(No, I don’t really intend to, it’s just a hypothetical.)
I’m your friendly neighborhood eccentric multi-billionaire. I want nothing more than to have fun plunging millions and millions into trying to homestead in the frozen continent, Antarctica, and run penguin races for my rich and eccentric friends.
There are plenty of threads on the SD and elsewhere about the state of criminal law in Antarctica. Suffice it to say, I will not be renouncing my US citizenship and am OK with at least some measure of US law still applying, such as requirements to file income tax returns.
What legal issues am I going to face just attempting to settle? Could I get put into Ice Jail for not having the right permits from who knows what country? If I homestead too close to a research base, are they going to be able to use the force of law to get me to move along?
Basically, each country is responsible for their assigned area of the continent, and except for limited scientific bases, they will allow no settlement or commercial development. So pick a zone that belongs to a country where you can afford to bribe the generalissimo enough that he can ignore the heat from almost every other country with an interest in the Antarctic, and most of the Greenpeace-like berg-huggers too.
Unless you’re there purely as a US-sanctioned researcher, and stick to the US territory, you won’t be allowed to stay at all. So unless your “homestead” doubles as an official lab, you aren’t going to be allowed to set up anywhere. The Antarctic Treaty reserves Antarctica for scientific purposes, and this is fairly closely monitored.
Doing anything in Antarctica requires an EIA. Failure to do so is a violation of the Madrid Protocol and since it’s in the interest of the various signatories to police each other, you won’t be allowed to get away with not having done one, even if you stick to just US territory.
Yes. Remember, also, most of the bases have a substantial military staffing component - for ahem research purposes, of course.
As a (presumably) U.S. citizen, claiming virgin Antarctic territory’s going to cause a diplomatic incident of note. America claims no territory and doesn’t recognise other territorial claims (as it should be, IMO)
“No new claim, or enlargement of an existing claim, to territorial sovereignty shall be asserted while the present Treaty is in force”
Not only will other countries not allow you to be there, there is the problem of supply. With the big boys leaning on them, very few countries in the neigbourhood or even in the rest of the wrold will allow you to load up a ship and sail south. I hope you brought a lot of supplies; and enough firepower to repel the military police of several countries acting jointly. If Argentian does not want Chile or Britain starting a colony (and vice versa) for example, none of the above will allow some generic Joe Schmoe to set up his own base anywhere, especially outside the claimed zones.
I think a diplomatic incident may arise regardless of the citizenship of the homesteader. You think no one is going to complain to his government just because his country isn’t a signatory to the treaty?
See the big portion in the bottom left of this image:
That’s Marie Byrd Land which is the most remote region of Antartica and not claimed by anyone (according to the Antarctic treaty). If an eccentric billionaire setup a home there I think the reality is no one knows what would happen.
I doubt that, bringing all the building supplies, workmen, food, space heaters, rentboys, and cat food (for my genetically engineered cats) to such a remote region will go unnoticed.
