The Pole of Inaccessibility

It’s 1979, and geologist Susan Engen has finally received her grant from the National Science Foundation to explore the Beardmore Glacier region of the Transantarctic Mountains for the super-concentrations of fossil fuels she is certain are there. While her work seems innocuous enough to the NSF, it is her intention to use her discovery to stop the inevitable exploitation to come.It’s 1979, and geologist Susan Engen has finally received her grant from the National Science Foundation to explore the Beardmore Glacier region of the Transantarctic Mountains for the super-concentrations of fossil fuels she is certain are there. While her work seems innocuous enough to the NSF, it is her intention to use her discovery to drive the movement to have the continent placed off limits for exploitation once and for all. And then the unthinkable happens. The fall of the Shaw of Iran, another energy crisis in America… the vulnerability of the worlds petroleum resources again comes into focus and it is determined in Washington that all possible sources of oil should be explored. When Susan Engen’s abstract surfaces, Lieutenant Richards, an Air Force scientist whose job with NASA is to explore the feasibility of mining for water on the moon, is sent to accompany her on her expedition. Though Susan has resolved to stonewall this inconvenient lieutenant and resist the new threat to the ecology, events unfold that allow her to see this man as a person and not just what he represents. Their short but torrid romance ends abruptly, the gulf between their worlds being just too far to bridge, but through this and other experiences Susan is forced to acknowledge that her goals are more self-serving than altruistic. A series of events with consequences that reach far beyond the mountains and glaciers of the southern continent force Susan to see her own ambitions for what they are, and to make the choice between self-interest in the name of serving a greater cause, and assisting an individual who truly needs it though doing so may derail her own aspirations.