New Book from the GRETPOL-project

Achim Klüppelberg

, 2023-05-15

Later this year, Janet Martin-Nielsen‘s new book, “A Few Acres of Ice: Environment, Sovereignty, and Grandeur in the French Antarctic” will be published by Cornell University Press. This book stems from the GRETPOL project which took place at KTH Stockholm and the University of Stavanger over the past three years.

A Few Acres of Ice is an in-depth study of France’s complex relationship with the Antarctic, from the search for Terra australis by French navigators in the sixteenth century to France’s role today as one of seven states laying claim to part of the white continent. Martin-Nielsen focuses on environment, sovereignty, and science to reveal not only the political, commercial, and religious challenges of exploration, but also the interaction between environmental concerns in polar regions and the geopolitical realities of the twenty-first century. She details how France has worked (and, at times, not worked) to perform sovereignty in Terre Adeìlie, from the territory’s integration into France’s colonial empire to France’s integral role in making the environment matter in Antarctic politics. As a result, A Few Acres of Ice sheds light on how Terre Adeìlie has altered human perceptions and been constructed by human agency since (and even before) its discovery.

A preview of the book is available on the publisher’s website!

Norwegian oil and Antarctica

Sofia Jonsson

, 2021-09-20

Authors: Alejandra Mancilla, professor in Philosopy, UiO & Peder Roberts, associate professor in Modern history, UiS & researcher, Division of History of Science, Technology and Environment, KTH

The most recent IPCC report paints a dark picture. Among other things, melting Antarctic ice could put many parts of the world underwater. We therefore want to pose two questions: do we have the necessary tools to preserve Antarctica, and thereby also the world? And can the Antarctic Treaty states (including Norway) claim that they are fulfilling their commitments under the Treaty when they continue to pursue oil-focused policies?

Norway is one of the 29 consultative parties to the Antarctic Treaty, which marks its 60^th anniversary in 2021. Many celebrate that the treaty has achieved peace and scientific cooperation. Additionally, it is 30 years since the Protocol on Environmental Protection (widely known as the Madrid Protocol) was agreed. Since then no further legal instruments have been developed to deal with new challenges – above all, the climate crisis. We argue that the Antarctic Treaty does not lack the necessary tools to address this challenge, and that instead it is a matter of more ambitiously interpreting the texts that already exist, and the responsibilities of the individual countries involved.

The Madrid Protocol states that the parties commit to protecting “the Antarctic environment and dependent and associated ecosystems.” This phrase (which occurs nineteen times in the text) leads to the question: what does it mean to protect ecosystems that are dependent and/or associated with Antarctica? The Protocol, like the Treaty itself, covers the area from the South Pole to latitude 60 degrees south, but to attain that goal it is necessary to act further north. Actions outside the geographic boundaries of the Antarctic Treaty should therefore be taken into account when evaluating the extent to which a state fulfills its commitments to protect Antarctica.

The Protocol also asserts that Antarctica has “intrinsic value”. Intrinsic value stands in contrast to instrumental value. Using Antarctica as a laboratory is an example of the latter, where Antarctica functions as a means to achieve the end of increasing scientific knowledge. Intrinsic value, on the other hand, demands that we treat Antarctica as an end in itself. What exactly that means is a discussion that the Antarctic Treaty parties are yet to have, but which could lead to a more ambitious interpretation of the Protocol’s mandate.

The processes that drive climate change and loss of biodiversity do not follow political geographical boundaries. For Antarctica, it is not enough to regulate activities within the Treaty area itself: activities beyond must also be considered. The states that signed the Madrid Protocol committed themselves, in a way, to protect the whole world. It is high time that citizens of the signatory states voiced that demand, particularly in the context of elections. Committing to meet or exceed the targets set in the Paris Agreement would be a good start.

As a founding member of the Antarctic Treaty that continues to be active in the continent, Norway should take the lead in this process. The country has a self-image as an enthusiastic advocate of human rights and environmental causes at the global level. If it wishes to live up to its reputation, Norway ought to begin by stopping issuing new permits for oil exploration and taking concrete steps toward reducing fossil fuel production. Thus can Norway truly make a contribution to protecting Antarctica.

Lize-Marié van der Watt and Kati Lindström on Tourism and Heritage in Antarctica

Sofia Jonsson

, 2021-04-26

Polar Geography has just released an article from the Creating Cultural Heritage in Antarctica Project (CHAQ) with both Kati Lindström and Lize-Marié van der Watt, the project’s PI, as co-authors. The article “Tourism and heritage in Antarctica: exploring cultural, natural and subliminal experiences” explores the inseparability of natural and cultural features in the tourist appreciation of heritage in Antarctica.

Remains of the first Swedish Antarctic Expedition (1901-1903) at Snow Hill island, Antarctica, documented by Swedish-Argentine research expedition CHAQ 2020. Division researchers Kati Lindström and Dag Avango (also at LTU) took part of the expedition. Photo: Kati Lindström

Abstract

The guidelines on heritage management adopted by the 2018 Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting provide the most recent iteration for an Antarctic tourism sector which had, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, been projected to increase further with various risks and potential impacts requiring careful management. In this paper the role of cultural heritage for tourism prior to the COVID-19 pandemic is examined through three empirical perspectives. First, how the Antarctic cultural heritage is represented through the designation of Historic Sites and Monuments and Site Guidelines for Visitors; then how this is presented through tourism operators’ websites; and, finally, how it is experienced by visitors as narrated in open-source social media information. Each dataset suggests that, while cultural heritage is an important component of an increasingly commodified tourist offering, it is only part of an assemblage of elements which combine to create a subliminal and largely intangible Antarctic experience. In particular, a polarization of the heritage experience between cultural and natural does not appear productive. The paper proposes a more nuanced understanding of heritage tourism in Antarctica which accommodates the notion of a hybrid experience that integrates cultural heritage, the history and stories this heritage represents, and the natural environmental setting.

Link to the full article: Tourism and heritage in Antarctica: exploring cultural, natural and subliminal experiences by Bob Frame ,Daniela Liggett, Kati Lindström, Ricardo M. Roura & Lize-Marié van der Watt.

Winter at Hope Bay, Antarctica

Achim Klüppelberg

, 2021-03-01

To Northern Europeans, Antarctica is still a place of wonder and mystery. This might even more so be the case in times of rapid climate change – for a plethora of reasons.

The following story happened at Hope Bay in Antarctica. In January 1902, Otto Nordenskjöld together with his Swedish Antarctic Expedition discovered the bay. Unfortunately, their boat sank due to collisions with floating ice and the expedition was forced to spent quite some time at land. The shipwrecked built a stone hut, which provided them with much-needed shelter against the elements. Ultimately, they were rescued by the Argentinian boat “ARA Uruguay” under the command of Julián Irízar and could return home.

The following text is a translation done by our division’s researcher Kati Lindström from Duse’s Amongst Penguins and Seals (Stockholm, Beijers Bokförlagsaktiebolag, 1905, pp. 178-181). Duse was a member of the stranded expedition. The translated text was originally published on the Melting History blog. This blog is part of the project evolving around CHAQ 2020 (Cultural Heritage Antarctica 2020), “an Argentinean-Swedish expedition to the historical remains of the First Swedish Antarctic Expedition 1901-1903 on the Antarctic Peninsula.” Researchers involved with ties to our division are Dag Avango (now Professor of History at Luleå University of Technology), Lize-Marié Hansen van der Watt and Kati Lindström.

—

Samuel Duse writes:

The worst was during the periods of rough weather when we were forced to stay inside the artificial polar darkness of the stone hut, not disturbed by a single ray of light – perhaps only when a heavier storm tore open the ice plaster in the roof. …

We soon learned to predict when the southern storms would hit. Usually, it first started with a quiet snowfall while the barometer sank. When the barometer started to raise again, it was not long before a gust of wind heralded that the dance is starting soon. The newly fallen snow would start to move and it was best to crawl into the stone hut while you could still see something. Here inside you could lay down now and listen to the wild play of the mighty storm. It whispered and roared, it whistled and squeaked, the roof pounded with flying ice bits and small stones. It sounded as if all hell’s demons were trying hard to lay their hands on us here inside.

But the stone hut was sturdy and no storm could pull it down. Despite the brutal cold inside, filthiness and darkness, we snugged into our sleeping bags with a feeling of gratitude and the feeling of triumph was not missing when we saw that wind was powerless against the creation of our hands.

The longer we laid captive there inside, the more desperately we desired to go back again towards the light, towards the blinding sun that gave warmth and life….

And then we finally got out again from the darkness, we felt like the sky shone lighter and bluer than ever before, that the glacier glittered in sunlight in richer colours, and that Mt Flora’s ridged hillsides rose skywards more majestically than ever. We filled our lungs with the clean fresh air and a feeling of freedom brimmed our hearts amidst our captivity.

—

For pictures of the stone hut remains check out the Melting History blog.

Connections at the End of the World

, 2019-05-15

Author: Lize-Marié van der Watt

About a decade ago, a handful of humanities and social science scholars joined an international conference to commemorate 50 years since the signing of the Antarctic Treaty. They were part of an Action Group (est. 2006) within the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR), delivering papers to a small audience in a windowless basement room in Washington DC. However, this year’s conference, “Antarctic Connections at the End of the World,”—handled by what became the Standing Committee on Humanities and Social Sciences (SC-HASS)—was attended by 130 participants from all seven continents and took place in a large hall with splendid views over the Beagle Channel, in Ushuaia, Argentina. It is clear that this community has not only reached a critical mass but also a critical maturity.

Certainly, this year was a watershed moment. Well-known scholars whose primary work does not usually consider Antarctica chose to attend the conference. There were lively debates between different schools of thought—for example, on cultural heritage in Antarctica, the resilience of the Antarctic Treaty System, and colonial and decolonial perspectives on Antarctic history and literature. The conference empathetically demonstrated that—in addition to their usefulness in multidisciplinary approaches to major research problems—the humanities and social science disciplines are crucial in and of themselves. It is also becoming apparent that scholars can use Antarctica to think through a lot of contemporary outstanding issues in the humanities and social sciences.

Researchers from the Division of History of Science, Technology, and Environment made a strong showing at the conference. Kati Lindström’s investigation of Chilean and Japanese perspectives on the Convention on the Regulation of Antarctic Mineral Resource Activities (CRAMRA) negotiations got a special mention in the SCAR newsletter for starting a conversation on the importance of working in different languages. She presented in a session on “Historical Antarctic Strategies” which highlighted how the dominant stories of significant moments, agents and actants in the governance and exploration of Antarctica are coloured by standpoints of those that tell them. Justiina Dahl, who until recently was a postdoc at the division but now works at the Swedish Polar Research Secretariat, presented in the same session, using an analysis of the justificatory narratives in the establishment of the Finnish Antarctic Programme. Peder Roberts argued in his presentation that the scale of logistics contracts and research infrastructures from the International Geophysical Year onwards constitute the hidden part of the historical iceberg when it comes to the history of Antarctic research.

attending group antarctic conference — Polar Presenters: Dag Avango, Justiina Dahl, Peder Roberts, Kati Lindström, and Lize-Marié van der Watt

A session organised by the Creating Cultural Heritage in Antarctica project (CHAQ) took critical heritage approaches to historic sites and monuments in an official but also unofficial sense. Lize-Marié van der Watt dug into the history of the procedure by which official heritage in Antarctica is created, asking to what extent it can be seen as part of a pursuit for knowing, and controlling, the Antarctic environment. In his presentation, Dag Avango proposed a theoretical framework for understanding the role of heritage making in international competitions for influence over the polar regions, by placing heritagization processes within the framework of a wider discussion on the relation between humans, things and ecologies in post-humanities scholarship. Kati also presented in this session, tracing the regionalisation of Antarctic Heritage in Chile and Japan.

Travelling to the end of the world (or Fin del Mundo as Ushuaia is commonly known), the KTH team used this opportunity to also conduct some fieldwork in the area and en route, including visiting polar-related museums such as the Corbeta Uruguay, the Museo Malvinas e Islas del Atlántico Sur, some military museums in Buenos Aires, and the Museo Marítimo y del Presidio de Ushuaia. Kati also conducted interviews with key actors in Argentine Antarctic environmental and cultural policy. Excitingly, some of us also met with authorities in Argentina to discuss plans for an Argentine-Swedish Antarctic expedition to some key historical sites on the Antarctic peninsula. More will be revealed soon.

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New Book from the GRETPOL-project

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Norwegian oil and Antarctica

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Lize-Marié van der Watt and Kati Lindström on Tourism and Heritage in Antarctica

Abstract

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Winter at Hope Bay, Antarctica

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Connections at the End of the World

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