Review on the Clean Up of Cape Hallett Station

Past human activity has littered Antarctica with abandoned rubbish, machinery and buildings creating an environmental concern. The Antarctic community has addressed the issue by the creation of the Environmental Protocol. The Protocol has put environmental restrictions on present and past activities...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Carson, Nicholas
Format: Other/Unknown Material
Language:English
Published: University of Canterbury 2008
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/10092/13935
Description
Summary:Past human activity has littered Antarctica with abandoned rubbish, machinery and buildings creating an environmental concern. The Antarctic community has addressed the issue by the creation of the Environmental Protocol. The Protocol has put environmental restrictions on present and past activities and the methods of waste managements for these sites. The removal and clean up of these areas are costly to the nations in which the activities originated from as the Protocol places the responsibility onto them. But for environmental protection and the conservation of the “wildness” factor in Antarctica, these requirements and regulations have to be enforced and completed by all of the different Antarctic programs. The New Zealand and United States of America programs, had a combined station at Cape Hallett in Northern Victoria Land, which was abandoned in 1973. The area has had various clean up attempts made spanning the last 34 years as environmental commitments and moral pressures were put on Antarctic programs to remove and remediate, present and past wastes from sites. This review will focus on the Cape Hallett Station and the history of the clean up activities of this site.