Posts Tagged ‘Countless Animals’

Are They Going To Stop Exploring Antarctica Anytime Soon?

When the whaling ship Antarctic set anchor down on the coast of this wind-battered volcanic coast and sent the first longboat through the dangerous Ross Sea, it was 100 years ago. The party with their Captain, Leonard Kristensen, leading them landed and left the very first set of human footprints on the shores of Antarctica. January 24,1895 was the date of their historic landing, and was only one part of their endeavor to hunt whales in unexplored waters.

 

 

Antarctica proceeded to be baptized with blood. Countless animals were killed for the money that could be made off of them. For example, seals were murdered for their fur, whales and penguin were slaughtered for the oil they produce which was used to grease the machinery during the Industrial Revolution. Submissive penguins by the hundreds of thousands, were paraded up planks only to plunge off the edge of cauldrons filled with boiling oil, so that their own oil could be relinquished. As a person looking for antarctic cruise you should visit that site.

 

Now, after having explored this incredible frozen continent, mankind is starting to ignore these quick-kill, quick-buck methods of making money, and instead deciding to recreate this winter wonderland as a nature and science reserve. Recently, there have been discussions of establishing a park there. Within Antarctica, scientists are more able to explore certain environmental factors such as the Greenhouse Effect and the depletion of our ozone layer. In the grand scheme of things, this change is remarkably fast. It was only a short time since humans discovered this continent and used it for a quick buck. There is so little of Antarctica that has actually been explored – just a few parts of the coast, some islands, and routes that scientists took to the South Pole. That is, until the 1957-1958 Internation Geophysical Year.

 

The history of man’s presence in Antarctica has been an indistinct collection of stories that portray nationalism, idealism, and unabated slaughter with far too little scientific undertaking involved. The artillery shells of World War One required oil from whales to operate, so whaling increased during this period. Jet engines required extra-fine oil as a lubricant, which led the Americans and Soviets to seek out sperm whales after World War II. Prior to the International Geophysical Year of 1957-1958, Antarctica was identified as the “Terra Australia Incognita,” by medieval mapmakers. As a person looking for antarctic cruise ship you should visit that site.

 

The first birth in Antarctic was witness to great controversy and nationalistic pretension and was entirely purposeful. It was at Argentina’s Esperanza Base that Emilio Marcus Palmer was born in 1978. His mother was flown in solely for the purpose of giving birth to him, so Argentina could lay claim to a large area of Antarctic territory.

 

This occurred nine years after Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin set foot on the moon and placed America’s flag on it as a symbol of America’s dominance over other nations. In 1911, Roald Amundsen’s trek to the South Pole, honoring King Haakon VII of Norway, was the most productive, determined venture of this sort. The British Empire gained honor through the works of Robert F Scott and his group who undertook a similar journey, with the addition of rock and fossil sample collection which they carried with them in their homemade sleds.

 

It is believed that between the discouragement felt when they found out that Amundsen reached the Pole a month sooner, eating a poor diet, having to haul the rocks and fossils, and utter bad luck caused Scott and his team to perish on the return trip, making them the first people to die in Antarctica for the sake of science. A rather unique attempt to stake America’s claim on the territory took place when a Ford Trimotor was flown over the South Pole by Richard Bryd in 1929. The Soviets utilized Russian Admiral Thaddeus Bellingshausen’s voyage, which took him past the Antarctic Peninsula back in 1821, to justify their claims on the continent.

Powered by Yahoo! Answers