What is the "Polar Problem" from the book, In the Kingdom of Ice?

The phrase the “Polar Problem” referred to the obsession that people – scientist and the public alike – had for the North Pole. People just had to know what was up there. It was the “unattainable object” of dreams. A German geographer compared the strange curiosity that people had for the pole to a home owner who doesn’t know what’s in his attic. This pressure undoubtedly led to James Bennett’s interest in financing the De Long Expedition so that his newspaper could run exclusive accounts of the expedition.