No

by T. Scott Randolph

Created on: January 30, 2010   Last Updated: February 16, 2010

Thanks to things like satellite image photography and other modern advances in technology, we know more about Antarctica now than any other time in history. Prior to modern technology, we had to rely on whalers and seafaring explorers that usually were blown off course.

We are discovering that there are natural resources to be found there. Does this mean that we should start a massive world wide race to see who can stake claims the quickest? The answer to that question is a definite no. There are several reasons for this answer.

The first and foremost reason is the fact that Antarctica is one of the few places on the entire globe where science has been allowed to thrive. Even though several countries have made territorial claims on the continent, no one lives on Antarctica on a permanent basis. Due to polar magnetic shifts in the past, there is evidence that at one time it may have been tropical. This may mean that people lived there at one time, but these days it is too cold and unfriendly. There are scientists at research stations that are manned for the entire year. If you make the decision to mine the natural resources, you will be opening the flood gates for various corporations that will make the California gold rush look like a single family moving in.

There is still unimaginable amounts information that can be gained by the scientific study of Antarctica. It contains an intact time-line of the Earth's history embedded in the ice sheet that covers the entire (at least 98% of it) continent. Lake Vostok is a single example of this. It is a lake that is located approximately 2 miles under the ice. This a lake of water that will take you back thousands of years in the Earth's history. It could show the chemical make up of the atmosphere at the time among a host of other information. It could be a way to help in the search to find extraterrestrial life. If life (even at the bacteria level) can survive in the cold dark lake, it would show us that it is very possible that life may exist in places like the moons of Jupiter or Saturn.

The idea that our resources are finite in supply causes people to worry. They panic over the price of the all powerful gallon of gas. With people being people they go to war over anything. Natural resources and the propaganda that we are in short supply only fuels the fire.

None of this means we are out. For the time being, there is still a lot of the natural resources we need in other places. If the price of a gallon of gasoline goes up and forces people to carpool to work, is that such a bad thing? The point is, we need to set aside differences and use the resources we have. We have several options, and destroying the one place on the planet that is more or less untouched by humans is not the answer. Will we have to at a future date? Who knows the answer to that. Maybe we will eventually have to resort to mining on Antarctica, but that time is not here, not now. We have too many other options on the table.

As a point of argument, there was another time that people decided to use Antarctica for it's resources. This had devastating effects. Both on the environment and the animal life. Whaling stations were set up in the 19th and 20th centuries. They were profitable for the owners, very profitable. Profitable to the point that several types of animals were hunted almost to the point of extinction. You can go to Antarctica today and still see the abandoned stations. The people are gone but the buildings and trash remain. Is there any reason to think that the mining industry would treat the fragile environment any different?

As I stated before, no one owns Antarctica. Countries have territorial claims, mainly for science. If we start mining operations, everyone will start to fight over who gets the resources. Leave it the way it is, at least for now. In the future, if we have no other choices, we can revisit the question.

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