PUBLIC LECTURE: Discovering the continent of ice: Antarctica and world history

Speaker: Tom Griffiths, Professor of History, Research School of Social Sciences,The Australian National University.

Antarctica, once at the very edge of global knowledge and concerns, has become intellectually and environmentally central to the world. In the twenty-first century, the continent of ice has emerged as a sensitive barometer of Earth’s health and the site of an inspiring political model of international cooperation. How long did it take for humans to discover that the Antarctic was very different to the Arctic, and that there was so much ice down there? Antarctic explorers originally wanted rock. The ice was a testing ground for physical endeavour, a source of beauty and fear – and an obstruction. But gradually the ice became a primary scientific focus itself and was no longer perceived as just a ‘barrier’. People discovered that the great southern ice cap was vast, deep and had a history. And it also held clues to the future of the world.