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Source: The Conversation
January 23, 2012

Commentary by Neil T. M. Hamilton, Director, Australian National Internships Program at Australian National University

Everyone is looking at Antarctica right now: attention at last! The 100th anniversary of Douglas Mawson’s landing at Commonwealth Bay in Antarctica arrived and passed without the promised celebration, thanks to B9B (a massive iceberg blocking the ship). But still satellite TV news lets us bask nightly in the reflected glory of Antarctic explorers past.

Anniversaries, whales and too many campers

Australians' anniversary actions echo similar ones by the Norwegians, the British and seemingly every country with polar interests. The Norwegians went to extraordinary lengths to celebrate, sending the head of their polar research institute to ski across Antarctica. They flew a planeload of people, including the Prime Minister, to the South Pole to celebrate their national hero Roald Amundsen’s annihilation of the British in 1911. Think national identity and you won’t be too far wrong.

I’ve lost count of the number of “recreation” or “legacy” expeditions and reality TV shows that have suddenly discovered Antarctica. They number in the hundreds, all linked to the world 24 hours a day via sat phones and live streams. The Americans who run the South Pole base have had to instigate special rules to cope with all the campers. It’s like an Australian beach caravan park in January.

Simultaneously, according to newspapers in Australia and Japan, a war is apparently being raged in the Southern Ocean over scarce, large and intelligent inhabitants: whales. Right or wrong, the waters seem to get hotter each year, the end-game closer.

Does all this matter, or is this Antarctic excitement just a blip on the news wires? Antarctic watchers could be excused for throwing up their hands at the triviality of the analysis. They know the short-term media attention will drift away in weeks, if not days.

Mining Antarctica?

There is no doubt, however, that things are happening south of 60°. What is not clear yet is which direction events will take us, and whether Antarctica will remain forever the strongly protected common heritage of humankind, or become the global quarry of the 21st century.

There are efforts to ensure that the latter never occurs. On the 20th anniversary of the most important international environmental agreement ever signed, the Madrid Protocol to the Antarctic Treaty, the two architects Michel Rocard (former prime minister of France) and Bob Hawke issued a declaration. It was naturally ignored by the bulk of the Australian media.

The declaration calls for all nations with Antarctic interests to ratify the Madrid Protocol as soon as possible. This would effectively put natural resource exploitation off the agenda for the foreseeable future. Fourteen of the countries that have signed the Antarctic Treaty have not ratified the Madrid Protocol, including seven European nations and four Latin American ones.

Read the rest of the article in The Conversation