The Arctic—A Place To Live and Work

The awe and fear surrounding the general concept of the Arctic and Antarctic today would seem irrational. What little we know of them comes from the tales (often exaggerated for greater readability) of the heroic, intrepid explorers and hyperbolic newspaper accounts of polar activities. The most recent example of this exaggeration occurred in a comic strip concerned with Navy activities in the Antarctic. We are led to believe that harrowing episode follows upon the heels of harrowing episode—the blinding storms and white-out, tractors falling in crevasses, miserable flying conditions, and the rest. True enough, each incident was accurately drawn and each happens at the south pole as well as the north, but without the frequency implied.

But the time for our fear, based on such as that, should be behind. The experiences of ordinary people in our armed forces and in various corporations relative to polar living are making the