Quote:
Originally Posted by sjastro
One can argue the Antarctic treaty which has been around since 1960 has been successful in preventing this very thing from happening.
The Outer Space treaty like the Antarctic treaty operates on the same principles.
Steven
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That was more a matter of the technology of the time not being able to handle the conditions and stresses present down there. I'm afraid those days are now over. There's been talk by both the US and China of exploiting some of the mineral resources down in Antarctica...and a few other countries have been thinking the same. The US does pretty much what it likes down there, anyway, regardless of the Treaty. The Kiwis have told them to clean up McMurdo on several occasions and they've just ignored them. It's just as bad at the Sth Pole Station. I don't think China would give a rat's about the environment down there if they thought they could gain something out of exploiting any of Antarctica's resources. Neither would the US, or many other countries.