Word: antarctica
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...reason politicians are acting so swiftly on the CFC problem may be that the threat is indisputable. Strong evidence of the effect emerged in 1985, when British researchers announced the existence of a seasonal "hole" in the ozone layer over Antarctica. That was worrisome: ozone between ten miles and 30 miles up absorbs the sun's ultraviolet radiation, which has been linked to cataracts, skin cancers and weakened immune systems in humans and other animals, as well as to damage to plants. Data-gathering flights in the Antarctic in 1987 made the connection between CFCs and ozone destruction...
...teams of divers from the U.S. and South America struggled last week to plug a hole in the Argentine ship Bahia Paraiso, which had sunk and was leaking 3,000 gal. of fuel a day, squadrons of scientists rushed in to assess the damage caused by Antarctica's first major oil spill. "This is the worst ecological disaster for Antarctica, period," says James Barnes, general counsel to the Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition. It is sure to stoke the already heated debate over the future of development, tourism and mining in Antarctica...
...shipwreck is one result of the largely unregulated growth of Antarctic enterprise. Says Peter Wilkniss, head of the National Science Foundation's polar programs: "We are witnessing the dawn of the commercial age in Antarctica." Thousands of tourists are flocking to the once inaccessible continent. Throughout the 1984-85 season, only 400 people visited Antarctica, but in the week before the Bahia Paraiso hit the reef, more than 500 visitors passed through Palmer Station alone. And Antarctic tourists are doing more than sailing to research centers for short visits and lecture tours. In 1988, 35 adventurers paid $35,000 each...
Whatever happens to tourism, the devastation from the oil spill could be a serious setback to the idea of oil and mineral exploration in Antarctica. Last May, 33 nations drafted an agreement that would eventually open the area to mining and drilling. That treaty, which the U.S. Senate will consider for ratification in the next few months, is vigorously opposed by a broad coalition of environmental groups. Any hopes that the Senate will approve the agreement may have sunk with the Bahia Paraiso...
Alaskans could at least take comfort from the knowledge that the weather could have been even worse. The state got nowhere close to the world's record low-temperature reading. That was a frosty -128.6 degrees F, recorded in faraway Antarctica...