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Thank you Sir Edmund Hilary; distinguished American guests, Dr Arden Bement; Claudia McMurray, Assistant Secretary of State; Glynn Davies, Deputy Secretary of State; Ambassador Bill McCormick – he tells me he’s just got his hearing back after that trip yesterday to the Pole; senior dignitaries; Mayor of Christchurch, Gary Moore, who acts in the way of host for the operations in Christchurch; our Chief of Defence, Lieutenant-General Jerry Mateparae; our leader of Antarctic New Zealand, Paul Hargreaves; Antarctic Heritage Trust chair Paul East; and every one who is gathered for today’s ceremony.
It is a proud day for New Zealand in Antarctica, being 50 years to the day that Scott Base was firmly dedicated and the start of our permanent presence down here on the ice.
From the very beginning, the co-operation with the United States here on Ross Island has been a big feature of the Kiwi Antarctic Programme. That Kiwi expedition of 1957 came down so that we too could be part of the International Geophysical Year - a year that was a watershed in many ways, and certainly the beginning of the modern age in Antarctica. Around 80,000 scientists from 67 countries, one way or another, participated in the International Geophysical Year. New Zealand was a part of it down here. That year produced an explosion of scientific knowledge.
When the Kiwi expedition led by Sir Ed turned up in McMurdo Sound they were originally bound for Butter Point on the other side of the sound. Sir Ed and his deputy, Bob Miller, got into a US helicopter, they went off to inspect the site. Then, as the story goes, they tried to access it by tractors, with dogs, and with sledges, but after three days Ed came to the conclusion that it wasn’t the best place to try. So he enlisted the man who was to become his good friend and who is spoken of so warmly today, Rear Admiral Dufek, Commander of the American Taskforce. They got into another helicopter and Admiral Dufek helped Sir Ed find this site here at Pram Point, and the rest is history. Fifty years of continuous Kiwi presence here has shown the wisdom of that choice.
Today is a double anniversary. It is an anniversary of New Zealand formally being here, but it’s also an anniversary of half a century of close co-operation between the United States and New Zealand on Antarctic science and research.
Our country has now hosted generations of Americans bound for Antarctica through Christchurch. We’ve shared each others air and sea transport, and we are greatly indebted to the United States for it’s support for sea and air access to Ross Island, and for support for our Hercules flights.
In regard to the logistical co-operation, I do want to acknowledge the tremendous effort made by the National Science Foundation and particularly by Dr Karl Erb to overcome the threat of a single point of failure posed to our stations on Ross Island by the severe sea-ice build-up in McMurdo Sound. We are now actively looking at ways in which we can enhance our contribution to the logistics pool here in McMurdo Sound, and the potential for wind power to contribute to that and for the energy needs of both our programmes is a very exciting option. I know Dr Bement has been working on it, and it could indeed transform the energy situation down here if we could crack that particular problem.
Our scientific collaboration has also led to important discoveries in atmospheric research, including in the measurement of ultra-violet radiation and our understanding of the chemistry of the ozone hole which forms each spring over Antarctica. These environmental factors have a real bearing on the health of New Zealanders and other people living in the Southern Hemisphere.
It has never been more important for us than now to understand Antarctica’s role in driving global systems, including climate change. I wish to congratulate the American and New Zealand scientists and drillers who, with colleagues from Italy and Germany, have already produced a wealth of new knowledge from the ANDRILL project’s first season just ended. The evidence from the sediment cores of sudden changes in the behaviour of the Ross Ice Shelf in past ages is startling.
We meet here today on the eve of International Polar Year, and we are looking forward to the further deepening of scientific and logistical co-operation between New Zealand and the United States during International Polar Year. I am pleased to confirm that in April 2008 and 2009 the RNZAF will make special late season flights to Antarctica to extract scientists working on the National Science Foundation’s major International Polar Year project, ‘Life in the Cold and Dark’.
We also hope that International Polar Year will challenge our imaginations with far reaching new discoveries and inspire a new generation of New Zealand and American Antarctic scientists, just as International Geophysical Year did half a century ago. We are here in a vast natural laboratory at the foot of the world and it still has many secrets.
Yesterday I was greatly privileged, with Paul Hargreaves and my husband, to go to see some of the big, big science being done by the United States up at the South Pole. It’s simply an extraordinary commitment to science and we congratulate you Dr Bement and the United States government on the resource you are putting in there to unlocking the great mysteries that still surround our earth and whole planetary system and universe at this time. It’s truly impressive to see what you are doing there.
Our two countries of course are both original signatories of the 1959 Antarctic Treaty which was drawn up on the basis of a US proposal. To this day, it remains a model of international co-operation. The Treaty sets Antarctica aside for peaceful purposes and guarantees freedom of scientific investigation and co-operation. But today we see the Antarctic under a lot of pressure in the face of increasing demand with resources and those of the seas around it. In particular the lawlessness of the illegal, unregulated, and unreported fishing in Antarctic waters not only threatens the bio-diversity, but also poses an increasing security challenge. I know that hunting and killing of whales in the Ross Sea is of great concern to the United States, as it is indeed to New Zealand.
So our two countries do have a common interest in seeing that the Antarctic Treaty and its associated agreements do remain credible, relevant and effective. I believe both countries are committed to a future where this great wilderness is preserved for all to value and understand. A very practical example of that commitment is our shared environmental management of the Dry Valleys on behalf of the Treaty System. Our close and likeminded working relationship in the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meetings, and the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources, help sustain that commitment.
Over the years the US has given significant leadership to the Antarctic Treaty System, along with the huge resources it’s invested to seeing that this precious continent remains a haven of peace for scientific and other purposes. It’s been a huge American contribution from which the whole world benefits, and for which we in New Zealand are particularly grateful, not least for the support you have given our operation here.
We are very pleased to have this senior US delegation with us today to share our big anniversary at Scott Base, and our joint anniversary of co-operation in scientific and Antarctic endeavour between the US and New Zealand.
Thank you.
