A global park in the Antarctic

 The Antarctic, or "the Seventh Continent", is well on its way to becoming a nature reseve and an oasis of peace: the only corner of the globe which hasn't been turned into a battlefield or a mine for extracting mineral resources.
Only last XXth century had brave explorers such as Roald Amundsen, Robert Scott and Ernest Shackleton set foot on the Undiscovered Southern Land.

This cold, dry desert covers an area as large as the United States and Mexico put together, and is covered with an icecap two and a half kilometres thick. The blanket of ice extends from the mountain inland to the sea where it forms a high wall. At this point, the ceaseless pounding of the ocean waves, foul weather conditions and frequent blizzards erod the solid mass and cause huge icebergs to break away.

The Polar icecap, formed over many thousands of years, contains 68% of the world's water. However, some scientists predict that if the notorious hole in the ozone layer continues to grow, then the icepack will melt in a matter of years.

The Antarctic is home to the few remaining big blue whales, millions of seals and sea-birds such as cormorants, petrels and the albatros whose wing-span reaches three metres. Colonies of penguins crowd onto the ice pack. Did you know there are as many as seven different species?

These curious creatures, looking as though they're dressed for dinner, seem so unsteady as they waddle around on land, yet when they dive into the icy-cold waters to catch fish they are remarkably agile. Penguins feed on minute crustaceans, called krill, which form a fundamental link in the Antarctic foodchain. Recent studies have revealed that supplies of this food source are beginning to run out. Greenpeace has protested against Russian fishing trawlers that go out to catch large quantities of krill.

In the sea, beneath the Antarctic ice pack a great variety of wonderful organisms thrive and multiply. The landmass also possesses immense mineral reserves, and the discovery of rich oil fields has aroused interest all over the world. Environmentalists are striving to safeguard the, as yet, uncontaminated ecosystem, and argue for permanent preservation of the area.

An international treaty signed in June 1961 ensured that the area be transformed into "the first denuclearized and demilitarized territory to be dedicated to international scientific research".

Furthermore, Greenpeace has appealed to all nations to create a global park to preserve the status quo.