Who Owns Antarctica?

Morning Antarcticans!

So… Antarctica.

Home to the south pole, 44 million penguins and about 5000 nerds who do science there.

During the winter, the sun doesn't come up at all, and the temperature falls as low as -76 degrees Fahrenheit (-60 Celsius)

Pretty chilly.

You could understand why nobody actually lives there permanently.

But who then actually owns Antarctica?

Well…

It's actually (kinda) owned by you… and me… and literally every human.

Belonging to all of us and none of us, held for future generations to enjoy.

Nice!

But there's a problem.

The paperwork saying Antarctica is owned by everyone has a bit of a caveat.

Antarctica is kinda “claimed” already.

By these guys:

Luckily, they all just kinda avoid each other, doing their own thing at their own research bases.

Some countries just build research bases wherever the hell they want.

China, for example, placed their research stations here:

Basically saying F-you to all the claims in that area.

Making things even more complicated, the US and the Soviet Union (now Russia) gave themselves each a [1 free claim] ticket.

So, whenever they feel like owning a piece of the Antarctic pie, they can just make a new claim.

You know, just cuz they can.

Amazingly, all of these dudes agreed to 3 simple rules.

Keeping Antarctica kinda like a big nature reserve.

To preserve its natural beautiful “Antartica-ness”

Speaking of nature reserves…

Antarctica is so strict, if you go there you are not allowed to leave ANYTHING behind.

And I mean ANYTHING.

If you poop whilst in Antarctica.

You're gonna have to take it home with you.

Ye… really.

Alrighty, let's get back on topic.

So, what's the issue with the whole “owned by everyone” thing?

Well, it was probably this:

Yeah, no-one agreed.

So they had to add a clause to the paperwork basically saying:

Countries will act as though Antarctica is owned by all of mankind and as though they have no claims (but legally doesn’t really matter lol).

So, if we were to simplify it:

Antarctica is owned by everyone, no-one, the UK, Norway, Australia, New Zealand, France, Argentina, Chile, and kinda, but not yet, the US and Russia.

Understand?

Nope, me neither.

Stay Cute,
Reece, Henry & Dylan 🌈

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