Collaboration

You now have all of the facts you need to make some decisions about whether we can inhabit Antarctica and how we can do it. With your group, develop a plan for:

feeding people and determining the impact humans will have on the food chain;
finding energy sources;
determining the types of structures that could be built to house people;
and writing the laws necessary to maintain order.

View the Antarctica: 90 Degrees South video titled Do I Need a Passport? on habitation.

Guided Questions

Treaties

Who owns Antarctica?
Are there treaties in place for settlement of Antarctica?
What do you think is the most important element of any treaty? Can a treaty work if there is no enforcing body?

Resources
Antartica
http://www0.un.org/cyberschoolbus/treaties/ant.asp

The Antarctica Treaty
http://www.unog.ch/frames/disarm/distreat/antarc.htm

Antarctica Treaties Act, 1996 This is the actual treaty that was put into place in 1996.
http://www.gov.za/gazette/acts/1996/a60-96.htm

Antarctica Treaties
http://www.state.gov/g/oes/ocns/9570.htm

Antarctica II
http://www.reachoutmichigan.org/funexperiments/agesubject/lessons/
newton/AntarcticII.html

Antarctica A hotlist of treaties
http://www.loc.gov/law/guide/antarctica.html

Marine Pollution

How can we deal with marine pollution?

Resources
Encyclopedia of Sustainable Development
http://www.doc.mmu.ac.uk/aric/esd/index.html

Marine Pollution One
http://seawifs.gsfc.nasa.gov/OCEAN_PLANET/HTML/peril_pollution1.html

Index of Ocean Regulations
http://www.epa.gov/owow/oceans/regs/

British Antarctic Survey

http://www.antarctica.ac.uk/About_BAS/Cambridge/Divisions?EID/
Environment/Prevention_of_marine_pollution.html

Environmental Impact

What is the environmental impact of humans in Antarctica?

Resources
Encyclopedia of Sustainable Development
http://www.doc.mmu.ac.uk/aric/esd/index.html

Human Impact
http://octopus.gma.org/surfing/human/

Human Interaction with Antarctica
http://auexplorer.tripod.com/antarctica3.html

Australian Antarctic Division
http://www.aad.gov.au/default.asp?contnet=dynamic&title=Human+
impacts+ in+Antarctica&casic=3436&docid=2620&type=1&children=

Waste Management

How will we deal with waste management?

Resources
Artic Explorers Waste Management
http://tea.rice.edu/kolb/kolbletters_dec_22.html

Australian Antarctic Division Waste Management
http://www.aad.gov.au/default.asp?content=dynamic&title=
Waste&casid= 214&docid=1&type=3&children=3416,3417,3418,755,3419

Encyclopedia of Sustainable Development
http://www.doc.mmu.ac.uk/aric/esd/index.html

South Pole Waste Segregation Plan
http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/antarctica/background/NSF/waste.html

Protected Areas

How can we manage protected areas?

Resources
Best Practice in Park Management
http://www.ea.gov.au/parks/best-practice/index.html

Earth Share
http://www.earthshare.org

Host Position Description, 2003
http://www.nsgo.seagrant.org/Knauss/2003/pd2003/NSF_PolarProgram.pdf

Managing Antarctica, CCAMLR and the Antarctica Treaty
http://www.wdcs.org/dan/publishing.nsf/allweb/
BB006BA85069AE4E80256C5A002ACC03

Food Production

How will we produce food for the people living in Antarctica?

Resources
The Ecosystem and Food Web of the Antaractic Peninsula
http://www.literacynet.org/polar/pop/html/project-ecosystem.html

Antarctic Life Forms--The Food Chain, "Who eats whom?"
http://polarmistexp.com/polarmist_web/antarctica/life_foodchain.html

Antarctica The Ice is Moving
http://www.bluedolphin.org/Antarctica.html

Housing

What type of housing will be appropriate for the people who live there?

Resources
Housing in Antarctica
http://www.hu.mtu.edu/~mmcooper/classes/housing.html

Antarctica
http://challenge.education.utep.edu/webprojects/DesertProject/
text%20files/antarctica.html

Antarctica
http://www.concierge.com/antarctica

Building up, at the bottom
http://csmweb2.emcweb.com/durable/2000/10/26/fp11s1-csm.shtml

Transportation

What type of transportation system will be used?

Resources
Antarctica
http://www.1uptravel.com/international/other/antarctica/transportation.html

Antarctica Transportation 2001
http://workmall.com/wfb2001/antarctica/antarctica_transportation.html

Transportation in Antarctica
http://www.hu.mtu.edu/~mmcooper/classes/transport.html

Laws

What laws will be needed to protect the environment?
What laws will be needed to provide a save environment for the people?