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Environment and Natural Resources 85 ANTARCTICA The Antarctic continental region extends over 14 million square kilometres and comprises 26 per cent of the world’s wilderness area, representing 90 per cent of all terrestrial ice and 70 per cent of planetary fresh water. The Antarctic also extends to a further 36 million square kilometres of ocean. It has a limited terrestrial life and a highly productive marine ecosystem, comprising a few plants (e.g. microscopic algae, fungi and lichen), marine mammals, fish and hordes of birds adapted to harsh conditions, as well as the krill, which is central to marine food chain and upon which other animals are dependent. The Antarctic plays an important role in maintaining climatic equilibrium, and deep ice cores provide an important source of information about greenhouse gas concentrations and atmospheric temperatures of hundreds and thousands of years ago. Who owns this coldest, farthest, and windiest continent on globe? There are two claims about it. Some countries like the UK, Argentina, Chile, Norway, France, Australia and New Zealand have made legal claims to sovereign rights over Antarctic territory. Most other states have taken the opposite view that the Antarctic is a part of the global commons and not subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of any state. These differences, however, have not prevented the adoption of innovative and potentially far-reaching rules for the protection of the Antarctic environment and its ecosystem. The Antarctic and the Arctic polar regions are subjected to special regional rules of environmental protection. Since 1959, activities in the area have been limited to scientific research, fishing and tourism. Even these limited activities have not prevented parts of the region from being degraded by waste as a result of oil spills. areas orregionsoftheworld which Cooperation over the global are located outside the sovereign commons is not easy. There jurisdiction of any one state, have been many path-breaking and therefore require common agreements such as the 1959 governance by the international AntarcticTreaty,the1987Montreal community. These are known Protocol, and the 1991 Antarctic as res communis humanitatis or Environmental Protocol. A major global commons. They include the problem underlying all ecological Very soon we will earth’s atmosphere, Antarctica issues relates to the difficulty of have ecological (see Box), the ocean floor, and achieving consensus on common degradation of the outer space. environmental agendas on the moon! Reprint 2026-27