10 June: Environmental seminar and Oden visit
On the last day of the first week of negotiations, the delegates in the Committee for Environmental Protection (CEP) had essentially finished their review of the final report. The Liability working group succeeded in completing negotiations on an important chapter. A break was taken in the day's negotiations for a seminar on environmental research cooperation in Antarctica and a visit to the icebreaker Oden. Also, meet Amanda the telescope and Marja the temporary printer.
Oden, Sweden's most powerful icebreaker
Mark Simonoff, United States, tests the famous Swedish meatballs
"It's mainly about creating a system to get those who cause environmental emergencies in Antarctica to be prepared to deal with the consequences. It's important to create incentives to encourage other parties to help with response actions by assuring them compensation." Mark Simonoff from the US State Department explained the real purpose behind the complicated negotiations on liability in the event of environmental accidents in Antarctica, while he enthusiastically helped himself to Swedish meatballs for the first time.
Mr Simonoff, who chaired some of the first week's very successful Liability negotiations, appeared highly satisfied on Friday evening. The concluding round of negotiations (until 17 June) will now determine whether the parties are able to agree on a special Stockholm Protocol. If this were the case, such a protocol would meant an end to more than 13 years of negotiations in this area.
Environmental research networks in the Arctic - a model for Antarctica
Terry Callaghan, Eva Kettis and Cynthia de Wit spoke about research cooperation on indicators, data collection, analysis and exchange of information in the Arctic which could also work in Antarctica.
"What do we really know about how clean it is in the Arctic or the Antarctic? It is easy to see the Arctic, for instance, as clean and unspoiled, but research on Inuit women's breast milk has revealed high levels of PCB, among other things. Studies like this show clearly the need for more research on the state of and developments in the environment in the Arctic and the Antarctic."
With these words, Docent Cynthia de Wit of Stockholm University opened a lunch seminar organised by the Ministry of Sustainable Development for the Antarctic delegates.
Ms de Wit also spoke of how the eight states that make up the Arctic Council cooperate in the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP) in order to identify and solve environmental problems in the Arctic.
"The key to success lies in producing common indicators and standards for measuring levels of pollutants, radioactivity, ultraviolet radiation and climate change, as well as the health of the population in the area, and obtaining comparable data" said Ms de Wit.
Concrete activities within AMAP consist of producing annual reports on the state of the Arctic, including recommendations to politicians on prohibiting toxic substances, for instance, and keeping a record of current research projects updated. Something that might seem simple but which is actually quite difficult, according to Ms de Wit.
Delegates at lunch before the environmental seminar
Terry Callaghan, professor at Sheffield University and director of the Abisko research station concluded the seminar. Abisko is the centre of Scannet (www.scannet.nu) a network supported by the EU, with 14 research stations in the Nordic countries and Scotland.
"The starting point is that cooperation on environmental monitoring between different Arctic countries provides new insight into how ecosystems are maintained and how sensitive they are to climate change. Whatever happens in the Arctic also affects the environment in other parts of the world," stated Professor Callaghan.
One concrete project in the network is the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment (ACIA) Report, which describes how the flora and fauna of the Arctic are affected by the ongoing increase in temperature. Like Cynthia de Wit, Professor Callaghan indicated the need for common indicators if the work is to succeed.
"Happily, there is a willingness to find common solutions today," he says. "There is an awareness of the need for cooperation in order to solve today's complex global environmental and climatic challenges - even if the process of finding solutions takes time."
It remains to be seen how similar networks could work in Antarctica and what role the new permanent Antarctic Treaty Secretariat (ATS) could have in this context.
Amanda helps researchers to solve the mysteries of the universe
Amanda, the world's largest neutrino telescope
Amanda (Antarctic Muon and Neutrino Detector Array) is the name of the world's largest neutrino telescope. Neutrinos are cosmic particles that seldom interact with other particles and can therefore move across vast distances in the universe as unaffected "eye witnesses". By tracking these neutrinos, researchers at institutions including Stockholm University hope to obtain help in solving the mysteries of the universe.
The picture shows a model of Amanda, which can be seen at the National Museum of Science and Technology at the moment. The real telescope consists of neutrino detectors which have been placed in a tube 1 500-2 400 metres down in the ice at the South Pole. The only way to detect neutrinos is, namely, to place detectors in a large volume of clean matter such as Antarctic ice, for instance.
Oden is not afraid of Arctic ice
Thomas Strömnäs, Stefan Hellberg, Tomas Åsnell and Bertil Larsson will take Oden to the Arctic for the fifth time
Oden is Sweden's biggest and most powerful icebreaker. After a winter of intensive icebreaking, you might think it was time for a holiday - but not for Oden. Here the crew spends the summer in far icier regions.
"It's fun to have a change," says First Officer Thomas Strömsnäs who, together with the rest of the crew, is preparing the ship for her fifth Arctic voyage. They are not nervous.
"The hull is specially adapted and the metal in the bow (the front) is 5.6 centimetres thick and extra robust," Thomas says. The delegates get to feel a piece of the metal and confirm that it's heavy as lead. Strange that Oden can float at all, they think.
Janneke de Vries, Netherlands, shows the thickness of the metal in Oden's bow
About 45 researchers from the Swedish Polar Research Secretariat will join the summer expedition to study marine biology and geology as well as land-living creatures in the area around the Bering Strait (between Alaska and Russia).
The expedition, Beringia 2005, can be seen as a continuation of two previous ship-borne tundra expeditions: the Swedish-Russian Tundra Ecology Expedition 1994 along the Russian Arctic coast, and Tundra Northwest 1999 in north-west Canada. Researchers still have to study the area around the Bering Strait between north-east Russia and Alaska. This piece of the puzzle may provide greater understanding of the ecological function of the tundra and the ocean in this sensitive part of the world.
Sweden's largest icebreaker is steered by mini joysticks
Photocopiers - the 14-day drama of the conference's valiant printer
An ATCM meeting needs paper, paper, and more paper. On the floor above the negotiation rooms, the photocopiers are working at full speed to produce copies in four languages of the 5060 working/discussion papers and more than a hundred information papers that are to be discussed during the conference.
Marja Janusson, lent to the printing office by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs Archives, says that 1.5 million A4 pages were used at the meeting in Cape Town last year. But this year, she says, they are copying on both sides of the paper to reduce wastage.
Things are a bit stressful, but everything is under control.
Marja says they try to stay one step ahead of the agenda all the time and keep track of what has to be distributed. It has worked well so far, mainly thanks to close cooperation with the translators.
Marja Janusson in the printing office
