Happy Nice Mall

The discovery of the long lost ship is a reminder of what Shackleton did. It’s also a lesson in how technology is transforming our encounters with the past. The Endurance video is almost Spielbergian, almost impossibly great, extremely elegantly “art direction”. As I watched it, I couldn’t help imagining what we might see if a cameraman had been present at the opening of King Tutankhamun’s tomb, or if a drone camera had been ready when the forest cover was lifted to reveal the strongholds of Machu Picchu. . We live in a world where real-life “Indiana Jones” scenes can pop up in our social media feeds at any time. But our relationship with these ruins and ruins has changed. These days, a sunken ship evokes not only awe, but melancholy, moral unrest, and even fear.

The world today is smaller and less mysterious than it was in Shackleton’s time. The world’s most distant realms have given up on their secrets. Knowing the terrain’s remote location once required real boots on the ground—in Shackleton’s case, spiked boots with pierced soles, makeshift crampons for climbing icy peaks. Now, thanks to our conquest of outer space, the furthest frontier, all-seeing satellites provide detailed maps of Antarctica’s ice sheet moraines at the touch of a button. Journeys into the depths of the Amazon or the heights of the Himalayas – once only the daredevils have undertaken, are in the adventure-tourism circuit. What would Shackleton say about “Journey to Antarctica: The White Continent,” a cruise ship vacation that offers encounters with icebergs and Emperor penguins in between the luxury of comfort — a quality of life on board and a wellness philosophy designed to relax and rejuvenate — body, mind, and body, mind, and spirit”?

Yet we know too much to romanticize the wasteful past. After all, the history of exploration is inseparable from exploitation, the relentless drive of empires and private enterprise to claim land and seize raw materials. The story continues: As natural resources dwindle, global powers race to explore new frontiers of forests, oceans and the Arctic. Antarctica, the world’s last true wilderness, is protected by an agreement signed by 42 countries that prohibits the extraction of resources from the continent except for scientific research purposes. But countries are vying for access to Antarctic fishing, mining, and oil reserves—most aggressively, including China, which has expanded its presence in Antarctica during the pandemic and appears to be poised for a potential end to the mining ban in 2048.

These days, a sunken ship evokes not only awe, but melancholy, moral unrest, and even fear.

Even if the deal remains in place, all is not well at the bottom of the planet. When Shackleton and his men journeyed to Antarctica, they entered a frozen world. Endurance photos, taken by expedition photographer Frank Hurley, show the great icy ship high and dry in the ocean’s winter waste. The images are iconic; they are also documents of a rapidly disappearing land ship. The Great White South is unraveling. Ice that once covered the Weddell Sea made underwater research practical, but in recent months the thickness of this ice has reached some of the lowest levels ever recorded. Climate change helped the discovery of Endurance.