Antarctic Mosaic: an Environmental History of the McMurdo Dry Valleys

The McMurdo Dry Valleys (MDV) are the largest ice-free region in the Antarctic continent and have become an important centre for scientific activity. Since the early 1970s, the region has been at the forefront of debates over the environmental protection of the Antarctic continent and in 2004 the MDV became an Antarctic Specially Managed Area (ASMA). The management plan for the MDV ASMA will be reviewed in 2020. Coming at a time when anthropogenic climate change is exacerbating the challenges of environmental management, this project offers an opportunity for an interdisciplinary team of historians, human geographers and scientists to work collaboratively with environmental managers to incorporate insights from the humanities and social sciences into the environmental management of the MDV by a) outlining the history of environmental protection, b) providing historical ‘data’ about past human activity (environmental impact) and c) writing historically informed policy briefs.