So what's at the top of Antarctica's death list? We'll put it to you this way: If you go on a weekend trip — just a weekend — what do you need to bring? Socks, underwear, shirts, pants, toiletries, toothbrush, maybe tweezers to pluck ingrown hairs, books and electronics, all your power cords, probably a spare phone battery, a couple packets of tissues, band-aids just in case, glasses or contact lenses, that little wipe cloth to clean the glasses, makeup supplies, jewelry, a little box for the jewelry ... you get the point? Now imagine that you're vanishing for months at a time, and there's not a single store to get anything you run out of or don't bring. You need all the food, water, fuel, utensils, plates, pots, cups, tins of coffee, towels to clean up, bags for your endless trash, etc. Also, there's no infrastructure, no electricity except by generator, it's 70 degrees below zero outside, and — wait a second — did you remember the toilet paper?
That's Antarctica in a nutshell. Take the Australian Antarctic Program's explanation of how each and every Antarctic station has a different, complex strategy for getting clean water and storing maybe 1.4 million liters just for winter. The BBC describes early Antarctic explorer Robert Falcon Scott dealing with the area's utter lack of natural resources, down to transporting wood to the continent to build shelter before his expedition died. So that can opener you forgot? Bye, bye life.
