ANTARCTICA, Feb. 13, 2008
Pristine Continent, Messy Problem
Garbage In Antarctica Doesn't Decompose - It Freezes - And It's Adding Up
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Play CBS Video Video Eye To Eye: Antarctic Garbage Antarctica is a land of extremes. It has massive mountains, vast landscapes ? and a huge garbage problem. John Blackstone spoke to the man responsible for keeping Antarctica clean.
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Video Tackling Antarctica's Trash Due to its dry, frigid climate, signs of humankind's presence on Antarctica are permanent. John Blackstone reports on what scientists at the McMurdo Station are doing to keep the South Pole clean.
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None of the trash produced in Antarctica can be left there because it would be there forever. So it has to be sent 10,000 miles to California ... every last piece of it. (CBS)
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Various country flags planted at the South Pole. (CBS)
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Fast Facts Antarctica Learn about the people, economy and history of Antarctica.
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Photo Essay A Warming Effect A behind-the-scenes look at the 60 Minutes team's trip to Patagonia, Chile and Antarctica.
Antarctica is a land of towering mountains and vast emptiness - a pristine continent with a big garbage problem.
CBS News correspondent John Blackstone asked Mark Furnish, who is in charge of picking up at McMurdo Station, America's main Antarctic science base: "You're the garbage man of Antarctica?"
"Yeah, I'm the biggest trash man on the continent," Furnish said.
His challenge: None of the trash produced in Antarctica can be left there because it would be there forever.
"If you go down to Scott's Hut, down there on the point, you'll see ... still see seal carcasses that haven't decomposed yet," he said. "[They've] been there for a century."
One of the beauties of Antarctica, and one of its problems, is that nothing goes away.
This is the hut explorer Robert Scott built in 1901. It's completely unchanged since then.
Inside the hut, it's an amazing scene of the past preserved. Everything remains as it was more than a century ago. In Antarctica, it's so cold and dry, nothing decays. It just freezes.
Leftovers are now historial artifacts.
What the early explorers left behind, from dog biscuits to oatmeal, is considered historical artifacts.
But now the scientists and support workers can't leave anything behind.
"The point is that when we have 1,200 people at the height of summer, all those little impacts add up to a big impact," said Kevin Pettway, an environmental consultant.
Think sorting your recycling is complex? These people are forced to separate into 14 different bins.
Then it all gets packed up to be shipped 10,000 miles to California. Even food scraps.
"The burn-ables are gonna get burned," Furnish said. "They're gonna get incinerated."
In Antarctica?
"No, in California," he said. "You cannot incinerate anything in Antarctica. Nothing here."
But the scientists aren't the only ones here. For adventurers, skiing some 800 miles to the South Pole has become a popular challenge. More than 100 have made the trek in just the last four months.
And with global warming threatening both the penguins and the ice at the bottom of the world, thousands of tourists seem determined to see this special place while its still here.
They are coming to Antarctica by the boatload. The number of tourists has nearly quadrupled in the past decade ... to 37,000 last year. That worries environmental groups keeping an eye on Antarctica.
"Antarctica should be protected as a wilderness; perhaps the last great wilderness on the planet," said David Bederman of the Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition. "It should not be turned into a kind of eco-tourism Disneyland."
While Bederman gives America's science program high marks for environmental sensitivity, one big project is raising concern: a plan to build a nearly 1,000-mile ice road so supplies could be dragged to the South Pole science station instead of flown in.
"As much as we support Antarctica being used for science, I'm not sure essentially the equivalent of an interstate highway from McMurdo Station on the coast to the South Pole station at the Pole makes terribly much sense," Bederman said.
On a continent where every footstep, every piece of litter, can last forever, global warming is not the only threat.
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Explain to me why we should put all of our effort and resources into saving a handful of people from death due to warm weather but treat the deaths of tens of thousands in freezing conditions as inconseqential?
Posted by matter77 at 10:55 AM
How you made your leap from comments here to rape and murder only your warped mind knows.
As far as you agreeing with stallone, both of you must be on the same steroids.
Realize how in America after so many disaster, people actually HELP each other and look out for each other, with the exception of New Orleans, and even there there was probably many that helped each other out.
So stick that up your pipe and suck on it.
Posted by ibzjem at 10:50 AM : Feb 14, 2008
Think they did something like that in Futurama.
Stallone remarked "If you think man is basically good, just get rid of the police for 24 hrs and see what happens."
But you don''t even have to go that far, just go to CBSNEWS comments and see for yourself.
Typical behavior.
Posted by juwboy at 05:17 AM
Honestly, are you truly that stupid?
Which of the following two extreme climate conditions currently causes more deaths?
(A) a cold winter
(B) a hot summer
The answer is (A) by a massive margin.
So, why aren''t we doing everything we can to promote and accelerate global warming until the two numbers are comparable?
That''s when our planet will have its ideal optimum climate.
Which of the following two extreme climate conditions currently causes more deaths?
(A) a cold winter
(B) a hot summer
The answer is (A) by a massive margin.
So, why aren''t we doing everything we can to promote and accelerate global warming until the two numbers are comparable?
That''s when our planet will have its ideal optimum climate.
Wow, why not just state that you''re hugely ignorant on global warming and be done with it?
Global warming is about a few degrees difference over relatively short (geologically speaking) periods of time. This means a very general/average warming across the planet, and much more extreme and changing weather patterns all over the globe as a result. It doesn''t mean antarctica will be a a tropical paradise next year.
People like you pooh poohing the crisis of global warming are really either very ignorant or just deliberately contrary. Either way, you should know that most people outside of the rush limbaugh radio crowd know that global warming is a real problem and is affecting us already in some very real ways. So next time, before you start flapping your gums and releasing you hot air valve, understand that YOU will be affected as well, whether you like it or not.
That is, unless Darwin selects you out of the gene pool. With judgement like that, it wouldn''t be terribly surprising.
- by Syndicate February 13, 2008 11:44 PM EST
- This ones good: They are worried about the trash freezing and lasting forever yet at the same time they tell you it won''t last forever because of global warming.
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