Melting Empires? Climate Change and Politics in Antarctica since the International Geophysical Year

Datos Bibliográficos

ID3924674
AutoresAdrian Howkins (0000-0002-9615-2337, Colorado State University, autor de correspondencia)
Año2011
Volumen26
Número1
Páginas180-197
Fecha de publicación2011-01-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaOsiris (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0369-7827 • E-ISSN: 1933-8287
EditorialUniversity of Chicago Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1086/661271
PMID21936193
OpenAlexW2003649081
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas7
Referencias citadas23

This article examines the relationship between climate change and politics in Antarctica since the International Geophysical Year of 1957-8, paying particular attention to the work of the British Antarctic Survey. Research conducted in Antarctica has played an important role in the understanding of climate change on a global scale. In turn, fears about the consequences of global climate change have radically changed perceptions of Antarctica and profoundly shaped scientific research agendas: a continent that until fifty years ago was perceived largely as an inhospitable wilderness has come to be seen as a dangerously vulnerable environment. This radical shift in perception contrasts with a fundamental continuity in the political power structures of the continent. This article argues that the severity of the threat of climate change has reinforced the privileged political position of the "insider" nations within the Antarctic Treaty System

Climate change · Geography · Global warming · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Wilderness · Arctic and Russian Policy Studies · Cryospheric studies and observations · Law · Polar Research and Ecology · Geology · Oceanography