Timeline Of Human Activity In Antarctica

Antarctica, Earth’s southernmost continent, faces numerous threats from climate change, but many people don’t know very much about the isolated area. The Onion looks back at a history of exploration, scientific study, and human activity in Antarctica.

1490:

Lost European explorers perplexed by how cold India is.

1820:

Discovery of Antarctica sends world ice prices plummeting.

1911:

Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen beats British explorer Robert Falcon Scott in the race to the South Pole after Scott falters during the critical Ross Ice Shelf sprint stage.

1917:

Ernest Shackleton completes the first successful mission to get a boat stuck in Antarctic pack ice and be forced to live miserably on a floe for months.

1935:

Caroline Mikkelsen becomes the first person to experience sexism on Antarctica.

1959:

The Antarctic Treaty is signed in Washington, placing a moratorium on natural resource exploitation and preventing penguins from industrializing the continent and entering the 20th-century global economy.

1991:

The ratification of the Madrid Protocol declares Antarctica to be a “natural reserve, devoted to peace and science” for the remaining 50 years of its existence.

2005:

The film March Of The Penguins documents Antarctica’s disturbing descent into fascism.

2018:

Look, it’s perfectly normal for some continents to shrink, okay? Happens all the time.