Global Governance: Antartica Flashcards
1
Q
What is the physical geography of Antarctica?
A
- The Coldest, windiest, and driest place on earth - also the only place in the world to have no indigenous population
- the worlds largest desert contains 70% of the worlds fresh water
- 97% of the continent is covered in ice —> the thick ice sheets are because of the accumulation of small inputs of snow and frost over a long period of time.
- 60 times bigger that the UK
- average temps is -49DC but can reach as low as -89DC
- annual winds speeds of 50mph resulting from the convergent katabatic winds, gales can reach 200mph
- mean annual precipitation is less than 50mm per annum
- 2300m above sea level
2
Q
What is Antarctica’s territorial claims?
A
Nobody owns Antarctica so it is a global common
Antarctica is split up into areas where countries hold permanent research stations —> these countries have territorial claims
3
Q
Why is Antarctica important?
A
The Ecology:
- home to 5/17 species of penguins found around the world
- hosts many species of bird and 4 species of Albatross
- Albatrosses take 10 years to sexually mature and only lay a single egg once every 2 years, they have the lowest reproductive rate of any bird
- Krill —> the marine conditions support a diverse ecosystem. Surrounding sea temps are warmer than the land and the upwelling of colder water from the ocean depths brings nutrients, which in turn support phytoplankton.
4
Q
What are the resources in Antarctica?
A
- mineral and energy resources, covered by snow, has the largest coalfield in the world
- Freshwater is extracted from icebergs (70% of the worlds freshwater is in Anatartica)
- resources from sea life - e.g. farming of fish and krill
- Scientific resources - scientists can study weather patterns, ecosystems adaptations and the past climatic and geological changes
5
Q
What is the scientific research in Antarctica?
A
- Seasonal and year round research stations are run by 30 nations including the UK.
- Year round freezing temps mean that snow that fell hundreds of thousands of years ago is buried by subsequent layers - trapping wind blown by volcanic and desert dust, tiny bubbles of air and even radioactive substances
- ice core drilling enables an abundance of info about past climatic conditions to be revealed and interpreted.
6
Q
What is climate change in Antarctica?
A
- oceans expanding via thermal expansion encroaching onto land, and meltwater from consistent rises in global temp, both facilitate the melting and movement of land ice forms towards the sea
- 100 mile and 100ft wide crack currently forcing its way across the Larson C ice shelf is thought to eventually calf a chunk of ice the size of Delaware
- While it is among the most vulnerable to climate change it is also one of the greatest natural assets to hinder it
- Antarctica has the greatest albedo effect of any surface on Earth. The albedo effect is the amount of solar heat bounced back into space by reflective surfaces. This is vital in jet setting unwanted heat that would otherwise become trapped in the Earth’s atmosphere.
7
Q
What is whaling in Antarctica?
A
- began in the 19th century and the main targets were blue and right whales —> the main products were oil and whalebone.
- the whale pop of the Northern Atlantic was depleted, so whalers turned attention to Antarctica due to abundance of krill attracting whales
- whalers came from Norway, USA, and UK mainly
- Whaling was established on South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands.
- in 1904, Norwegians developed Grytviken, which as its height employed 300 people (closed in 1965)
- the range of products increased to include meat meal, bone meal, meat extract and frozen whale meat
- 1946, international whaling convention led to end almost all whaling in 1985. Most whaling nations agreed to halt slaughter of certain species —> many species were very endangered
- whale stocks were so depleted that whaling was no longer commercially viable
- Before whaling; 275000 blue whales
8
Q
What did the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary do in 1994?
A
Established by the IWC, an area of 50 million2 km surrounding the Antarctic where all types of commercial whaling were banned. Only japan opposed the ban —> the status of the sanctuary is reviewed every 10 years to account for whale migration.
Hunting of whales is still allowed for scientific research - Japan used this loophole until 2020.
9
Q
Why is sealing a problem in Antarctic?
A
- began in 18th century around the island of South Georgia
- by 1800, the fur seals had been wiped out
- interest moved to South Shetland Islands
- Within 3 years 300,000 seats had been killed and the species was going extinct —> extreme exploitation
- in 1975, the Antarctic Convection prohibited the killing of Ross and Antarctic fur seals
10
Q
what are some of the fishing threats in Antarctica?
A
- water are high in marine productivity as waters are rich in nutrients and oxygen.
- the Antarctica convergence is a marine belt encircling Antarctica, varying in latitude seasonality. This is where cold northward flowing waters meet the warmer waters of Sub-Antarctic —> this is a very biologically diverse zone due to the upwelling in nutrients causing a bounty oh phytoplankton, krill, etc.
- Russian ships began exploiting the Southern Ocean in the 1960s: Antarctic rock cod
- there is a particular concern about fishing krill since it underpins the Southern Ocean food web
- krill are caught as a healthy protein food in East Asia. It is popular in its antioxidant properties.
- total available catch is below 100,000 tonnes, and the available catch is 1.5 million tonnes.
- Long lining fishing began in the 1980s to catch Patagonian tooth fish which resulted in the bycatch of birds such as albatross and petrels.
- Millions of tonnes of Finfish were also taken out of the Southern Ocean but by the end of the 1980s CCAMLR had banned fishing for most finish species or put in to place strict catching limits.
11
Q
What are the 3 types of tourism?
A
- Ship-board visits: largely cruise ships
- Over flights
- Camping trips for naturalists, photographers and journalists
12
Q
What is the attraction to Antarctica?
A
- whale watching and penguins
- Expedition cruising —> began in 1969
In 1980s, there was only 2000 visitors and in 2017 there was more than 45,000 people from around the world.
Majority of tourist come from USA, followed by Australia, Germany, and the UK —> majority of the visitors come from HICs due to the high cost to visit
13
Q
Why is Chinese tourism in Antarctica a thing?
A
- Chinese citizens made up of 12% of Antarctica’s visitors in 2017 —> costs about $16,000 for them to visit
- Chinas new regulations mandate that tourists and tour groups minimise their footprint on Antarctica’s environment —> they are banned from doing activities that harm or disturb wildlife -> inspectors watch tourist actions and ones that violate the policy are banned from Antarctica for up to 3 years
14
Q
Why is Adventure style tourism so popular?
A
- increasing diversification of the activities available to do in Antarctica, now people go paragliding, water skiing and diving
- in the 80-90s the majority of visitors were on cruise ships where they went ashore at only a few locations to look at wildlife.
15
Q
What are the negative impacts of tourism?
A
- invasive species —> accidentally bringing seeds on boots or in food, etc.
- impact on breeding birds —> may be made anxious by the influx of peoples that can cause they to abandon their nest. In the summer tourist season coincides with breeding season.
- Erosion or disturbances of fragile environments —> many feet walking over the same piece of ground. Footprints on moss can remain for decades.
- visitors pressure is felt on cultural heritage sites —> old whaling and sealing stations
- Overflying may cause stress in breeding colonies —> this affects penguins and other birds
- Oil spills from ships and boats —> there may be a spill due to hitting ice and rupturing a holding tank or if the vessel sinks all the polluting fluids will eventually escape
- Land based installations and wildlife are clustered in the few ice free locations
- Enforcement of any code of behaviour is difficult —> due to the unique legal status of Antarctica.
