Antarctica- The worlds last great.....

[Brown, Jon Brow]

......wilderness.

The only place on Earth without an indigenous population, the worlds largest desert and plays a vital role in the Earths climate.

But it is thought that under the ice it holds the largest fields of Oil and coal on the planet. However since 1998 they have been protected by the Antarctic Environmental Protocol, which prohibits any mineral extraction.

But this ends in 50 years time. By then all of our other oil fields may have run dry, so would you favour exploiting Antarctica's reserves?

My main query is who has rights to the oil? The 1959 Antarctic Treaty prevents any country from holding territorial rights to Antarctica, even though nations like Britain, Norway and Argentina claim territory, they aren't recognised.

But would it be moral to exploit Antarctica?

[fandango]

These are good questions, but they just don't matter. If it turns a profit, the exploitation will happen.

[Viktory]

I feel a third world war brewing....

[Schultz]

Australia claims the largest slice of this baby. Who really is able to exploit this resource depends on how the world is positioned in about 50 years time. Australia is not going to be able to gain any legitimate backing to Australian ownership of the land unless it is supported by some of the anglo countries. I would imagine that against the rise of China, India and some of the Asian powers; the US, UK, Australia, Canada and New Zealand might make some kind of formal treaty to share the resources should it come to that. But who knows, maybe oil will be made reduntant soon...

Maybe we will realise that focusing on the extraction of raw minerals is actually inhibiting development rather than anything. I saw an interview with the author of the book 'the world is flat', and he was describing how people in countries like Saudi Arabia drill oil and rely on industry that generally delivers profit to the elites. Meanwhile, there are countries like Taiwan, who don't have any natural resource to rely on, and so, drill their people and develop democracy to better facilitate education and so on.

Off the track a bit, but it really made me think...