Base in Antarctica: Why it is important legally?

Keep a base in Antarctica is important to do research in extreme conditions and to understand more about how our planet works.

But there is a third reason for the country to maintain a base on the continent apart from the high seas, Antarctica is the last place on earth without an owner. And it's a great place: 10% of the whole field of the earth (if it were a country it would be bigger than China or Brazil and the U.S. second only to Russia).

As all unclaimed, the big question is who will belong. And there are several way to determine who will own that space.

Unlike Brazil or Australia, which already had inhabitants when the Europeans 'found', there was no one in Antarctica when it was first visited. Therefore, the most obvious solution would be that the continent belonged to the first to find her. But such a solution is impossible because no one knows exactly who was the first to find the continent. The most likely hypothesis is that they have been Scottish and American whalers. But as sailed in secret, never said where it really had been.

Another solution is - as in Brazil or Australia - on the first country to colonize. But there is another problem here: nobody has ever colonized the continent because it is permanently uninhabitable. You can set up a base in place, and even spend a year or two there, but always depend on foreign aid. And no 'changes to the Antarctic', contrary to what was done in all places colonized. If this has not precluded this solution, several countries began to send explorers to the continent at the same time (Japanese, Norwegian, British, etc.). Therefore, this solution is also difficult to be adopted.

But there are two solutions that do not look at historical data, but in technical details and current.

The first is to use a system similar to the one used to determine who owns the territorial waters, following the lines converging longitudinal Antarctica. It works like this: you turn the globe so that Antarctica is directly in front of you and see what countries are in the neighborhood. Below a small example using Google Earth below.

But using this method, there is a big political issue: the economic and military great powers - Russia, USA, China etc. - are almost all in the northern hemisphere, and therefore have almost no right to any area, and this hampers agreement. (The 'almost all' is because nations like France and the UK have islands under its protectorate over the southern hemisphere. This explains, for example, that the Falkland Islands are so important to the UK).

The other solution is to simply divide the continent among those who have interest in it. And what better way to demonstrate interest than look at who is based in the continent? So all countries who want to be able to have a portion of the continent has a base there, including Brazil.

And, after all, what solution is used?

No one knows. Since 1959 the Antarctic Treaty halted attempts to divide the continent and established that until a solution is found, the use of the continent is free for all, provided they respected certain limits, a ban on military bases, weapons testing , nuclear explosions or disposal of radioactive wastes.

Por que ter uma base na Antártica é importante juridicamente? | Poder Naval - Marinha de Guerra, Tecnologia Militar Naval e Marinha Mercante

following news:

WikiLeaks: Brazil wants Britain out of the Falklands

Does Brazil have its own claim on the Falklands?

Seems like Brazilians do not want British near the oil reserves as per the article.

It is more to do with promoting pan-Latin American unity against "European outsiders" basically. Argentina and Chile though have a claim in Antarctica as well. Technically they are not wrong, considering both virtually border the icy continent by waters.

This article was wrote one day after the Brazilian unique base in Antarctica (Antarctic Base Commandant Ferraz - EACF) caught fire for an explosion, which had wounded one military and killed another two. There was national commotion.

But here in Brazil the people valuates something only when they lost it. Till this tragic day, much people didn't know Brazil had that base, or who knows didnt think it was a something important to country.

But now all people says it is very important to reconstruct our base and the Brazilian Antarctic Program (PROANTAR) should receives more investments.

Brazil dont claim Falklands/Malvinas, but he is all-time Argentinean ally on her claim over the islands and provides all possible diplomatic and political support

Brazil considers the South Atlantic as an influence sphere of him, as India considers Indic Ocean as her also, so Brazil dont like to see the British presence on Malvinas and other South Atlantic islands.

The oil's reserves discovery on the region, whether on Malvinas whether the Brazilian "under-salt deep oil", increased a bit more our feelings against British presence in South Atlantic