Press Release 07-044
Palmer Station, Antarctica Celebrates Earth Day With an Underwater Clean Up

Palmer Earth Day clean up. Credit and Larger Version

April 20, 2007

Residents at Palmer Station, a year-round U.S. research station on the Antarctic Peninsula, removed old debris from the sea floor near the station in late April 2007, as a part of an annual Earth Day clean up.

In the early days of Antarctic exploration, in the first decades of the 20th century, expeditions were largely unregulated and free to dispose of wastes as the leaders saw fit. In the latter half of the century, following renewed efforts to explore the polar regions that were sparked in part by worldwide interest in the continent and a burgeoning, global environmental consciousness, nations began to develop environmental policies for Antarctica as well as efforts to mitigate past environmental harm.

The international Antarctic Treaty, to which the United States is a signatory, contains a Protocol on Environmental Protection that designates Antarctica as a "natural reserve, devoted to peace and science," and sets forth basic principles and detailed, environment-related obligations applicable to human activities in Antarctica.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) oversees the U.S. Antarctic Program, which manages three year-round stations on the southernmost continent and coordinates all U.S. scientific research there. The White House has designated NSF as the lead U.S. Agency for the International Polar Year 2007-2008, a concerted global research effort in the polar regions.

-NSF-

Media Contacts
Peter West, NSF (703) 292-7761 pwest@nsf.gov

Related Websites
The U.S. government International Polar Year (IPY) portal: http://ww.ipy.gov
The Palmer Station Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) site: http://www.lternet.edu/sites/pal/
The U.S. Department of State's Antarctic Treaty Web site: http://www.state.gov/g/oes/ocns/c6528.htm
The International Antarctic Secretariat's Web site has links to the Environmental Protocol: http://www.ats.aq

The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent federal agency that supports fundamental research and education across all fields of science and engineering, with an annual budget of $6.06 billion. NSF funds reach all 50 states through grants to over 1,900 universities and institutions. Each year, NSF receives about 45,000 competitive requests for funding, and makes over 11,500 new funding awards. NSF also awards over $400 million in professional and service contracts yearly.

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