unitex@rubbs.fidonet.org (unitex) (10/25/89)
Via Greenlink October 20, 1989
U.S. ACCUSED OF BLOCKING AGREEMENT TO PROTECT ANTARCTICA
By SYDNEY RUBIN
PARIS (AP) -- Environmentalists on Thursday accused the United States
of leading an assault that has blocked agreement at an international
meeting on the future of Antarctica and hopes of protecting the icy
continent.
Dominating debate at the two-week meeting of 39 nations that ends
Friday is the issue of mining: whether the vast continent should be
left a beautiful unspoiled wilderness or exploited for its potential
mineral wealths.
French oceanographer and explorer Jacques-Yves Cousteau, who collected
1.5 million signatures on a petition favoring an Antarctic wilderness
preserve, accused Washington officials of "wasting their time defending
a lost cause."
The United States, Britain and New Zealand want a meeting to work out
details of accident liability under an international minerals
convention that would open Antarctica to regulated mining and replace
the existing voluntary moratorium on mining.
The convention, worked out after six years of tough negotiation, was
initialed in June 1988 in Wellington, New Zealand.
The United States says the convention is the best way to protect
Antarctica, and a member of the U.S. delegation who spoke on condition
of anonymity said negotiations were proceeding smoothly.
"Nobody here wants to go home without an agreement," he said.
But Australia and France say mining and environmental protection are
like oil and icy waters -- they don't mix. Both countries have refused
to sign the mineral convention, effectively stopping it, and they have
been joined in the last few weeks by Italy, Belgium, India, Greece,
Austria and Bulgaria.
Australia and France want a meeting dedicated to discussing an
ambitious proposal to declare Antarctica a "wilderness park" where
mining would be prohibited and human activity carefully controlled.
"The meeting has made very little progress since the United States,
the U.K. and a couple of others had refused to stop pushing the
minerals convention," said an environmentalist with observer status to
the conference. "We could end up without any agreement at all. It would
be tragic."
The minerals convention does not assign responsiblity for cleaning up
and paying damages in the event of accident.
The Argentine ship Bahia Paraiso ran around and sank near the U.S.
Palmer Station in January, spilling 70,000 gallons of diesel fuel into
one of the most delicate ecosystems in the world. Argentina, Chile and
the United States cooperated on the cleanup, but the ship continues to
leak.
To date, no one has assumed responsiblity for plugging the leak, or
for the damage done to 22 years of American research measuring
Antarctica's unpolluted environment against global pollution levels.
Delegates at the 15th Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting also were
busy hammering out compromises on rules governing waste disposal and
specially protected areas.
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