-antarctic tones interestingly humans are not indigenous to Antarctica in fact Antarctica is considered the last region on earth to have ever been discovered the continent wasn't known until the early 19th century though previous sailors who passed near Antarctica such as Captain Cook speculated about a landmass in the South Sea in 1820 of Russian expedition finally cited the fimble ice shelf off of East Antarctica and boom Antarctica was officially discovered but because of the difficult journey to reach the continent the harsh environment and a lack of easily accessible resources only limited exploration of Antarctica occurred over the next 80 years and most of the voyages that did take place were for commercial purposes such as seal and whale hunting I guess the thrill of exploration wasn't as enticing as the sweet taste of whale meat in 1898 members of the Belgian Antarctic expedition became the first known humans to spend a winter on Antarctica though not on purpose because they only stayed because their ship became trapped in the ice they got stuck on February 28 1898 and only managed to free their ship over a year later on March 14th 1899 during their icy imprisonment several men went crazy due not only to the hardship of the harsh Antarctic weather but also because of the language barrier in communication problems with the different nationalities of the Explorers during the early 20th century though South Pole fever swept the world between 1900 and 1917 several major Antarctic expeditions were launched from ten different countries explorers ventured forth for a variety of reasons including fame the challenge of the unknown and scientific curiosity you may be familiar with the famed race to the geographic South Pole in 1911 between a team of Norwegian explorers led by Roald Amundsen and a British team led by Robert Scott the long difficult expedition ended in victory for Amundsen who raised the flag of Norway at the South Pole on December 14th 1911 after many setbacks captain Scott and his team reached the South Pole on the 17th of January 1912 only to discover that the Norwegians beat them by 33 days but coming in second wasn't even the worst thing that would happen to Scott as tragically he and the rest of the British team perished during their trek back from the South Pole so what exactly is the South Pole imagine a gigantic Pole stuck through the center of the earth that extends out both sides the Earth rotates on this axis the poles are the only places on the Earth's axis of rotation that intersect with the surface the South Pole is the southernmost location on the surface of the earth and as the name would imply lies on the opposite side of the planet from the North Pole in the late 1920s explorers began mapping and exploring Antarctica by aircraft nearly from the moment humans set foot on Antarctica various explorers claimed portions of the continent for their homelands including Britain Norway and Argentina since then friction continued to grow between several nations especially between Britain and South American countries as each sought to establish sovereignty over various Antarctic regions post-world War Two the United States ramped up its interest in Antarctica from 1946 to 1947 the u.s. executed operation Highjump organized by rear admiral richard ii Byrd Jr the trip included 4,700 men 13 ships in multiple aircraft the primary mission was to establish the research base little America for for the purpose of training personnel testing equipment in frigid conditions and conducting a series of studies including hydrographic geological and meteorological surveys the badly kept secret function of the mission was extending America's sovereignty over a large area of the Antarctic continent beginning in 1948 eight powers Britain Australia New Zealand France Norway Chile Argentina and the u.s. tried to negotiate treaties over Antarctica the USSR angry over being left out of the conversation said yet and refused to recognize any claims of sovereignty reserving the right to make its own claim to Antarctica treaty talks fell apart from 1957 in 1958 the International Geophysical Year occurred where over an 18-month period some 70 national scientific organizations from 12 different countries cooperated to conduct a variety of intensive Antarctic scientific studies the multi country participation inspired the formation of the Antarctic Treaty system in 1959 this pact regulates international relations with respect to Antarctica it deems Antarctica a scientific preserve establishes freedom of scientific investigation and bans military activity mineral mining and nuclear waste disposal on the continent as of 2019 54 countries have signed on to the Antarctic Treaty Antarctica is a de facto dominium governed by signatory countries of the Antarctic Treaty that have consulting status while seven countries Argentina Australia Chile France New Zealand Norway in the United Kingdom have territorial claims to parts of Antarctica while the treaties enforce those claims cannot be enhanced or diminished some countries signed to the treaty do not recognize territorial claims and other countries such as the US and Russia maintain that they reserve the right to make a claim signatories cannot make any new claims while the Antarctic Treaty is in force since then other agreements have been amended to the treaty including the Protocol on environmental protection in 1998 this deal set to be reviewed in 2048 was reached to place an indefinite ban on mining further limiting economic development and exploitation in Antarctica 40 plus countries operate summer season and year-round research stations on the Antarctic continent and nearby islands also some 30 field camps are struck each summer to support specific projects the population of the research station swells from approximately 1,000 during winter to 5,000 during the summer personnel include a variety of scientists including biologists geologists astronomers and glaciologists Antarctica has no permanent population as a result Antarctica has no citizenship or government all people present on Antarctica at any given time are citizens or Nationals of other countries outside Antarctica sorry those Antarctic in dollars you bought at a gift shop are not legal tender as Antarctica has no official currency either each settlement has a different country calling code in currencies depending on the administering country at any given time Antarctica is a population density of between 180 and 900 residents per million square miles making it the least densely populated continent the first tourist expedition to Antarctica occurred in 1957 usually tours and travel occurs via cruise ship with voyages focusing on specific scenic locations featuring wildlife a total of 38470 tourists were recorded having visited the continent by ship between 2015 and 2016 aside from the harsh conditions and lack of any one main city to invade Antarctica would be hard to conquer because there's no sovereign ruler to take prisoner however you would cause an international incident and possibly start a war by trying if won't be deterred from your quest to rule Antarctica slap on that sunblock sunburn is often associated with only happening in hot weather but that's not true sunburn can happen at any time especially when the sun's rays are strong the white snowy surface of Antarctica reflects almost all of the ultraviolet light back off of it on to you and the hole in the ozone layer doesn't help either while Antarctica is faring better than the Arctic it's still being affected by climate change in a 2007 study NASA researchers combed through 20 years of data to confirm that Antarctic snow was melting farther inland from the coast over time and melting at higher altitudes than ever before the study also found that snow was increasingly melting on Antarctica as the largest ice shelf and evidence for widespread glacier retreat around the Antarctic Peninsula an overview study in 2018 incorporating calculations and data from many other studies estimated that total ice loss was 43 Giga tons per year on average from 1992 to 2002 unfortunately the ice loss has accelerated to an average of 220 kg tons per year during 2012 to 2017 so how do we help stop the ice loss in Antarctica well the best way is to educate yourself about climate change in the other environmental issues and to reduce your own carbon footprint as much as possible by turning off lights TVs and computers when you're not using them using reusable grocery bags and avoiding single-use plastics when possible in a sense we all own Antarctica so let's all do what we can to make sure it sticks around do you have some big ideas on how to save Antarctica or maybe you're planning a trip there of your own but need the perfect place to document your Trek well then we've got just the solution for you Wix Wix is the perfect website builder to create any kind of hobby or professional website that you can imagine whether that's a site about your personal Arctic adventure or your Arctic tours company Wix has a solution for it and the best part is you can be a complete beginner at making websites or a total pro the platform enables you to create whatever you want yourself create the amazing website that you've been thinking about and support the infographics show at the same time by going to Wix calm slash go slash infographics 2019 or by clicking on the link in the description don't wait until it's too late get headstart today with the amazing website you deserve

Channel: The Infographics Show

Views: 227,454

Rating: 4.8461537 out of 5

Keywords: Antarctica, Who Actually Owns Antarctica, geography, science, south pole, ice, discover, education, explore, nature, natgeo, nat geo, freezing, climate, antarctic treaty, who owns antarctica

Id: Xp_vWnn6H3k

Length: 11min 9sec (669 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 14 2019