# So who own's Antartica?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-who-owns-antartica/3337>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [September 17, 1999, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-who-owns-antartica/3337 "1999-09-17T19:18:00Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\
**Post date:** [September 19, 1999, 6:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-who-owns-antartica/3337/21 "1999-09-19T06:44:00Z")

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(But if we got off our cultro-centric butts and admitted that Europe is just western Eurasia, we wouldn’t have to make up stories about the supposed continent of Europe.)

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Tom~

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**Author:** ![DSYoungEsq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c6cbf5/32.png) [@DSYoungEsq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSYoungEsq)\
**Post date:** [September 19, 1999, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-who-owns-antartica/3337/22 "1999-09-19T13:01:00Z")

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Cecil covered this at  
[http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1\_166a.html](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_166a.html)  
There was also a rather long thread associated with it as I recall.

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**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\
**Post date:** [September 19, 1999, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-who-owns-antartica/3337/23 "1999-09-19T14:08:00Z")

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According to my Encyclopedia Britanica if Antarctica did not have its ice cap it would be the _smallest_ continent.

Maybe Antarctica is the larges ICE CAP in the world.

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**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\
**Post date:** [September 20, 1999, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-who-owns-antartica/3337/24 "1999-09-20T00:54:00Z")

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Hmm.

Well clearly I don’t know shit about this subject, so I’ll just leave this thread suitably small and embarrassed…

_shucks_

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**Author:** ![Diceman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Diceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diceman)\
**Post date:** [September 20, 1999, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-who-owns-antartica/3337/25 "1999-09-20T02:05:00Z")

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A “continent” is obviously more than just a continual landmass. If that were the only criteria, then there would be only four continents: Old World (Europe, Asia, & Africa), America (w/ North & South lobes), Australia, and Antarctica. Overall cultural identity is also an important factor. This raises the question of whether Asia should be sub-divided, continent-wise, but that’s a subject for a new thread.

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“I had a feeling that in Hell there would be mushrooms.” -The Secret of Monkey Island

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**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\
**Post date:** [September 20, 1999, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-who-owns-antartica/3337/26 "1999-09-20T23:08:00Z")

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As to the Ownership of Antarctica, I’d vote with my daughter & leave it to the penguins.

We can visit & set a few minimally intrusive camps, but leave it as much as possible the way we found it.

One thing that GuanoLad might have heard that would be correct about this continent is that Antarctica IS the world’s larget desert.

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Sue from El Paso  
[members.aol.com/majormd/index.html](http://members.aol.com/majormd/index.html)

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