Post by Dave Homewood on Jun 4, 2006 10:41:46 GMT 12
The US have constructed a huge bloody road from McMurdo Sound to the South Pole in Antarctica! It stretches some 1600kms in length and will be used by trains of vehicles making daily travel to the pole and back.
Naturally all the other countries who're members of the Antarctica Treaty are dead against this road which spoils the pristine environment and will lead to further pollution and risk of oil spills, etc. But no, America is 'always' right, aren't they?
www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3688509a10,00.html
US urged to rethink ice road
03 June 2006
By KERI WELHAM
The United States has ploughed its road to the South Pole, but New Zealand scientists have joined a coalition urging it to reconsider.
The ice and snow track stretches 1600 kilometres from McMurdo Base across the Ross Shelf, up the Leverett Glacier and through the Trans-Antarctic mountains to the polar plateau. On any given day of the 180-day summer two trains of vehicles will use it. Each will comprise six tractor-trailer combinations up to 300 metres long.
A global coalition of environmental groups will lobby the 28 consultative parties to the Antarctic Treaty in Scotland next week for a new environmental impact study. The coalition's own report warns of possible fuel spills, waste water issues, use of explosives and impaired air quality. Pressure for tourism could also build.
"Once you start putting a road through somewhere it's not a wilderness any more," said Debs Martin, for the Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society. She helped get the issue on the June 11 treaty meeting agenda.
The Antarctic and Southern Oceans Coalition brings together scientists with intimate knowledge of Antarctica. These include marine biologists, ecologists, and glaciologists. Wellington's Barry Weeber, one of two New Zealanders on its board, said the road was being developed amid growing concern that Antarctica's scientific work was coming at too high a price.
New Zealand, an original signatory to the Antarctic Treaty in 1959, played a key role in keeping the ice nuclear-free and in lobbying against damaging activity such as dumping of waste.
Peter West, spokesman for the US Antarctic Programme, would not comment on the treaty submission or the road.
Trevor Hughes, who heads the Foreign Affairs and Trade Ministry's Antarctic policy unit, will lead New Zealand's delegation to the Scotland meeting. He said the Government could see scientific value in maintaining the South Pole base. The US had met all its treaty requirements when planning and carving the route.
Sir Edmund Hillary, who drove 2000 kilometres from Scott Base to the South Pole on a tractor in 1957, has expressed distaste for the road. He would not comment this week, but on an Antarctic visit in 2004 said that the road was "terrible".
Naturally all the other countries who're members of the Antarctica Treaty are dead against this road which spoils the pristine environment and will lead to further pollution and risk of oil spills, etc. But no, America is 'always' right, aren't they?
www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3688509a10,00.html
US urged to rethink ice road
03 June 2006
By KERI WELHAM
The United States has ploughed its road to the South Pole, but New Zealand scientists have joined a coalition urging it to reconsider.
The ice and snow track stretches 1600 kilometres from McMurdo Base across the Ross Shelf, up the Leverett Glacier and through the Trans-Antarctic mountains to the polar plateau. On any given day of the 180-day summer two trains of vehicles will use it. Each will comprise six tractor-trailer combinations up to 300 metres long.
A global coalition of environmental groups will lobby the 28 consultative parties to the Antarctic Treaty in Scotland next week for a new environmental impact study. The coalition's own report warns of possible fuel spills, waste water issues, use of explosives and impaired air quality. Pressure for tourism could also build.
"Once you start putting a road through somewhere it's not a wilderness any more," said Debs Martin, for the Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society. She helped get the issue on the June 11 treaty meeting agenda.
The Antarctic and Southern Oceans Coalition brings together scientists with intimate knowledge of Antarctica. These include marine biologists, ecologists, and glaciologists. Wellington's Barry Weeber, one of two New Zealanders on its board, said the road was being developed amid growing concern that Antarctica's scientific work was coming at too high a price.
New Zealand, an original signatory to the Antarctic Treaty in 1959, played a key role in keeping the ice nuclear-free and in lobbying against damaging activity such as dumping of waste.
Peter West, spokesman for the US Antarctic Programme, would not comment on the treaty submission or the road.
Trevor Hughes, who heads the Foreign Affairs and Trade Ministry's Antarctic policy unit, will lead New Zealand's delegation to the Scotland meeting. He said the Government could see scientific value in maintaining the South Pole base. The US had met all its treaty requirements when planning and carving the route.
Sir Edmund Hillary, who drove 2000 kilometres from Scott Base to the South Pole on a tractor in 1957, has expressed distaste for the road. He would not comment this week, but on an Antarctic visit in 2004 said that the road was "terrible".
