Colony in Antarctica?

[Jishdefish]

Why haven't we already made one? I mean, I have an idea consiting mainly of several drilling platforms, making holes into the ice to the land, then using steel poles through these holes, and using them to hold up a permenant platform on which to build a city. This city would be situated upon the south pole, and a device would be directly over it with magnesium blades. Since every direction is Magnetic North then it should turn these blades ever-so-slightly. This miniscule movement, along with gyros and a sort of 'kickstarter' could verywell provide a clean energy source during the periodic dark days. The rest of the time it would be powered by a more efficiant kind of solarpanel, stationed on each and every rooftop. (That would probably be replaced with something else until such devices were invented.)

While I'm going on with what 'should' be put into use: Why don't we send our trash to the sun, (where it would evaporate) instead of polluting our planet with it? Of course, not the recycleable stuff. Some feedback would be appreciated, I kinda made this so Silv would have something to do also.

[+ Silver - Orbs +]

It's a done

[Blue Tiger]

We should make one there, it would really help to reduce overcrowding in countries, especially because Antarctica has so much room which isnt used, and, isnt really owned by anyone, its free....

[Jake]

Why would anyone do that, think how much it would cost!

[Blue Tiger]

just in case the world gets too crowded in places

[Dragyness]

We haven't colonized Antarctica because it would take a massive diplomatic effort on the part of nearly every nation on Earth. Currently there is an agreement between the nations of the world that states that Antarctica belongs to no one particular nation and is to exist as a scientific research site ONLY.

To change this to make it possible for actual colonization would be impossible in today's world/society, because one would need to coordinate the agreement and consensus of nearly every nation on Earth, as was said before, and in today's world that is hardly possible, given the conflicts going on in various places. Currently Antarctica as a neutral research site is one of the ONLY truly, fully peaceful agreements in place that is respected and followed. It will be a LONG time before colonization of the continent begins (if it ever does).

And furthermore, anytime in the past that one nation has looked into colonizing an area, even when they have gotten permission from other nations, it has proven disastrous and often whole wars have been fought over the matter. Look at the Age of Imperialism.

[Corva]

It could be turned into an entire new continent country thingy. Every nation could put a tiny bit in and make it into a big, nuetral superpower. All from scratch. I'd live their. L:ot's of free land. Maybe it could be a project for when I'm older and head of the corpration Technophoenix.

[Jake]

What if the ice caps melt??????

[Jishdefish]

Actually that's anouther idea I've tapped into. The Earth's water supply is limited, and most of all the fresh water on the planet is contained in glaciers and ice caps. We really need to contain it BEFORE it all melts into the sea, and it is ruined. I think we are seriously overesimating how much water is left on this planet, and need to secure it by whatever means nessisary.

And as for the ownership of Antarctica, I know of this contract, and if we were to harvest this continent we would have to be extremly scientific about it, making sure we drill the ice in sections and saving cross sections as it is a databank of planetary history. As for the wildlife, well there isn't much to begin with, and we've already ensured it's destruction from global warming. I know it may sound pig-headed, but we should really take it while it's there and make sure it is used properly.

[awsome]

That doesn't make much sense...

First off, it would be too expensive. Creating underwater buildings would be cheaper, in all actuality...

Secondly, what would be the point? It's too cold, and has extremely undesirable weather patterns...

Thirdly, even if the ice caps melt, and all we are left with is large bodies of salt water, we could get fresh water from it via distillation, and rain...

[Buhamat]

Not to mention is only sun for one half the year and night the other.

[vampirehunter42]

So you are crying about moving there before global warming takes over the world. And suggesting to move to an area with a huge hole in the ozone layer. I think I will just invest in the skin cream and things like that and just make money off all the fools who move there.

Click here for a current pic of the ozone hole

While on the thought of the environment, remember this is one of the few "unspoiled" areas on earth. If we do build a colony there, it will destroy the already fragile ecosystem in place there. We need to think for more than ourselves or everything you are complaining about will get worse.

And "fresh water" is somewhat easy to make. Just refine it like they do oil.

A link to that thought. But this has its trouble as well.

Why don't we send our trash to the sun, (where it would evaporate) instead of polluting our planet with it?

This has been thought on and rejected. There is way too much of a chance for a rocket to crash and cause more damage to the planet than you can think of.

[Falconer]

It could be turned into an entire new continent country thingy. Every nation could put a tiny bit in and make it into a big, nuetral superpower. All from scratch. I'd live their. L:ot's of free land. Maybe it could be a project for when I'm older and head of the corpration Technophoenix.

Who the hell would voluntarily live on the coldest, bleakest continent on Earth?

[Corva]

Me. Jish has the Idea so we will send him/her there. A PR campainhg would be good. I know people who would go there.

As for growing things, thermalite bits in the soil wood warm the roots. Greenhouses would be used.

Export: Mineral wealth. Antartica has loads. And the 'hole' in the ozone waxes and wanes.

[Jake]

I think we all should blow up a random country that nobody likes and take over it!

[Dragon_Nils]

Then that would cause global conflict between the country that blew it up and that country's allies. It would also cause conflict as to who would take it over.

[Jishdefish]

So you are crying about moving there before global warming takes over the world. And suggesting to move to an area with a huge hole in the ozone layer. I think I will just invest in the skin cream and things like that and just make money off all the fools who move there.

Click here for a current pic of the ozone hole

While on the thought of the environment, remember this is one of the few "unspoiled" areas on earth. If we do build a colony there, it will destroy the already fragile ecosystem in place there. We need to think for more than ourselves or everything you are complaining about will get worse.

And "fresh water" is somewhat easy to make. Just refine it like they do oil.

A link to that thought. But this has its trouble as well.

Quote:
Why don't we send our trash to the sun, (where it would evaporate) instead of polluting our planet with it?


This has been thought on and rejected. There is way too much of a chance for a rocket to crash and cause more damage to the planet than you can think of.

My trash idea is just as risky as your toxic waste desalination reintergration part at the bottom, and besides, it can't be any worse than shipping hundreds, maybe even thousands of tons of toxic oil across ocean habitats. At least we'd be trying something that won't just come back to bite us in the in twenty years, especially when it becomes routine(talking about trash placement, not desalination).

As for the rest, maybe it wouldn't be ideal for anything but the only free land left, for corperations and the like(see below). As for the environment, if you haven't studied Global Warming, or the time it takes to develop an alternitive to Fossil Fuels, it is already to late, nothing can be done, if we don't take precautions the land will erode away with the ice. So you see, we have already spoiled it, might as well disinfect what we can and use it.

It could be turned into an entire new continent country thingy. Every nation could put a tiny bit in and make it into a big, nuetral superpower. All from scratch. I'd live their.

Exactly, and cheap melting of the caps, since they already have a jumpstart, along with a few filters and you have the easiest way to selling mass amounts of water to desperatly thirsty Middle Eastern countries in a couple years, or decades. Plenty enough to fund your own country. But, remember this is my idea.

[vampirehunter42]

Ok, on the launch the trash to the sun idea. I guess I need to add this after all. Can you even imagine the costs of doing this? This will like a launch every other day for every major city in the world, not counting the smaller cities. So in just the setup and research you need to make either hundreds of launch towers or caravans of trash filled trucks going to set ones. You will need a number of reusable rockets to keep up with the constant supply of trash. You need to create the rocket for this type of use. You need to find a path to the sun, which will send the object to the sun. And not into an orbit which, as you said, will hit us back in the future. And please don't say anything about the X-prize people because they are not working in the amazing weight we are talking about here. In other words your trash pickup bill will rise by an astronomical amount. (pardon the pun)

As for the Antarctica thing. Going past the other stuff said here. You should read the "Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty (1991) ". Most notable Annex 2 and 3. And yes I have read through about 80% of this. And with what this treaty says, no one will be creating a habitat there. And remember you have to keep you pet dog at home because they are not allowed there.

And to repeat myself, just think of the costs. It would cost in the billions to set up the colony you wish to make. All "buildings" will at best be made off site, and then would need to be flown in and placed together. Then what will you do with the waists? As posted above the costs of launching them will be extremely high, after you workout how to build a rocket which can be launched in that cold of an environment. Yes it will cost less than the moon colony idea but, the keep up will have to cost less.

[Falconer]

Then that would cause global conflict between the country that blew it up and that country's allies. It would also cause conflict as to who would take it over.

Blow up Iraq. And Iran. And Afghanistan. What the hell, blow the entire Middle East up.

[Dragon_Nils]

That would solve it all. Then blow up France and North Korea and we'd have world peace.

[manofthewolf]

America , Canada , and the U.K. could form a secret alliance and take over the rest of europe and build defences from mexico, russia, asia and the middle east (maybe africa, but i doubt it they are usually too busy fighting themselves) and bomb the snot out of the middle east then move in quckly and fortify it. Then we would wait and build a massive navy and air force with only a medium army. Then with minimal casualtys(casualties?) we could bomb coastal places with the navy and bomb more inland places with high-altitude bombers and if we focus our efforts on weaker countries and take them we could easily take russia and china. Then once more we wait and build. We take the koreas and all of those little asai countries i cant remember the names of. Eventually using almost entirely the navy we could take japan. That woulc leave us with africa, australian are and south america to take all of which would be nothing before the manpower. I will include a diagram for anyone who doesn't understand.


N. American + U.K. --> Europe+ defences -->Middle East + a decade or so pause--> Asia - China +The Kireas + Japan --> Russia --> Small asian countries and the Koreas + short pasue (again maybe a decade)--> Japan--> Everywhere else= World Wide Country.


Or we could nuke em all. Oh yeah I beleive the world can be dominated only by force or an EXTREME unforseen event.

[Buhamat]

Then we can have nuclear winter and not have to worry about global warming/moving to Antarctica XD.

[Jishdefish]

Okay, manofthewolf, that was a bit random, could you get back on subject?

As for vampirehunter, yes, rockets would be highly expensive, but I was thinking more along the lines of a space elevator, with a small explosion of gasses to propel a space 'barge' the rest of the way from high orbit, remember, it doesn't have to get there fast, and in space the only thing that would stop from hitting the sun it is the gravity of another object. In the discovery channel documentery '2057' they predicted that such an elevator could be possible using carbon nanotubes for the track to a spacestation and some sort of laser harness.

On the subject of the contract, it is null and void if you denounce your previous country and claim yourself as a completly new one (which hasn't signed the contract), with some backup of course. But this of course would most likely get you shot. More than likely you would need to get the combined agreement of many of the signing countries to make any change. This won't be too hard in a couple of years when global warming becomes fact and we realize what I'm saying, Antartica's SCREWED, we need to conserve what we can and leave it at that.

[vampirehunter42]

Ok here is another problem with the "south pole" plan.

The South Magnetic Pole is the point on the Earth's surface where the geomagnetic field lines are directed vertically upwards. The South Magnetic Pole is constantly wandering due to changes in the Earth's magnetic field; as of 2005 it was calculated to lie at 64.53°S and 137.86°E, just off the coast of Wilkes Land, Antarctica.

For historical reasons, the "end" of a magnet that points towards the Earth's North Pole is itself called the "north pole" of the magnet, with the other end being the magnet's "south pole". Because it is unlike poles that attract, the Earth's North Magnetic Pole is therefore actually a magnetic south pole, and the Earth's South Magnetic Pole is actually a magnetic north pole.

On January 16, 1909 three men (Douglas Mawson, Edgeworth David, and Alistair Mackay) from an expedition led by Sir Ernest Shackleton, claimed to have found the South Magnetic Pole, which was at that time located on land. However, there is now some doubt as to whether their location was correct.

And.....

The task of locating the principal magnetic pole by instrument is difficult for many reasons; the large area over which the dip or inclination (I) is nearly 90 degrees, the pole areas are not fixed points, but move tens to hundreds of kilometers because of daily variations and magnetic storms, and finally, the polar areas are relatively inaccessible to survey crews (map of North and South polar wander - courtesy of Dr. John Quinn, U.S. Geological Survey retired). The Geological Survey of Canada keeps track of the North Magnetic Pole, which is slowly drifting across the Canadian Arctic, by periodically carrying out magnetic surveys to redetermine the Pole's location. The most recent survey, completed in May, 2001, determined an updated position for the Pole and established that it is moving approximately northwest at 40 km per year.

So you can not build your super city on the geomagnetic south pole.


Ok next. The space elevator is a geosynchronous satellite. That means it is in geostationary orbit. And that means the orbit will have to be over the equator. And with that all the trash will need to be transported to these locations along it to send them up it. Once again costing a large amount of money to do this, which will come out of the peoples’ pocket.

(on a side note, I don't think we will make the space elevator. Not with the many problems we know about now. But with one we don't know about. And let's keep it at that.)

[Jishdefish]

Okay, you have thouroughly proved your point, but now I want to hear what YOU think we should do with all the trash. And about the growing population, what do we do about that? Everything has to go somewhere, no matter how much money it takes.