u/nodiplomaticimmunity

A tangent about the treaty and questions to be answered by those who don’t wear the Antarctica tinfoil hat. Maybe the hat will go on (if you make it to the end):

1. 58 countries agreed not to do what humans and the wealthy do: suck up resources, not use a GREAT location militarily, nor test weapons or crazy stuff. Mind you, this treaty was signed during the Cold War too… so you’d think people would be eager to get any advantage…Preservation and conservation efforts and concepts were not nearly as on people’s minds as they are now. Tell me when in history that all these different cultures and countries bow out of this kinda potential payout/ advantage?
   - Why did (currently do) historically aggressive resource claiming countries not push for these untapped resources?

2. There’s been research stations for over 120 years (1903 Scottish base - to now, currently about 70 permanent stations). I’m no scientist, BUT our tax dollars (and independent/private orgs) have been put into research for over 120 years and arguably the biggest discoveries include the following: snapshots of Earth’s climate history, confirmation that humans were destroying the ozone layer, finding some little animals that can live in the ice, and there are lakes under the ice. Like I said, I’m no scientists, but I’m VERY underwhelmed by these discoveries. I think everyone could’ve hypothesized what their research found. I’d hoped someone would have discovered a cure to cancer or something, not confirmation that hard chemicals do in fact hurt the natural world.
   - Why is there such a lackluster amount of actual research data that has come out of all the years, people, and money that has been put into the continent? #notimpressed

3. Antarctica is locked down. There are very few and very controlled groups who’ll allow tourism to the continent. It feels very much like those North Korean tour groups you see online. Like handlers showing you the penguins dance around and then shuffling you away to the next activity. I recently saw a guy sneak a Starlink on his trip and he got it taken away and was reprimanded. He wanted to livestream and got in trouble… like why?? Ethan Guo’s (the young pilot who recently wanted to go to every continent) story is interesting too. He flew to Antarctica without permission then was arrested by Chilean military and was imprisoned for 70 days!! It was a big deal. He was flying for cancer research too :( collecting donations and streaming/ posting to help with a nonprofit. He was utilizing Antarctica more for cancer research than the researchers on the ice.
   - why is it so difficult to explore!? Taylor Swift will burn fuel like no tomorrow, but God forbid an eager researcher old time explorer tried to learn about our world (so don’t tell me it’s the gas to get there). Don’t none of you write “it costs money to save them if they get in trouble/ stuck”- Free climbers, hikers, mountaineers, all the such do their thing knowing that there’s danger. Same with private plane and boat owners??

4. Finally, Admiral Byrd. A true inspiration, he said in 1933 “What we seek lies deep in Antarctica—the last refuge of mystery and the unknown.” Why are we looking to colonize mars, concerned with overpopulation, etc when we have (also a quote from Byrd) "most peaceful place in the world," with untapped resources. People don’t realize how large the continent is. I understand the argument for preservation, but the continent is about the size of America and Mexico (not all North America, but a lot of land). We “hypothetically” have some knowledge about how to make environmentally friendly cities, why don’t we colonize a little bit of it? Spread people out a bit more or prepare for global growth? I know the actual weather conditions and all of that are brutal, but other locations in our world are similar and humanity overcomes.
   - Why aren’t Elon and the other “we MUST colonize” bros colonizing Antarctica? Or even prep for the Martian mission? If you really wanna go deep, Byrd also talked about how there’s green grass-y type untouched flora on the continent. Some think it’s algae, some flat earth multiple rings, idk but that’s the point. WHY HAVSNT IT BEEN FIGURED OUT!!

Thanks to whoever has made it to this point after reading through all those thoughts. I’m sure many of you know the saying “ curiosity killed the cat…” but I’m sure many don’t know the end of the saying, which is, “but satisfaction brought it back.”

The overarching question I have is:

Why so little aggressive resource claiming, research output, and exploration in Antarctica despite massive investment (while we obsess over Mars colonization instead of testing there first)?

Very much giving “There is no war in Ba Sing Se.” IFYKYK

Anyways. If one person reads it, if none, if everyone does, regardless of responses, I will keep my tinfoil hat on until I know what is beyond the shelf 🇦🇶🇦🇶🇦🇶🇦🇶