Antarctic News Round Up January 3rd

Here’s another quick round up of recent news about Antarctica you may have missed.

As you can guess, we try to stay abreast of any news that might affect our races or the environments in which we run races. Our focus at the moment is on Antarctica because that’s where our Germany v Austria Race to the South Pole is reaching its conclusion. That doesn’t mean we’ve taken our eye of the Arctic region, however. There will be an Arctic news round up along soon, I promise.

A Welshman Faces A Daunting Challenge

With our special interest in Chris Foot’s trek to the South Pole, it’s only natural that we follow the efforts of others pushing themselves hard and setting themselves real challenges. Welsh ex-rugby player Richard Parks is on a quest to become the first person to reach both poles and scales the peaks of the highest mountains in seven continents within one calendar year. He spent New Year at the South Pole as the first stop on his punishing schedule. You can read a report on his challenge – and his comments about being at the South Pole – in a good article on WalesOnline. Look out for his words about the “Austrian and German teams” – I think we can guess why they were at the base.

Not All Icebergs Look The Same

You may think that when it comes to icebergs, there’s not really a lot to say after ice, climate change, and, well, Titanic. Think again. A great post – and photo – on NASA’s Earth Observatory site is nothing less than a short introductory essay in types of iceberg. After reading this, you’ll be able to stun friends at parties with reference to iceberg wave damage and even compare their surfaces to types of quartz. The photo to the left was taken by Flickr contributor ae2005 from an Antarctic expedition in 2005.

Whaling Season Begins With Confrontations

If you visit ae2005′s photo stream, you’ll see she has a number of shots of whales, too. And whales are in the news in Australia at the moment, where the Australian Green party is leading a campaign to ask the government there to seek an injunction at the International Court of Justice in the Hague against this year’s hunt of whales in Antarctic waters. You can read the story on the HeraldSun site. Over the week-end, Sea Shepherd ships confronted Japanese whaling vessels before they began hunting. High power hoses rather than harpoons were the weapon of choice for the whalers on this occasion.