Image source: British Antarctic Survey
So you may be asking why this blog is about my 2041 adventure - given that I'm going in March 2022.
The 2041 Foundation was set up by Robert Swan, OBE, polar explorer and environmentalist following trips to the North and South Poles where he experienced first hand the damage that was being done to the regions: suffering eye and skin damage as he traversed under the then unknown hole in the ozone layer, and falling through ice caps that were melting months earlier than expected.
And the reason it's called 2041? Well, 30 years ago Robert Swan was given a mission by Jacques Cousteau. He challenged Robert Swan with a 50-year mission to save Antarctica from the realities of climate change and understood that the exploitation and mining in the Arctic would be impossible to stop because it is owned. Until 2041 Antarctica is protected by a Treaty, originally signed by 12 countries with the purpose of promoting peace, encouraging scientific investigation and international co-operation, preventing territorial claims, and prohibiting nuclear activity.
In 1991 the Environmental Protocol (also known as the Madrid Protocol) was signed. This places an indefinite ban on mining or mineral resource activity in Antarctica as well as setting a framework for the comprehensive protection of the Antarctic environment, and today there are 54 parties to the Treaty.
Whilst the Treaty remains in place indefinitely, the operation of the Environmental protocol can be reviewed/amended in 2041. This means that if enough parties agree the treaty can be changed or even abandoned altogether. There are already signs that countries be looking to possess territories out there and ironically, as the climate warms it may actually make oil and gas deposits, thought to be under the ice, extractable.