Desarrollo de la Antártica

POSSIBILITIES FOR EXPLOITATION OF ANTARCTIC IRESOURCES Phillip Law Vice ChanceIlor, Victoria Institute of Colleges. Australia The first man lO approadh the Antarctic Continent was Captain J a– mes Cook who, between 1772 and 1774, circumnavigated lAntarctica and discovered a number of sub-Antarctic Isbnds. Speaking of these Islands he wrote, "Countries condemned to everlasting rigidity by Na– ture, never to yield to the warmth of the sun, for whose wild and de– solate aspect I find no words; such are fue countries we have disco– vered; What then may those resemble which lie still further to the SoutJh? Should any one possess the resolution and fortitude to elucidate this point by yet pushing further south than I have done, [ shall not envy iflim the fame of his discovery, hut I make bold to declare the world will derive no bendit from it." Let us see whether the passing of nearly 200 years has .proved Cook right or wrong. The last 30 years have seen tlhe opening up of the great Antarctic Continent. Before Ilhe International Geophysical Year (the I.G.Y.), which started in 1957, almost nothing was known of the interior of Antarctica. There were large tracts of coast whioh had neither been visited nor seen, let alone charted. No man had ever experienced a winter inland on the Antarctic plateau before 1957 and it was not k.nown what degree of cold would Ihave to be faced there. (We now know that the temperature in central Antarctica drops almost as lowas -1300F.). No aircraft had ever flown from another Continent to Antarctica itself and no flying in willter had been attempted in Antarctica. 'During and since the I.G.Y. remarkable progress has been made in mapping this desolate region and in developing the log,istic techniques required ,by úhose who wish to live and WOI1k there, so now more than ever before the question is being asked, ''What is to ,be Ilhe future of Antarctica; what are its resources and its potential value?" We cannot yet give a satisfactory answer to this question. We can explain its immense value as a region for scientific investiga, tions, but we can list very little in the way of known matrerial resources. We can propose, wiúh theuse of a Httle imaginatíon, sorne of the developments that might occur in Antarctica during the next few decades and we can underline the difficulties which must 24