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

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