From: Ernest Cline (ernestcline@mindspring.com)
Date: Sat May 08 2004 - 13:09:41 CDT
> [Original Message]
> From: Philippe Verdy <verdy_p@wanadoo.fr>
>
> The status of some "possessions" in the Antarctica (AQ) is not clear.
They are
> administered by existing countries for the scientific bases that run
there, but
> have now a limited right for their expansion (the old maps that divided
it into
> sectors to the pole are no longer valid), and the territory itself is
placed
> under an international treaty protected by the United Nations.
Not quite. The Antarctic Treaty did not do away with the competing claims,
it merely suspended them and signatories are not allowed to make new
claims in Antarctica while the treaty is in force. All seven nations that
have
claims predating the treaty, Argentina, Australia, Chile, France, New
Zealand,
Norway, and the United Kingdom have not relinquished those claims, and the
United States and Russia while not having made claims (or recognizing those
made by others) have reserved the right to do so (as was the position of the
US and USSR before the treaty was in force.) At one time Brazil was
asserting
a zone of influence but apparently no longer is. In theory, a nation could
choose
to abandon the treaty and assert it claims after having given two years
notice.
In any case, time zones in Antarctica can get complex, with different bases
keeping to different time standards based on which country operates the
base.
IIRC, many of the US bases are on New Zealand time, including New Zealand
daylight savings time calculations.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Sat May 08 2004 - 13:10:18 CDT