Clinton Releasing Antarctica Images
By TERENCE HUNT
09:32 PM ET 09/14/99
CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand (AP) - President Clinton, warning that global warming
could bring cataclysmic consequences, announced the release of classified satellite images
of part of Antarctica to help scientists chart world climate changes. He said the two sets
of images - taken 10 years apart - were ``one small contribution'' to the understanding of
climate change studies.
``The overwhelming consensus of world scientific opinion is that greenhouse
gases from human activity are raising the Earth's temperature in a rapid and unsustainable
way,'' the president said in a speech at the International Antarctica Center. ``The five
warmest years since the 15th century have all been in the 1990s.'' ``Unless we change
course,'' Clinton said, ``most scientists believe the seas will rise so high they will
swallow whole islands and coastal areas. Storms like hurricanes and droughts both will
intensify. Diseases like malaria will be borne by mosquitoes to higher and higher
altitudes and across borders, threatening more lives, a phenomenon we already see today in
Africa.''
The data include seven previously classified images taken by U.S. spy satellites
in the mid-1970s and 1980s of the so-called Dry Valleys environment. Satellite pictures
traditionally are classified because they reveal U.S. intelligence-gathering capabilities.
The new images are intended to give scientists a baseline for environmental
studies, including the monitoring of the Antarctic ozone hole and the West Antarctic ice
sheet. ``Together with data gathered on the ground, the newly released images will help
scientists better understand ecological dynamics in this extreme environment and their
response to climate change,'' a White House statement said.
On the final day of a five-day visit to New Zealand, the president announced his
action during a visit to Christchurch, the jumping off point for American expeditions to
Antarctica. Clinton shared the stage with Sir Edmund Hillary - ``referred to in our family
as my second-favorite Hillary.'' Clinton said the only disappointment of his trip was that
he was not able to fulfill a lifelong desire to go to Antarctica. He said he'd like to
come back to do it.
Hillary was the first person to make a land crossing of Antarctica in 1958.
Hillary and sherpa Tenzing Norgay were the first men to reach the summit of Mount Everest
in 1953. Shortly before leaving Queenstown, Clinton issued pre-emptive disaster
declarations for Florida and Georgia as Hurricane Floyd plowed toward the southeastern
U.S. coast. The president canceled plans to visit Hawaii in order to return home a day
early to oversee emergency efforts related to the hurricane.
On the first leg of his trip, the president spent three days in Auckland for
meetings with Asian leaders and the annual summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation
forum. He took a day off in Queenstown to play golf before a state visit with Prime
Minister Jenny Shipley. Some members of Clinton's staff used the free time for bungee
jumping and jet boat rides.
Clinton was the first president to visit New Zealand since Lyndon Johnson in
1966. The United States and New Zealand enjoy warm ties despite a breach caused by the
government's decision in the mid 1980s to bar nuclear-armed and nuclear-powered warships
from New Zealand ports.
The government's anti-nuclear policy, spawned by concern about nuclear testing
in the South Pacific and arms-control issues, clashed with the U.S. policy of refusing to
confirm or deny whether American ships carried nuclear weapons.
The rift caused the United States to suspend its security obligations to New
Zealand imposed under a 1951 treaty that required participating nations - the United
States, New Zealand and Australia - to consult in case of attack in the Pacific and to
``act to meet the common danger.''
The United States has urged New Zealand to reverse course on nuclear policy.
The pristine areas of Antarctica are closely watched because scientists expect
climate changes to be more significant in the polar regions. Moreover, the Antarctic ice
sheet helps regulate the climate of the entire Earth, and preserves a climate history
going back more than 400,000 years.
The pictures released by Clinton, taken by military satellite, show a detailed
view of the Dry Valleys region of the Transantarctic Mountains, a 1,900-foot-long range
that splits the east and west regions of Antarctica.
The region pictured is near the U.S. McMurdo Station, an observatory for the
international global positioning system. The newly released pictures are modified versions
of fine-resolution images taken by spy satellites. The White House used Clinton's
announcement to polish Vice President Al Gore's credentials as an environmentalist as he
heads into the presidential race.
A White House statement said the administration, at Gore's urging, began an
initiative in 1991 to declassify data for scientific research. Last month, Gore announced
the declassification and release of 59
