Trash Problem on Antarctic Island

King George Island hosts at least half a dozen research stations within an area of about 16 square miles

In early 1995, I led a Greenpeace expedition to Antarctica during which, among other things, we stopped off at King George Island, in the South Shetland Islands just off the coast of the Antarctic Peninsula, to pay an official but cordial visit to some of the bases there.

King George Island, and particularly the extremity known as Fildes Peninsula, is host to anabundance of research stations: three Chilean, one Chinese, one Russian, and one Uruguayan, all of them in an area of about 16 square miles. Indeed, several are effectively on top of each other; during my visit we went from China to Chile to Russia with consummate ease.