Word: continentality
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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The focus of contention at the moment is the Wellington Convention, an international agreement that would establish rules governing oil and mineral exploration and development in Antarctica. Proponents say the convention, painstakingly drafted during six years of negotiations, contains stringent environmental safeguards. But many environmentalists see the convention as the...
Meanwhile, some of the harm already done will not easily be repaired and may have far-reaching impact. For many years, the industrial nations have been releasing chlorofluorocarbons into the atmosphere, not realizing that these chemicals were destroying the ozone layer, which shields the earth from harmful ultraviolet radiation. Because...
Around the edges, though, Antarctica is more than just an icebox. On the Antarctic Peninsula, which reaches like a finger to within 965 km (600 miles) of South America, the temperature has risen as high as 15 degrees C (59 degrees F). The peninsula is home to the continent's...
It was the bountiful sea life that initially drew large numbers of men to the southern continent. When James Cook first circled Antarctica between 1772 and 1775, he saw hordes of seals on the surrounding islands, and during the next century the continent became a hunter's paradise. By the...
Airplanes made Antarctic travel much less perilous. In 1929 Richard Byrd, an American, became the first person to fly to the South Pole, a 16-hour round . trip from Antarctica's west coast. And in the 1930s, German aviators claimed part of the continent for the Third Reich by dropping...