At the Heart of the Polar Worlds - Challenged by global warming and exploitation

Robert Calcagno

Publié par Glénat, le 23 février 2022

144 pages

Résumé

The last regions on our planet to have been discovered and explored by Westerners, the polar regions are still hard to reach. In the north, they are inhabited by indigenous peoples with multiple cultures, such as the famous Inuits, white in the south, protected by the Antarctica Treaty, they are only occupied for scientific purposes. In this extreme environment, wildlife abounds, but man could affect the fragile balance of these ecosystems, which global warming is already seriously upsetting it. Polar species such as the emblematic polar bear are subjected to the full force of these unprecedented changes which affect their habitat and food resources. And perhaps the worst is yet to come... Indeed, experts fear that global warming and the melting of the polar icecap will accelerate dramatically. What is more, since the shrinking of the sea ice is opening up new possibilities for human activities (such as fishing, transport, offshore exploitation of hydrocarbons and tourism), it seems that it will be impossible to preserve these regions completely. It is therefore an urgent matter to develop a new planetary management system for the poles, and to adopt an approach which, for the first time, will put the preservation of ecosystems before the greed of mankind.