No man’s Land
By: Invalid Syntax
Tags: Architecture, Governance, Climate Change, Antarctica

As climate degradation intensifies, earth’s commons face uncertainty.

A-68, March 2020.

A-68 is a massive berg drifting northward. In 2017 it detached from the Larsen C ice-shelf towards the Weddell Sea and today is embracing his lonely fate: leaving the Antarctic Circle and melting into the Southern Ocean. With an area of 5.800km2, the berg is larger than the Metropolitan Area of Buenos Aires (4.758km2), an area that encompasses the City of Buenos Aires plus 34 of the most densely populated districts of the metropolitan region. As unusual as it seems, the A-68 is the first of many bergs that will follow this path, as temperatures in the Antarctic Peninsula continue to increase due to anthropogenic climate change. Only last summer (2019), the argentine research station Esperanza recorded the highest temperature peak ever: 18.2 degrees Celsius.

This scenario reveals that one degree of warming is more than just elevated temperature, and raises questions about the current dynamics of Antarctica and how we, as humans, are inhabiting the landscape. The massive increase in tourism experienced last season (2019–2020), added to the emergence of the Southern Ocean as an ever more convenient fishing zone as resources in other seas are depleted, and the aggressive flow of capital of world superpowers like China and Russia through the continent indicate the silent beginning of a new era of exploitation in the world’s largest natural reserve.

As ice shelves recede and humans advance through Antarctica, the cold-war-era treaty in charge of managing Antarctica is showing increasingly incapable of properly addressing the pressing issues that the white continent is currently facing. Established in 1961, the Antarctic Treaty has efficiently prevented that sovereignty claims between seven states escalate into military conflicts for strategic control over the region by defining the continent as a shared condominium that must remain untouched for the heritage of humankind. Antarctica is one of four internationally recognized global commons along with the atmosphere, the high seas and outer space. These are all areas that have historically been guided by the principle of the common heritage of humankind. In Antarctica no nation has the right to exercise sovereignty, military activities are banned and every nation must put peace and scientific cooperation as the top priorities. As utopian as it seems, the Antarctic Treaty was recognized as a viable model to imagine ways of governance for areas that fall outside national boundaries like the moon or outer space, and has proven to be an efficient prototype for the 20th century. While the model showed potential at the beginning, its progress has stalled. As financial markets increasingly took command of every aspect of contemporary life, the idea of a model of governance based upon the ideas of peace, cooperation and science is confronted with the capitalist desire of absolute commodification.

Resources

Since climate started to show profitability, the continuity of the Antarctic Treaty as the protector of an idyllic place is at jeopardy. On November 2019 China and Russia backed down negotiations and blocked for eight year in a row an attempt to create a marine sanctuary in Antarctic waters, allowing the continuity of extractive activities in east Antarctica. This outcome is the result of an Antarctic Treaty clause that requires a full agreement between the consultative nations before passing any legislation. This means that if a member of the Antarctic Treaty sees a conflict of interests between a legislation and their presence in Antarctica they can step down from the discussion, cancelling the law altogether. This dynamic seems like an unusual way of managing a territory, but when compared to the sole requirement of having a national Antarctic program to become a consultative nation, it looks rather dangerous. Forty-two countries had gained access to the treaty and seventeen of those became consultative members in addition to the original twelve.

The fight for resources currently held in the north pole might give us a hint of what could happen to Antarctica. As climate change advances through the continent, places that where once unreachable are now at hand, and no nation wants to be excluded when the resources become available for exploitation. The Protocol for Environmental Protection is the legal framework that bans any productive activity related with mineral resources in Antarctica, implemented in 1998 it becomes modifiable after 50 years of its creation in 2048. This means that 28 years from now the consultative members of the Antarctic Treaty will have the power to adjust this regulation to fit their needs in an utterly stranger world. Even though it’s very unlikely that this happens, a world economy crumbling apart in the near future may tempt any nation to break the rules, and the treaty might let it happen: In 2016 China started the construction of their fifth base in the continent before the environmental impact assessment was completed and, as the Antarctic Treaty lacks any legal way to enforce the law, nothing was done to punish this misconduct. There are currently 110 bases in Antarctica and while construction of new bases continue at full speed, countries like Australia are seriously concerned about the dual function of this newer research stations, that can be both committed to science and military purposes. This concern is related to the fact that the Antarctic sky is ideal for scientific research into deep space, primarily because of the lack of radio interferences in the area, but it is also a good place to build GPS satellites that might have other uses like the enhancement of the accuracy of missile trajectories. The truth is that in Antarctica, most of the countries follow the rules only for pride and respect to other nations, but as there is no criminal law in the continent nor police or military presence, there is no way to make nations obey the law.

Tourism

When it comes down to tourism, the main industry of the continent, other issues emerge. As no one can exercise sovereignty over the territory, nations only have jurisdiction over their scientist and base personal like cooks, teachers, mechanics, etc. but not tourists. The International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators (IAATO) registered 56.000 visits to Antarctica in the 2018–2019 season and estimated a number of more 78.500 tourists for 2019–2020 season6. When looking at these figures, questions arise on how tourism will be managed in a place where no country has jurisdiction and tourists nor companies can be prosecuted for ignoring IAATO regulations. Another issue concerning tourism is the carbon footprint. As an average 8-day cruise to the continent costs around U$D5000 per person, most tourists that visit Antarctica come from the wealthier nations, located in the northern hemisphere. To embark in Ushuaia, the port city that distributes 70% of Antarctic tourism, tourists have to take multiple flights from their home country to reach the tip of South America, leaving a huge trace of carbon behind. The latest available study about CO2 emissions related to the tourism industry in Antarctica dates back from 2011, and assigns a total of 5.44 tons of CO2 per passenger, with 70% of that total attributed to cruising and the remaining 30% attributed to flying. Even though the study is almost 10 years old, it gives us a hint of what might be happening today when, despite some more energy-efficient cruises stepped into the scene, most of old cruises are still in service and tourism numbers have more than doubled in the last decade.

Tourism in Antarctica

As we can see, the Antarctic Treaty is struggling to respond to the most urgent topics of our time. If after the current health crisis, things will no longer be the same, how will the Antarctic Treaty evolve to address the necessities of the new era? Will the COVID-19 crisis be a starting point for the deploying of conscious climate action strategies to mitigate future catastrophe? Or will the ending of this pandemic result in an aggressive industrial reactivation and lowering climate regulations in favor of the crumbling economy? At this point, we may ask how the Antarctic Treaty will manage to endure against the brutality of capital fueled by global crisis? The sincerest answer is that it probably won’t. Antarctica is melting, and with it, so are the ideas of peace, science and cooperation that governed the territory. Today, the Antarctic Treaty is a blind entity guided by failed utopian ideals from the last century, it’s a rigid body in an ever-changing context. The absence of a democratic system, the lack of updated climate policies or law enforcement systems added to the carbon footprint are some of the most urgent issues that Antarctica must face in order to evolve into an updated way of governance for the twenty-first century. As our world becomes a more complex and unpredictable system, models that where once valid ways of territorial governance are proving to be obsolete in the face of current events. By embracing new technologies, we could collectively transform our world for good. We, as architects, planners, coders, designers, must devise new planetary forms of governance for crumbling territories.

References.

1. Antarctica logs hottest temperature on record with a reading of 18.3C — The guardian– February 7, 2020

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/feb/07/antarctica-logs-hottest-temperature-on-record-with-a-reading-of-183c

2. Antarctic marine park: conservationists frustrated after protection bid fails for eighth time — The guardian — November 2, 2019

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/nov/02/antarctic-marine-park-conservationists-frustrated-after-protection-bid-fails-for-eight-time

Antarctic marine conservation park thwarted by China, Russia — DW — November 2, 2019

https://www.dw.com/en/antarctic-marine-conservation-park-thwarted-by-china-russia/a-51089527

3. In 30 years the Antarctic Treaty becomes modifiable, and the fate of a continent could hang in the balance — The conversation — July 12, 2018

https://theconversation.com/in-30-years-the-antarctic-treaty-becomes-modifiable-and-the-fate-of-a-continent-could-hang-in-the-balance-98654

4. The Future of the White Continent and the Need for its Democratization — 19 July, 2019

https://www.ispionline.it/en/pubblicazione/future-white-continent-and-need-its-democratization-23527

5. China, Russia push GPS rival into Antarctica — The Australian

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/inquirer/china-russia-push-gps-rival-into-antarctica/news-story/1faeb3222806f61110c016ff00390357

6. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/26/travel/antarctica-tourism-environment-safety.html

7. Carbon dioxide emissions of Antarctic tourism — Ramon Farreny, Jordi Oliver-Sola Machiel Lamers, Bas Amelung, Xavier Gabarrell, Joan Rieradevallmarti, Boada Javier Benayas — 2011

https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/687e/15c574e7fb41da7f8bc35280ad03bafc9927.pdf

8. Tourist Statistics — IAATO

https://iaato.org/tourism-statistics-327mnsyd

9. https://www.sciencenews.org/article/southern-ocean-antarctica-absorbs-less-carbon-expected

10. Holly Jean Buck — After Geoengineering — Verso 2019