Last time out I talked about humans taking over Antarctica. I couldn’t not finish the whole story in that post and only got up to almost half of it. After the Europeans started claiming land in Antarctica because it 'looked cool', things weren't very dramatic in the southern most part of the world. Until, well, world war II. Actually after world war II. Germany tried taking over land in Antarctica but essentially they weren't allowed or could feasibly do anything. They left.
A few years later came new claims for land. Argentina and Chile were the two new countries who claimed to be owning land in Antarctica. Now you would ask why and how is this even remotely possible. Here's the catch. In the years of the 1300s and 1400s, European countries would send out expeditions across the sea in search of new roads and paths to reach the east. Since the ottomans effectively closed the silk road and taxed it. Many of these expeditions went wayward and landed on faraway lands which weren't even discovered by then.
One such expedition led to the discovery of the Americas. After which every country wanted a piece of the action and to fight it off Portugal and Spain joined forces and effectively split their share of the Americas in a straight vertical line. But since back then Antarctica wasn't discovered, there was no indication in that contract on where the line would end. So since it was a vertical line from north to south, theoretically it would land on Antarctica and Argentina and Chile who were back then at a certain side of the line, claim that part of Antarctica to also be under that contract. As it falls behind the line. Though Chile and Argentina's claims both overlap each other and both of their overlap England's claim, it's a mess. Now you would think this is enough to spark an all out war between the nations but then again you look at Antarctica and say hey, no war took place. Well that's correct because no country actually bothered the other country overlapping their proclaimed territory. They all happily ignored each other.
Now, after world war two, came the cold war. In those 40 years when every little war was somehow connected to the great cause, the whole world was on edge. And nuclear testings were at its peak. You all know about how nuclear testings gave us the modern culture, I already wrote about it too. So if there was any barren inhabited land found, nations would try to do nuclear testings there. Seeing how mankind's destructive inventions can also scar the one place on earth which isn't yet violated with filthy humanly steps, the international leaders signed the Antarctic Treaty. In this treaty all the nations who have previously claimed land in Antarctica are allowed to keep their land unless they expand it, change it or do anything else with it. Making the Antarctic map effectively frozen. No military bases, no nuclear testings, no colonization and nothing was permitted to do in Antarctica. Eventually freezing the whole Antarctica which is already frozen.
This treaty expires in 2048. And considering international opinion changes every now and then we can't say for certain that humans would renew this treaty to save Earth's last naturally holy place. It can very well be scrapped and nations can move in and do some good old resource hunting or make tourism businesses or hold ice races or movie shootings which require cold places. Who knows, considering the timeline, maybe it is actually up to our generation to decide. Whether we want to kill Antarctica too, or we want to save the last bit of nature.