There are no native people living in Antarctica but there are about 60 research bases where scientists live all year round. They study the environment – and the pollution caused by human activity in the rest of the world.

Antarctica was first sighted in 1820 but it wasn't till 1895 that people landed there. The first base was established by a Norwegian explorer in 1899. The icecap has an average thickness of 2000 metres but in places it is over 4500 metres thick. If it all melted sea levels would rise by about 55 metres. The weight of the icecap is so great that the underlying land is depressed below sea level. But the depth of the ice gives Antarctica the highest average height of any continent – the highest point, the Visson Massif, reaches 5140 metres. Encircling Antarctica is the Southern ocean, the cold waters of which sink when they meet the warmer saltier waters of the other seas.

Climate
Temperatures range from about –70C in winter to about –35C in summer on the plateau around the South pole. On the coasts it averages 0C in summer and drops to –25C in winter. The extreme cold means the air holds little moisture and at the South pole the annual snowfall is equivalent to less than 2.5cm of rain. Winds of 320 kph have been recorded, causing violent storms and the roughest seas in the world. The sea around Antarctica is frozen in winter and large areas of pack ice remain throughout summer.

The Antarctic plays an important role in influencing the world's climate and weather because the ice reflects back most of the sun's energy. Over the whole area more heat is lost than gained. This helps to balance the excess of heat reaching the tropics, so keeping the Earth from growing progressively hotter or cooler.

Wildlife
Some plant and animal life manages to exist on ice-free areas around the coasts despite the extreme conditions. There are just two species of flowering plants but more than 200 species of lichen, plus mosses, fungi and primitive algae. There are also microscopic organisms such as soil fungi and bacteria. In places there are beds of peat up to three metres deep and several thousand years old and these areas are extremely vulnerable to disturbance by humans. The animal life consists of 150 species of mites, lice and midges, the largest of which is a wingless midge three millimetres long.

The land may support very little life, but the Antarctic seas are a different story. They are highly fertile and productive and are abundant in birds, seals, whales, fish and squid. The food for all these, directly or indirectly, is krill – a seven centimetre long shrimp-like creature only found south of the Antarctic convergence. The krill feed on microscopic plants – phytoplankton – the krill are eaten by seals and several species of great whales fish and more than 50 species of birds. Of the 100 million birds that breed in Antarctica, 90 per cent are the continent's seven species of penguin. Many more birds migrate there to feed in the summer. The emperor penguin breeds in the winter darkness, the female laying a single egg which is incubated by the male.


Current threats & problems

Krill has attracted the attention of some countries – Japan and Russian are two – that have sought to convert it to a food for humans, but there have been problems in making it good to eat. Current catch levels are rising, but are probably not at a dangerous level yet.

Human impact
Even though it is a remote wilderness Antarctica is affected by human activity. Deposits of the pesticide DDT have been found in seals, the eggs and bodies of penguins and in the snow. The scientific research bases have created waste which has been dumped in the sea or on land and they compete with wildlife for space in the scarce ice-free areas. Some fish species have been depleted after over-fishing by commercial fleets.

But it is hunting which has caused huge declines in seal and great whale populations. The fur and elephant seals were almost wiped out in the 19th century but have gradually recovered. Whale hunting reduced the numbers of all species apart from the smaller minke whale, to the position where there were too few to hunt. Blue whales are at less than one per cent of their original numbers and are still not increasing despite years of protection.


What WWF is doing

In 1961 the Antarctic treaty came into force. Its aim was to ensure scientific cooperation and to prevent Antarctica becoming the focus of international argument, particularly over ownership. A total of 39 countries are signatories to the treaty, which bans nuclear testing and the disposal of radioactive waste while ensuring free access and the exchange of scientific information.

Together with other organisations and some countries, WWF campaigned hard for increased environmental protection for Antarctica. These efforts were successful when in January 1988 the Environmental Protection Protocol came into force. This includes a ban on all mining and oil drilling for at least 50 years – something that WWF regards as the most important single step forward, because mining would pose the greatest threat of all to Antarctica.

In 1982 the Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) came into effect, recognising that the Antarctic ecosystem must be considered as a whole. The convention has failed to prevent severe over-fishing of fin-fish, but some conservation measures were adopted in 1989.