Shameful! Even Antarctica's King George Island is full of trash

[Judi Lynn]

Shameful! Even Antarctica's King George Island is full of trash
Michael Graham Richard
Science / Natural Sciences
April 2, 2013



No place is safe
King George Island is relatively ice-free and easy to access, at least compared to most of the rest of Antarctica, so it is an ideal spot for research stations. There are currently bases belonging to Argentina, Brazil, Chile, China, Ecuador, South Korea, Peru, Poland, Russia, and Uruguay, six of which operate year-round, and there's also an airfield. A lot of what is being done there is scientific research, but part of the reason behind the existence of these stations is for countries to be able to later claim a presence in Antarctica in the hope that they'll be able to exploit some of the continent's natural resources (minerals and hydrocarbons, not solar power...).



Sadly, even this extremely remote and thinly populated corner of the world is not safe from pollution. A recent report (pdf) by Germany's Federal Environment Agency (Umweltbundesamt) describes the situation there, and it appears pretty bad. Here's just one of many examples cited in the report:

Oil contamination is one of the most common causes of local contamination in the Fildes Region and it was recorded in the form of visible traces on the soil and water surfaces. The situation found in the study area indicates that contamination of the Fildes Peninsula by oil and diesel fuel is undiminished. Particularly affected are places where aircraft and motor vehicles are filled with fuel, places where fuel is stored, and the road network that links the stations and the airport. The cause of numerous, mostly small patches of contamination is the frequently occurring oil loss due to insufficient maintenance of vehicles used by the stations, together with a lack of care when handling fuel. In addition, the repeated transfer of fuel between various supply and daily service tanks increases the risk of oil contamination. During the research period, there was at least one major leak of diesel fuel (approx. 3,000 to 5,000 l) from a storage tank, which was comparable to an incident in 2005. Measures taken in response to the leak were slow in coming and were completely inadequate, so that a large amount of the fuel entered the nearby cove. The oil film that was clearly visible throughout the summer also stretched near to the coast of ASPA No. 150 Ardley Island, where there is a large penguin colony. The following summer, meltwater again carried fuel into the sea, though to a smaller extent. The measures taken against this again had little effect.

More:
http://www.treehugger.com/natural-sciences/even-antarcticas-king-george-island-full-trash.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+treehuggersite+%28Treehugger%29

[Mnemosyne]

1. Thanks Judy Lynn. What a world for our children to inherit... nt

[MFM008]

2. we are

such grimy, greasy critters. Humans could contaminate a dump. We really need to branch out to other worlds......