Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
2. The Antarctic Treaty's Zone of Application
The notion that the Antarctic landmass should be defined by its wilderness qualities is ex-
plicitly noted in Article 3 of the 1991 Protocol on Environmental Protection, which de-
mands that Antarctic Treaty Consultative Parties (ATCP) commit themselves to the 'pro-
tection of the Antarctic environment … and the intrinsic value of Antarctica, including its
wilderness and aesthetic values'. As well as for its own sake, Antarctica's wilderness val-
ues matter when considered as part of an ongoing global debate about the fate of the plan-
et. Recent television programmes (e.g. the BBC's Frozen Planet), films (e.g. The March
of the Penguins), music (e.g. Peter Maxwell Davies's Antarctic Symphony), art (e.g. Anne
Noble's British Petroleum Map), and novels (e.g. Kim Stanley Robinson's Antarctica) sug-
gest that the idea of the Antarctic landmass as wilderness provokes fascination, but also
anxiety about what damage we might be doing as a human community to it. Are economic
and ecological meltdown co-producing one another?
Thus, as we ponder some of the region's diverse human and physical geographies, our re-
gional scope will extend northwards of the Antarctic Circle to encompass the northern tip
of the Antarctic Peninsula, and islands such as Campbell, Prince Edward Islands, South
Orkneys, and South Georgia, as well as the Southern Ocean. When we consider the Antarc-
tic more broadly, whether it be culturally, economically, politically, or environmentally,
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