By Frank D. Roylance , frank.roylance@baltsun.com|April 06, 2009
The Antarctic ice sheets are melting, the krill are disappearing, and tourists are tramping about on fragile penguin habitat.
For the next two weeks, those problems and more will land in Baltimore as the city hosts hundreds of diplomats, scientists and others attending the 32nd Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting. That's the body that governs the use of Antarctica by the international community, protects its environment and promotes scientific research.
Nearly 400 people, including diplomats from 47 countries, will confer at the Baltimore Convention Center. It is the first time since 1979 that a U.S. city has hosted the meeting.
High on the agenda for the meeting's working groups and committees are rising concerns about threats to a fragile polar environment.
"People think of Antarctica as being a wasteland, but it's got a very diverse and teeming marine life," said Polly Penhale, a biologist with the National Science Foundation. She is the U.S. representative to the treaty's Committee for Environmental Protection.
The committee has tackled issues of fisheries conservation, marine pollution and the protection of marine mammals and migrating birds. Its work this week will focus on tourism's environmental impact and the unwanted introduction of non-native animal and plant species - from flour bugs to grasses.
Because of its unique environment, Antarctica has become a prime location for research in astronomy, geology, atmospheric science and particle physics.
Climate scientists also have a keen interest in Antarctica. Ice cores have revealed much of the planet's climate history, and the movement of vast ice sheets provides vivid evidence of warming in action. While the treaty organization does not formulate global climate policy, it does provide a platform for research that can inform policy made elsewhere.
"The polar regions are where the Earth kind of cools itself," said Scott Borg, director for Antarctic science at the National Science Foundation. "It's real important to understand how the polar regions are changing, and how that's going to affect the heat budget of the Earth."
For the U.S. delegation, a primary concern at the meeting will be the growing tourist pressure on the continent.
In 2007, a tourist ship struck an iceberg 50 miles off the Antarctic coast and began to sink, sending 154 passengers and crew scrambling into open lifeboats. A year later, another tour ship ran aground, and 89 passengers had to be rescued and flown to Chile.
