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93 lines
4.7 KiB
Plaintext
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Via Greenlink II
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GREENPEACE WORLD PARK BASE
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ANTARCTIC DIARY 23
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Jan 11,1990
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Our Resupply ship the MV Gondwana has left Auckland, New Zealand
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on the second leg of this years campaign to have this vast frozen
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continent protected as a World Park. This last twelve months
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living at Cape Evans has been a remarkable time for me both
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personally and as a small part of the world wide movement for
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environmental protection. When we left New Zealand on 22nd
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December 1988 the challenge was to highlight Antarctica's place
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in the mind's of people all around the world. From the many
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contacts we have had from many countries and from hearing about
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the growing influence of the Green political movement I feel sure
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that we humans are collectively changing our awareness of the
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natural world and in particular Antarctica's place in natural
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order of things.
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It has long been a fear that oil exploration and exploitation was
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the biggest and most imminent danger that the natural world faced
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in Antarctica. 1989 seems to have been a year full of examples
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of the damage that can be done in the polar regions when fuel
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spills occur. In our own backyard we saw for ourselves that
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where large quantities of fuel are handled the possiblities for
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large spills seems to be almost inevitable. The US McMurdo
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Station, 25Km to the south has had a series of large fuel spills
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in the last eighteen months ( Over 450 000 Litres or nearly 118
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000 US Gals ) and none of these spills have been cleaned up to
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date. While we were investigating the environmental impact of
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one of these spills in early October we uncovered yet another
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fuel spill which was later admitted to be in fact a number of
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spills going back as far as 1983 and no records exist of these
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periodic spills. This spill site was only 150 Metres from New
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Zealand's Scott Base and was on an area of foreshore sea-ice that
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thaws each summer thus releasing the contaminating fuel directly
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into the sea.
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Both New Zealand and the US are major sponsors of the Minerals
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Convention which is an agreement among the Antarctic Treaty
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signatory nations. This Convention which is also know around the
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world as the Wellington Convention, after the capital city of New
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Zealand was negotiated behind closed doors, sets out the
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conditions under which minerals can be extracted from Antarctica.
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There are a growing number of governments, now responding to
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public opinion at home opposing the ratification of this Minerals
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Convention. Australia, France, Italy and Belgium have rejected
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the convention and along with a number of other countries are
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actively pushing for a comprehensive Envronmental Protection
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agreement for Antarctica in the form of a Wilderness Reserve.
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Oil hungry nations and their supporters remain in favour of this
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Miners Convention stating that they wish to keep their options
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open for future oil exploration of Antarctica while reluctantly
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pursuing the more sensible path of energy conservation and the
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development of alternative energy systems.
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Well, in my last diary written at World Park Base I found myself
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with the treat of oil-exploration in my mind and I haven't
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written about the Polar summer that is blazing around me. I
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suspect that there are two factors involved in my preoccupation.
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The news of the rusting hulk of the Kharg 5 tanker spilling its
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contents uncontrollably into the Atlantic off the Morroccan coast
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has brought back to me the 1989 events... the Bahia Paraiso -
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Anvers Isand Antarctica, the Exxon Valdez - Prince Philips Sound
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Alaska, the US South Pole Station, the US airfield McMurdo Sound
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Antarctica... all sites of environmental disasters in Polar
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regions. The other factor is that as a New Zealander I am
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saddened by the fact that my government remains a major sponsor
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of a Miners Convention for Antarctica.
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Outside my window the sea-ice is in full-melt and the stretches
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of open water are growing before our eyes. In the Cape Evans
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area more than twenty Weddell Seals are basking ashore and the
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Skua chicks are growing. The amazing thaw that we have
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experienced this year continues to feed the thousands of little
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streams and dozens of miniature lakes that dot the area. We have
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had about two week of settled weather, ideal for preparing the
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base for the arrival of our resupply ship and our many old
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friends.
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My kindest regards to all our supporters and friends as my time
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here at World Park base comes rapidly to and end.
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Phil Doherty.
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