History of Antarctic Environment: Development and Protection of the 18th century to the present

Summary: Although Antarctica is a difficult and distant place, for centuries, it has been part of human cognition for centuries, and it is also an important part of natural development globally. This article introduces the development and protection of the Natural Environment of Antarctica since the end of the 18th century, especially the development of seals, whales, fish and shrimp, and the management and protection of it on the country and international level. In addition, the current environmental challenges faced by Antarctica such as climate change.

Author: Alessandro Antonello, currently the senior researcher at the School of Humanities and Social Sciences of Flinders University of Australia. From 2007 to 2014, he received a bachelor's degree in a bachelor's degree in Australian University, a master's degree, and a doctorate degree in Australian University. From 2014 to 2019, post -doctoral research was completed at Oregon University and Melbourne University. Since 2019, he has been a senior researcher at the School of Humanities, Art and Social Sciences University of Flindis, and is also edited by the "International History of Environmental History". It is the author of The Greening of Antarctica: Assembling An International Environment (Oxford University Press, 2019).

Translator: Huang Xiaobo, Li Xinghao

Source: "International Social Sciences Magazine" 2022, No. 2 P114 — P118

Editor in charge: Liang Guangyan Zhang Nanqian

Quotation

Although Antarctica is a difficult and distant place, for centuries, it has been part of human cognition for centuries, and it is also an important part of natural development worldwide. This article introduces the development and protection of the Natural Environment of Antarctica since the end of the 18th century, especially the development of seals, whales, fish and shrimp, and the management and protection of it on the country and international level. In addition, the current environmental challenges faced by Antarctica, such as climate change issues.

Antarctic natural environment

There are four main aspects worthy of understanding about the geographical knowledge of Antarctica. First of all, Antarctica is covered by ice fields, and a large amount of solid water is stored. These icefields began to be formed as early as 30 million years ago. Secondly, when scientists inspect the base rocks under the iceland of the Antarctic continent, they find that the thickness of the iceland in some areas can reach 4,000 meters, and the average thickness of the mainland Iceland is also 2000 meters. Thirdly, Southern Ocean surrounded by Antarctica. The climate status of the South Ocean has caused human activities in the summer of Antarctica because the ship can only reach this continent in a few months. The last content of Antarctic Geography is the ice -free area. Most of the Antarctica are covered by ice. When the ice field expands to its peak, the area where the Antarctic is not covered by ice is not more than 0.4%. But the ice -free zone is very important for the biology and humans in Antarctica. For example, Adeley Penguin and other penguins can only build nests with stones. In addition, the scientific station built by humans is also mainly located in the ice -free area.

Exploration and early development of Antarctica

Human exploration of Antarctica began at the end of the 18th century. For thousands of years, European geographical scientists have thought about whether the southern hemisphere has a southern continent (Terra Australis) corresponding to the northern hemisphere. From 1772 to 1774, British navigator James Cook entered the Antarctic circle three times and saw many icebergs during sailing, but Cook may not be lucky enough to see the Antarctic continent itself. An important discovery of Cook's sailing is Georgia, where there are a large number of seals. At the end of the 18th century and early 19th century, with the continuous advancement of globalization, Europeans began to hunt the fat seals in Antarctica and its nearby regions, transporting seal fur to Europe and North America for sale. This research perspective can write a global history because it linked Europe and the Americas. Cook also arrived in the south shetland Islands in the south of the north of Antarctica. Since then, the seal hunter has used two summer to kill about 2 million seals on the archipelago. This is a typical case of excessive development of natural resources. The seal population has not yet recovered. At the end of the 18th century and early 19th century, people hunt a total of 5 million to 7 million seals, which was amazing and caused a serious impact on the Antarctic ecology. Another case is the Elephant Seal. People are more willing to hunt and kill elephant seals, and it is larger than ordinary seals. People use the like seal oil to make soap, and the Antarctic began to be involved in the wave of industrialization. From the beginning of the 19th century to the middle of the 20th century, about 1 million elephant seals were killed.

The most important Antarctic scientific research in the 19th century may be the so -called "Magnetic Crusade". Exploring and mastering the earth's magnetic field is an important driving force for European explorers to go to Antarctic. They tried to find Antarctic magnetic fields corresponding to the North Pole in Antarctica. An important part of global history is to understand the magnetic field, and the magnetic field is of great significance to ocean navigation. On this issue, there are imperialist competition between Britain, France, and the United States. In general, the 19th century Antarctica was almost an unknown place. The map at the end of the 19th century fully showed that people knew very little about Antarctic inland areas, and even the pole was still a mysterious point. In 1895, the International Geographical Conference announced that Antarctica was the most worthy of geographical exploration, and proposed the world to supplement the knowledge about Antarctica through scientific exploration. Since then, the competition between countries is to strive to reach the Antarctic point first. In the first ten years of the 20th century, the British, German, and Swedish expeditions have set foot in Antarctica. The 20th century's Antarctic Development and geopolitical conflict

In the 20th century, human exploration of Antarctica continued. Although the global whaling industry has a long history, it was not until 1904 that the first whaling company in Antarctica was established in Grytviken, South Georgia. At the beginning of the 20th century, the development of Antarctic's whaling industry encountered many obstacles, but re -recovered due to whale oil demand. With the advancement of technology, in addition to providing lighting of industrial production, whale oil has other consumer use. For example, in the 1920s and 1930s, a huge global company, Unilever, used whale oil to make soap. There was also a phenomenon of eating whale oil at the beginning of the 20th century, because there were not enough fat on the recipes of Westerners at that time. But soon some scientists pointed out that no restraint can be carried out again. Because the whalers on the island of Nanda hunt too many whales, the whales there were endangered. The sharp decrease in the number of whales is caused by the commercial whaling industry. My colleague Adrian Hopkins also noticed that in the 1920s and 1930s, imperialist countries were also hunting whales. This is a new perspective studying whale and South Pacific ecosystem. Around 1964, the global whaling industry arrived. It began in the early 20th century, expanded rapidly in the late 1920s, interrupted by the Second World War in the 1930s, and ushered in great development in the 1950s. After World War II, the whaling country signed a related whaling agreement under the leadership of the United States, and established the International Whaling Commitee. This committee effectively controlled whaling activities within 20 years after its establishment.

With the development of the whaling industry, more and more geographical scholars came to the vicinity of Antarctica, and Antarctic Political Geography has risen. After the Falkland Islands (Falkland Islands), in 1908, 7 countries claimed that they had sovereignty over Antarctica. Whaling is one of the goals of these countries to declare sovereignty on Antarctica. After the British occupied the French Islands, the whaling activity was transferred to the South Georgia Island and the Antarctic Peninsula. In 1923, a member of the Imperial Empire claimed to have new sovereignty over the Ross SEA, which means that Britain indirectly obtained control of Ross Sea. Ross Sea is closely related to whaling, so Britain can achieve potential benefits from whaling. This has caused more intense geopolitical conflicts to some extent. In 1924, France claimed that it had territorial sovereignty on the Adelie region with a relatively small area, which was discovered by a French explorer in the 1830s. In 1933, Australia announced sovereignty over the large territory of Antarctica, and Australians exposed the place in the early 19th and 1920s. After World War II, a total of 7 countries declared sovereignty to Antarctica, but no other country acknowledged the legitimacy of the sovereignty declared by these 7 countries.

All countries have seen the value of Antarctica, which has caused a series of focus of geopolitics. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, the United Kingdom, Argentina, and Chile caused diplomatic conflicts due to Antarctic sovereignty disputes, which reflected the instability of Antarctic geopolitics. At the end of the 1950s, with the arrival of the International Geophysical Year, more than 1,000 scientists from all over the world carried out research in Antarctica, including scientists from the United States and the Soviet Union. In a year and a half, scientists have carried out a large number of innovative earth physical research. For example, from 1957 to 1958, scientists carried out a large number of important research on ice fields. But there are some disadvantages of these studies. For example, research has triggered a issue where countries can have sovereignty on these territories. In the early days of the Cold War, only scientists could go to any place in Antarctica by obtaining the authorization of the two superpowers of the United States and the Soviet Union. This also led to the instability of the Geopolitics of the Antarctic.

Furthermore, the world was under the threat of the US -Soviet nuclear weapon confrontation. Other countries near Antarctica, such as Australia and Argentina, do not want Antarctica to become the focus of geopolitics and geographical strategic contradictions. Therefore, in 1959, countries negotiated and signed the Antarctic Treaty. This document clarifies many important matters and laid the foundation for the development of Antarctica over 60 years. The treaty stipulates that activities involving Antarctica can only be for peaceful purposes, prohibit military activities, and countries need to ensure the freedom of scientific research and encourage scientific cooperation. The treaty prohibits countries from conducting nuclear tests and emission radioactive waste in Antarctica. In addition, a long -term and effective conference negotiation system was established in accordance with the treaty, stipulating that countries need to exchange their activities in Antarctica. After the Antarctic Treaty was signed in 1959, it took effect in June 1961. So far, it has a history of more than 60 years and is still effective. The development of Antarctic Environmental Protection

After 1959, as the human environment awareness continued to increase, the environment became one of the most important elements in Antarctic's geographical politics. The first stage of Antarctic environmental protection is to establish a communication mechanism. In 1964, the parties to the Antarctic Treaty reached a consensus, established a series of rules for protecting the Antarctic environment, and regulating human activities. For example, without negotiation, countries cannot obtain samples of Antarctica scientific research, and helicopters cannot fly in specific areas. In 1972, all parties signed the Antarctic Treaty reached a consensus on managing seal hunting activities and committed to protecting the seal.

In the 1960s and the early 1970s, it was a very important period. People around the world treated the environment sharply. The western environmental protectionism we are familiar with today is from this era. As we all know, in 1962, Rachel Carson published a masterpiece "Silent Spring". The book reveals the damage caused by the insecticide and other toxicants to the environment, and promotes the rise of anti -pesticides. In 1970, the National Environmental Policy Act signed an effect, indicating that people began to think about how human activities affect the environment from a new perspective. The United States also established the first "Earth Day" in 1970, and other countries also had similar measures. The picture below shows the first photo of the earth from space in 1972- "Blue Planet". Many people understand the fragility and uniqueness of the earth through this photo. Our only home. It was also in 1972 that the United Nations held a special meeting on the human environment.

So, how should Antarctic be developed? In the 1960s, some opinions believed that the Euphausia Superba issue was important. It can be seen from advertisements in the Soviet Union that people make shrimp into shrimp sauce; South American countries make shrimp into Krill Sticks. At that time, people believed that there were tens of millions of tons of shrimp to fish. The shrimp fishing industry was the most rich and inexhaustible industry on the planet. But this is not the case. Fishing of phosphorus shrimp affects other species. If it is excessively fishing, many animals will lose food sources, and the entire ecosystem is unsustainable. Although in terms of bi quantity (Biomass), shrimp is the largest wild population on the planet, but the shrimp is the basis of the entire Antarctic ecosystem. Whales, seals and birds are pretending to be phosphate. The closer to the equator, the more complicated the food chain; the closer to the polar, the more single the food chain, and the relatively single ecosystem. Therefore, in this specific environment, the circular network of organic matter is very limited. As a result, the parties to the Antarctic Treaty negotiated the Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources in 1980. The Convention took effect in 1982, focusing on the maintenance and protection of the entire South Ocean Ocean Ecosystem. The Convention stipulates that countries hold meetings in October each year, and this tradition has continued to this day. In addition, the convention also stipulates that fisheries must be managed and measured by restricting fishing.

While developing the new fishery resources of Antarctica, human beings also have a dream: mining oil and gas resources in Antarctica. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, some views believed that Antarctica was full of minerals for mining, such as iron ore, gold ore and other rare mines. At that time, the Arab countries issued an oil embargo, and Western industrial countries were worried about energy depletion, so they hoped to minimize new energy in Antarctica. In 1988, all parties signed the Antarctic Treaty reached a consensus on regulating mining activities and signed a convention. The Convention allows the mining of hydrocarbons to establish an environmental impact assessment system to reduce pollution during mining as much as possible. Although countries have signed a mining convention, it did not take effect, because the important transformation of global environmental protectionism in the 1980s, the emergence of Greenpeace was one of the important promotion factor. As an important global environmental protection non -governmental organization (NGO), the green and peaceful organizations also pay attention to Antarctica. It is worried that the mines will destroy the Antarctic environment. At the same time, there are also a large number of media reporting the potential harm of mining. In addition, Green Peace Organization also pointed out that Antarctic scientific research may bring problems. As a result, the organization sent its own expedition to establish scientific research stations. It believes that Antarctica is the last Wilderness and should be protected. This is a successful global movement. Thousands of people in the world participated in this movement. They wrote to governments of various countries for protests. Other disasters caused by humans also appeared in the polar region. In 1989, the oil leakage incident occurred in the Argentine Navy's Naval Navy supply ship Baya Paraiso. Just a few months later, the crude oil leaked by EXXON VALDEZ (Exxon Valdez) was just a few months later. It flows to many areas in the northern hemisphere, covering the Alaska coastline with hundreds of kilometers. These two environmental disasters have destroyed the extremely vulnerable environment. The impact of human activities on Antarctic has become a public topic that affects continuously. Global environmental protectionism has changed some government's views, and Australia and France have stated that they will not mine the minerals of Antarctica. In 1991, countries signed the Madrid Protocol, which promoted the improvement of the Antarctic Treaty system. The "Madrid Agreement" establishes a negotiation mechanism for Antarctic environmental protection to put environmental impact assessment at the core of Antarctic environmental management.

Climate change and Antarctic environment issues

In recent years, Antarctica is under the threat of climate change. An important way we understand the history of climate is to rely on drilling the ice core. The Greenland Island of the Antarctic and the northern hemisphere has very important ice core samples. Because of the cold climate, these areas have formed a thousand -meter -thick ice field. The ice core can illustrate the important relationship between the global temperature and the carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere, which has made us learn about global climate change for thousands of years. However, Antarctica is very vulnerable to the influence of global climate warming. From the end of the 1970s, in the context of global warming, people began to realize that it should be planned to manage Antarctica. If the temperature rises at 3 ° C or 5 ° C, or even 10 ° C, a large number of Antarctic Iceland will disappear, and the rising sea levels caused by this will flood the coastal cities of the earth.

Shrimp is the most important fishing resource in Antarctica. In the past two years, humans have fishing for about 379 million tons of shrimp. Today, the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources is responsible for shrimp management. Some people think that it is necessary to establish the Marine Protected Areas for this reason, and there are differences in different countries. Australia, some European countries and the United States want to establish a marine protection zone, while others are not necessary.

People may think that there is not much difference in the Antarctic inland. However, in the past 20 years, biologists have discovered that there are unique areas inside the Antarctica, and different areas have different biological diversity and biological communities. This is also one aspect of people who want to protect the Antarctic environment.

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