I recently was reminded of how Russia and China or jockeying for who gets to strip mine Antarctica. (I think I heard it on HBO's VICE.)
That's disturbing, given extant pollution levels. But what's more disturbing is how non-foreward-thinking our government is on such things.
All we had to do was declare Antarctica a state before anyone else cared about it. Then we could have declared it a national park and wildlife preserve, and then threatened to nuke anyone who tried to drill there. (How long have we known about climate change and man's propensity for strip mining everything in sight?)
Then we'd only have to worry about everyone carving up and drilling up the Arctic. And when oil spills and wars over drilling rights and climate change ruined the Northern Hemisphere, we could all just move to the new state of South Pole: a pristine winter sports paradise the whole family is going to love! (And the last place on Earth that's not a Mad Max-style resources-fighting-over wasteland of landfills, oil spills and air pollution!)
(They could always get it undeclared a wildlife preserve. Or maybe, as humanity will be on the brink soon, we'll be the wildlife preserved in the park!)
I can see the ads now for South Pole tourism and immigration: "Worried about global warming? Don't 'sweat it'! Come 'chill out' in South Pole!" or: "Don't stress about the world's mess! Come to South Pole and 'be cool'!" or maybe: "If you lived in South Pole, you'd be cool by now!"
Don't you want to be cool? All the cool people are moving to South Pole: The Cool State!
