Why So Many Countries Claim Antarctica But Can’t Do Anything With It

Antarctica is not like every other continent. Aside from its extreme cold and vast ice sheet, it's also the only major piece of land that has never had a human settlement rise up on it. And because of this, as it was explored in the early 1900s, countries began making wild claims on it, claims that look more like a "pie chart" than actual national borders. In this video, we'll go through the history of exploration of the continent, Antarctica's extreme geography, who claims the continent today, and why those same countries actually can't do much with the continent despite those claims.

Some stock footage from Mikhail Nilov of Pexels.

[FXwashere]

Fun fact: Antarctica wasn't always the ice desert it is today. Many million years ago, it used to be a paradise of lush forests.

[altarique]

I love geography a lot . Studying geography when I was in high school helped me travel 73 countries with low cost. Love 💕 your video from Buffalo New York

[nixcails]

Antarctica has always interested me especially as I live near the Captain Scott Monument about 2 miles away in Devonport next to the Naval Base that serves as the homeport for the British Antarctic Survey Fleet. The base regularly has the Red and White Fleet in and I know people who work on the vessels. The RNAS (Royal Navy Antarctic Survey) Fleet is a strong employer.
The oddity of the British Antarctic Territory is it is a territory of the Crown rather than an actual part of the UK and significantly larger than most of Crown Realms put together (only Canada exceeds it in size).
Technically whilst things like fishing, nuclear weapons and other industrial items are banned the loopholes are often got round in the name of research and global security.
One of the major reasons for the 1982 Falkland Islands conflict (Guerra de Las Malvinas) apart from a political distraction technique for both the Argentine President and UK Prime Minister at the time. The big thing was fishing and minerals rights in the UK territories waters that are around the former whaling station islands OUTSIDE of the Antarctic exclusion zone.
This generate revenues for the countries with these islands.
It's also an unkept secret that NATO and other world navies use the South Atlantic/ Great Southern Ocean/ South Pacific to base their Nuclear capable Nuclear powered submarines. If official documentation is they were on patrol in those Oceans their is little evidence to prove they were there.

[yesid]

great video as always! interested to see how this plays out—many of those countries aren't exactly known for honoring their treaties.

[mjf]

Looking at your map it is hard to understand how Cook missed it?

[hillbilly]

And Elon still thinks inhabiting Mars is a good idea...

[lesley]

Thank you! I am totally enamored with Antarctica and love watching the research shows about it. In this video you have answered some of my long held questions!!❤

[tomahawk]

Good video, Geoff! Thanks. When you remarked something about protecting the ecosystem, scientific research, I couldn’t help ignorantly thinking, what ecosystem? What research? What useful information can be gleaned from that miserable ice desert? Throwing good money after bad, to me. Chile and Peru can have it.

[Jonathan_]

🇨🇱 Chile is the closest country and claims the entire peninsula as a continuation of its southernmost territory.

[pandoraeeris]

Antarctica (the Land Down-Down Under) is owned by the Grays, while the Arctic is owned by the Greens.

[CaySlay]

I heard thousands of years ago Antarctica was green and warm

[leoprg]

Where is the slice of pie of Czechia or Poland? If both France an Norway claim a good chunk of Antarctica, why others can't?

[shin-ishikiri-no]

Just the latest batch of Europeans trying to claim land. Same story as ever.

[Adamant]

antartica should be divided between the southern countries.

[stevepettersen]

The USA already got the most valuable item from Antarctica: a Stargate!

[pauljensen]

5:55 you said 6, 800 sqmiles but wrote 68, 000 sqmiles. Which one is it?

[raphlvlogs]

why was the Australian claimed area separated in to 2 parts by the much smaller French claimed area?

[markleon]

I doubt that Australia would ever allow any kind of mining on its controlled territory.

[Vic-okpp]

How about a look at Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean. I was there in 1979 or 80 and it was quite interesting.

[mattf]

The rush to get the natural resources from there is going to be nasty