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Honest question, does Antartica have any, what you would consider as, inhabitants? My understanding is that it is only scientists from a variety of countries t
by radarsat1 11y ago
Honest question, does Antartica have any, what you would consider as, inhabitants? My understanding is that it is only scientists from a variety of countries that live there on temporary stints. However, if the ice melts in any considerable way, I wonder if (some very extreme) individuals might start looking at moving there?
It is a huge continent... if the ices melts, it's terrible in a way, but looking positivistically at the situation, there must be lots of potential.
I'm sure there are some treaties etc on Antarctica that limit exploitation? What if a bunch of people went down there with some guns and claimed some land, what would happen?
- nitrogen 11y agoAntarctica does have exposed rock; it's not all just ice. Not sure why you were downvoted. What we do with it is an interesting question. There is little harm in looking for ways to adapt to climate change if we don't succeed in stopping it.
- losteric 11y agoThe inhabitants of Antarctica are the least of our concerns. Millions of people around the world will be flooded out of their homes
- tomkinstinch 11y agoAdditionally, the ice and snowpack of Antarctica contain ~70% of the fresh water available on the entire planet.
- AnimalMuppet 11y agoFor some definition of "available". If I actually want to use fresh water, Antarctica's ice is not available at all - at least not until we start towing icebergs to Saudi Arabia or something...
- gus_massa 11y agoUnless you were planning to transport a giant iceberg with a boat, it doesn't matter that there is a lot of fresh water in Antarctica. Water is very cheap, people need it. The important thing is to have available water near the people that is easy and cheap to process. So it's important to keep the big rivers as clean as possible, and use that water efficiently. If tomorrow all the ice in Antarctica magically disappears, it would not change the problems of the people that need water to drink or cultivate plants. (If the ice magically disappears, it will create other problems changing the climate patterns. If it just melt instead of truly disappearing, it will cause floods.)
- sliverstorm 11y agoMaybe I'm missing something, but what does that do for us? It's not like you or I are drinking antarctic water. For it to get to us, it has to melt into the salty ocean, evaporate, and then rain.
- jcranmer 11y agoAntarctica exists basically in two separate ice sheets, the East Antarctic Ice Sheet and the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, the first of which consists of 90% of the sheet. The collapse of ice in Antarctica is basically limited to the tinier West Antarctic Ice Sheet, with the EAIS expected to make a more or less neutral balance (perhaps even slightly positive).
- radarsat1 11y agoSorry you misinterpreted me, I am not worried about the inhabitants. I was wondering if anyone has claim to the land.
- norea-armozel 11y agoI believe a UN treaty officially treats the land of the Antarctic as unowned even by private parties.
- nommm-nommm 11y agoPlenty of countries have claimed overlapping areas of Antarctica. Currently an international treaty reserves Antarctica for mostly science and nature (no military, no mining) but the treaty isn't permanent. https://youtu.be/DbKNlFcg02c https://youtu.be/DbKNlFcg02c
- cromulent 11y agoIt would be interesting. It's probably one of the best observed treaties, but that would change, I fear. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antarctic_Treaty_System https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antarctic_Treaty_System
- mturmon 11y agohttp://www.coolantarctica.com/Antarctica%20fact%20file/science/government_antarctica.php http://www.coolantarctica.com/Antarctica%20fact%20file/scien...
- jkot 11y agoIt is parceled by teritorial claims. Any inhabitants would have to fight Nato, Russia, Argentina and othrr countries.
- uptown 11y agoRussia made a play at the North Pole a while back: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/08/070802-russia-pole.html http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/08/070802-russi... Not sure about Antartica.
- saalweachter 11y agoThe problem is that the best-case scenario for Antarctica is severely limited by the whole "daylight" problem. Being at the pole, it is dark a lot of the time, and even when it is light a lot of the time, the light is hitting it at sharp angle, making it both inconvenient and weaker. At best you're probably talking, Antarctica becomes as livable as Alaska is now.
- touristtam 11y agoThere has been industrial interesting at exploiting the mineral resources of Antarctica, so I wouldn't be surprises if there has been consideration at colonizing it as well, or if one of the justification for such enterprise would be to study harsh conditions for potential space colonies.