Why would you put up with antarctic blizzards, periods of isolation and general discomfort just to get a bit of ice, unless perhaps your wife forgot to fill the ice cube tray?

To work out when the next ice age is due, that is why, and the answer is not for some considerable time yet. The New York Times reports that scientists have spent 5 years digging a hole in the ice in Antartica (that is some hole). Ice from this hole has been analysed and their conclusion is that the current warm period matches a prolonged warm period that occured around 430,000 years ago. This supports the work of other scientists that have reached similar conclusions via different methods. It seems that we don't need to worry about establishing the colony on Mars for at least another 10,000 years, well not from a climate change perspective anyway, getting away from the neighbours may be another matter.

If you are going to dig a hole at one end of the earth why not dig one at the other as well, that is The Green Mans view of the world. Scientists clearly think the same way because they are now heading to the other cold bit, namely the artic circle to dig a hole there. This has some greater challenges because, unlike the antarctic which is a land mass, the arctic is largely water. Consequently they have purloined an ice breaker for the purpose. You can read about their exploits in Nature.