Archivo etiqueta «Antártida»
By Erling Kagge, a publisher, polar explorer and philosopher (THE NEW YORK TIMES, 14/12/11):
It was far better to ski toward the South Pole than to reach it.
When I started out my journey in November 1992, everything was white all the way out to the horizon. As the weeks passed, I began to see more colors: variations of white, a bit of blue, green and yellow. By the time the strange-looking buildings of the Amundsen-Scott base appeared on the horizon 50 days later, I felt relief but also disappointment, and thought about skiing past it, back into the … Seguir leyendo
By Brendan Borrell, who writes about science and the environment for Smithsonian, Slate and Scientific American (THE NEW YORK TIMES, 01/12/09):
A desolate island in a frozen sea brings the world’s nations together with a new type of agreement: one giving an international commission the right to govern a landmass through unanimous vote. The year was 1912; the subject was the island of Spitsbergen in the Arctic Ocean. Thereafter, it and the surrounding archipelago were to belong to no nation, its natural resources open to all.
That agreement was no doubt on the minds of the drafters of the … Seguir leyendo
By Simon Jenkins (THE GUARDIAN, 14/03/08):
Sitting on my desk is an illegal acquisition, a black pebble the size of a walnut. I picked it up some years ago on the slopes of Cape Crozier on Ross Island in the Antarctic. This vast wilderness of rock and ice lies on a cliff overlooking the Ross Sea and is celebrated as destination of the “worst journey in the world”.
This was the title of the book written by Apsley Cherry-Garrard about a trip taken by him and two colleagues from Scott’s 1911 polar expedition to acquire the eggs of the Emperor … Seguir leyendo
By Simon Jenkins (THE GUARDIAN, 28/04/06):
There is nowhere on earth more British than 77° south 166° east. On the shores of Ross Island in Antarctica stand three wooden huts intact from one of the classic episodes of British history, the race to the south pole between Scott and Shackleton. Two of the huts, Shackleton’s at Cape Royds (1908) and Scott’s at Cape Evans (1911), are still full of their icebound supplies left in case of either’s return.
Both men, the moody, dedicated Scott and the charismatic Shackleton, endured intense privation on their way to their respective failures. Scott was … Seguir leyendo