The Greening of Antarctica: Assembling an International Environment

The Greening of Antarctica investigates the development of an international regime of environmental protection and management for Antarctica between the signing of the Antarctic Treaty in 1959 and the signing of the Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources in 1980. During those two decades the parties to the Antarctic Treaty and an international community of scientists surrounding the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research reimagined Antarctica from being a cold, sterile, and abiotic wilderness into a fragile and extensive regional ecosystem. This book investigates this change by analyzing the negotiations and developments surrounding four environmental agreements: the Agreed Measures for the Conservation of Antarctic Fauna and Flora in 1964, the Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Seals in 1972, a voluntary restraint resolution on Antarctic mining in 1977, and the Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources in 1980. The development of the Antarctic Treaty and the related conceptual changes occurred because states and scientists were continually searching for authority and power within various realms. All actors were balancing their search for power and authority with the desire to maintain stability and peace in the region. In this international and diplomatic context, the actors were not simply trying to keep relations between themselves orderly; they were also ordering the human relationship with the environment through treaties.