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Some reflections on the Antarctic Treaty

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 October 2009

F.W.G. Baker
F.W.G. Baker*
Affiliation:
La Combe de Sauve, Venterol 26110, France (mike.baker@wanadoo.fr)
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Extract

2009 brings not only the 50th anniversary of the Antarctic Treaty but also the end of the International Geophysical Year (IGY) and of its extension into the period of International Geophysical Cooperation (IGC 1959). It is also the 133rd anniversary of K. Weyprecht's suggestion that initiated the impetus. As he noted, ‘if Polar Expeditions are looked upon merely as a sort of international steeple-chase . . . and their main object is to exceed by a few miles the latitude reached by a predecessor these mysteries (of Meteorology and Geomagnetism) will remain unsolved’ (Weyprecht 1875). Although he stressed the importance of observations in both the Arctic and Antarctic during the first International Polar Year (IPY) in 1882–1883 only two stations in the sub-Antarctic region, at Cap Horn and South Georgia, made such scientific recordings. In spite of the fact that several expeditions to the Antarctic had been made in the period between the first and the second IPY 1932–1933, no stations were created in Antarctica during that IPY. The major increase in scientific studies in Antarctica came with the third IPY, which became the IGY of 1957–1958.

Type
50 years on: invited reflections on the Antarctic Treaty
Information
Polar Record , Volume 46 , Issue 1 , January 2010 , pp. 2 - 4
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

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