Kristopher Hilbert / 10:44 AM / 04.11.08 / Pollution / 12
Due to recent accidents in the last year the International Maritime Organization is trying to start a movement of limiting shipping through Antarctica. The IMO is worried about the affects on local wildlife, ecosystems, and environment shipping can cause. The basic emissions aren’t the only problem either, many of the ships traveling through the area aren’t a proper class and recently a ship was sunk due to hitting an iceberg.
The proposal called for by the IMO has limitations on tourism as well. The amount of tourists to Antarctica has increase over 5 times in the last 15 years. This is causing a lot of waste water to be expelled into the local oceans. Not to mention the emissions of the boats on the area. Another major worry about tourism is that, like many of the shipping boats, they are not ice-strengthened. Sinking ships leak massive amounts of fuel, trash, and waste into the water.
Most of the beginning work on trying to help solve this issue is being done on basic carbon emissions from tourist and shipment vessels. A 5 day summit in London was just held with nations from the entire globe. Almost 50 nations ratified the regulations and the IMO is asking more to send in proposals. The research of the impact on the Antarctic is hoping to be completed by 2009 in order to present it a UN climate conference.
Hopefully at this point ecology will win out over capitalism. The article didn’t mention what nations ratified their agreements. I worry large nations like China and the US, which have been known for putting environmental impact behind profits. Maybe global pressure will force other nations to present proposals and ratify what has already been discussed.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7334816.stm
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