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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Environment
Donna Ferguson

Antarctica ‘too wild for humans to rule’, says Shackleton medal winner

A smiling bearded man in a library holds a medal to the camera
‘Are there human duties to respect the integrity of the ice-sheet fields?’ asks Cormac Cullinan, winner of the 2025 Shackleton medal for protecting the polar regions. Photograph: Martin Hartley

Cormac Cullinan has a dream. A dream, he says, that will “change how humanity sees, understands and relates to Antarctica”. The vast frozen continent – home to emperor and Adélie penguins, leopard and Ross seals, and feeding grounds for orcas, beaked whales and albatrosses – should be recognised as an autonomous legal entity “at least equivalent to a country”, says the environmental lawyer.

And this week that dream became one step closer to reality as judges awarded Cullinan the Shackleton medal for the protection of the polar regions.

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