Globalization is the process of international integration arising from the interchange of world views, products, ideas, and other aspects of culture.[1][2] Globalization describes the interplay across cultures of macro-social forces. These forces include religion, politics, and economics. Globalization can erode and universalize the characteristics of a local group.[3] Advances in transportation and telecommunications infrastructure, including the rise of the Internet, are major factors in globalization, generating further interdependence of economic and cultural activities.[4]Religious movements were among the earliest cultural forces to globalize, spread by force, migration, evangelists, imperialists and traders. Christianity, Islam, Buddhism and more recently sects such as Mormonism have taken root and influenced endemic cultures in places far from their origins. On average,
Antarctica is the coldest, driest and windiest continent, and has the highest average elevation of all the continents. Since there is little precipitation, except at the coasts, the interior of the continent is technically the largest desert in the world. There are no permanent human residents. Only cold-adapted plants and animals survive there, including penguins, fur seals, mosses, lichen, and many types of algae.The Antarctic Treaty was signed in 1959 by twelve countries; to date, forty-six countries have signed the treaty. The treaty prohibits military activities and mineral mining, supports scientific research, and protects the continent's ecozone. Ongoing experiments are conducted by more than 4,000 scientists of many nationalities and with different research interests.Centered asymmetrically around the South Pole and largely south of the Antarctic Circle, Antarctica is the southernmost continent and is surrounded by the Southern Ocean; alternatively, it may be considered to be surrounded by the southern Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian Oceans, or by the southern waters of the World Ocean. It covers more than 14 million km² (5.4 million sq mi), making it the fifth-largest continent, about 1.3 times larger than Europe. The coastline measures 17,968 kilometres (11,160 mi) and is mostly characterized by ice formations.
Antarctica is divided in two by the Transantarctic Mountains close to the neck between the Ross Sea and the Weddell Sea. The portion west of the Weddell Sea and east of the Ross Sea is called Western Antarctica and the remainder Eastern Antarctica, because they roughly correspond to the Western and Eastern Hemispheres relative to the Greenwich meridian.
Antarctica is home to more than 70 lakes that lie thousands of metres under the surface of the continental ice sheet. Lake Vostok, discovered beneath Russia's Vostok Station in 1996, is the largest of these subglacial lakes. It was once believed that the lake had been sealed off for 500,000 to one million years but a recent survey suggests that, every so often, there are large flows of water from one lake to another. There is some evidence, in the form of ice cores drilled to about 400 metres (1,300 ft) above the water line, that Vostok's waters may contain microbial life. The frozen surface of the lake shares similarities with Jupiter's moon Europa. If life is discovered in Lake Vostok, this would strengthen the argument for the possibility of life on Europa. On 7 February 2008, a NASA team embarked on a mission to Lake Untersee, searching for extremophiles in its highly-alkaline waters. If found, these resilient creatures could further bolster the argument for extraterrestrial life in extremely cold, methane-rich environments.

Antarctica - A Future in the Balance
A look at the political and environmental issues in Antarctica. Designed to stimulate debate in KS3/4 citizenship lessons, this programme explores the key political and environmental issues that continue to surround Antarctica. It looks at the value of scientific research, examining its increasing detrimental impact on the natural environment of the continent. The issue of tourism in Antarctica is also discussed, in addition to the threat that mining could pose to the environment, particularly if the ice continues to melt. Each example is illustrated with a case study that ties in with the KS3 citizenship curriculum under Unit 21: people and the environment
Mining in AntarcticaGeopolitics » Environmental Issues » Mining »
The Antarctic Treaty does not address the regulation of mineral resource activities. The control of possible future mining was first raised within the Antarctic Treaty Sytstem by the UK and New Zealand in 1970 as they had been approached by minerals companies about possible commercial geophysical exploration in the Southern Ocean. The regulation of minerals activities was to become a very controversial issue, which was to dominate Antarctic politics throughout the 1980s and early 1990s.The Treaty nations decided on a precautionary approach and imposed a voluntary moratorium on the exploration and exploitation of Antarctic minerals in 1976. This was because unregulated exploration and mining would have caused serious environmental and political problems. In 1981, the Treaty nations finally agreed to start negotiations on a comprehensive minerals regime. The issue was so difficult and complex that it took until 1988 for the Treaty nations to reach a consensus and adopt the Convention on the Regulation of Antarctic Mineral Resource Activities (CRAMRA). Partly as a result of these discussions, there was growing international interest in Antarctica, and the number of signatories to the Antarctic Treaty increased rapidly from 25 to 38 during this period.
CRAMRA sought to regulate minerals prospecting, exploration and development activities, although mining would only be permitted if all Parties agreed that there was no risk to the environment. However, by the time that CRAMRA was adopted in 1988, there was a major international campaign by environmental groups such as Greenpeace and the World Wide Fund for Nature, against minerals exploitation. Their view was that mining should be banned and Antarctica should be declared a 'World Park'.
Under intense pressure from environmental groups, Australia and France decided not to sign CRAMRA in 1989. As the CRAMRA required ratification by all the Treaty nations, this meant that the agreement failed to come into force. By 1990, Australia and France had been joined by New Zealand, Italy and Belgium and together they proposed a comprehensive environmental protection convention for Antarctica. Others, including the UK, Japan and the USA argued against a permanent ban on mining.
The collapse of CRAMRA was the first major threat to the Antarctic Treaty System. The UK and Chile called for a special meeting to discuss comprehensive measures for the environmental protection of Antarctica and together developed a draft environmental protocol. Within two years of the collapse of CRAMRA, the Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty was signed in 1991. CRAMRA provided the basis for the Environmental Protocol with several of its definitions and measures being incorporated into the new agreement.
The demise of CRAMRA illustrates the vulnerability of the ATS consensus process. It also demonstrates the power and effectiveness of international environmental campaigns. However, it is unlikely that the Treaty nations would have agreed to the tough mandatory regulations on environmental protection contained in the Protocol without the previous conflict over CRAMRA.

Bouvet Island | | Flag | | Orthographic projection of the world centered on Bouvet Island. | Government | Dependent territory | - | King | Harald V of Norway | - | Administration | Ministry of Justice and the Police |
Bouvet Island (Norwegian: Bouvetøya,[1] previously spelled Bouvet-øya[2]) is an uninhabited subantarctic volcanic island and dependency of Norway located in the South Atlantic Ocean at 54°25.8′S 3°22.8′ECoordinates: 54°25.8′S 3°22.8′E. It lies at the southern end of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and is the most remote island in the world. The island has an area of 49 square kilometres (19 sq mi), of which 93 percent is covered by a glacier. The centre of the island is an ice-filled crater of an inactive volcano. Some skerries and one smaller island, Larsøya, lie along the coast. Nyrøysa, created by a rock slide in the late 1950s, is the only easy place to land and is the location of a weather station.