The Antarctic Treaty
1959 CE • Antarctica
“When Admiral Byrd ew over the South Pole in 1928 he dropped an American flag . . . [But] actually it was the I.G.Y. [International Geophysical Year] that introduced a new approach to Antarctica. A large part of the Earth’s surface was tacitly made sacrosanct as a great laboratory. The treaty signed yesterday gives permanents to that status . . . As one of the delegates said yesterday, ‘if the olive branch of Peace has to be carried into the world from the barren wastes of Antarctica, then, paradoxical as it may seem, it is as good a starting place as any.’”
“The Antarctic Treaty,” The New York Times, December 2, 1959.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Am undsenScottSuedpolStation.jpg
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