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Residents
at Palmer Station, a year-round U.S. research station
on the Antarctic Peninsula, removed old debris from the
sea floor near the station in late April 2007, as a part
of an annual Earth Day clean up.
In the early days of Antarctic exploration, in the first
decades of the 20th century, expeditions were largely
unregulated and free to dispose of wastes as the leaders
saw fit. In the latter half of the century, following
renewed efforts to explore the polar regions that were
sparked in part by worldwide interest in the continent
and a burgeoning, global environmental consciousness,
nations began to develop environmental policies for Antarctica
as well as efforts to mitigate past environmental harm.
The international Antarctic Treaty, to which the United
States is a signatory, contains a Protocol on Environmental
Protection that designates Antarctica as a "natural
reserve, devoted to peace and science," and sets
forth basic principles and detailed, environment-related
obligations applicable to human activities in Antarctica.
The National Science Foundation (NSF) oversees the U.S.
Antarctic Program, which manages three year-round stations
on the southernmost continent and coordinates all U.S.
scientific research there. The White House has designated
NSF as the lead U.S. Agency for the International Polar
Year 2007-2008, a concerted global research effort in
the polar regions.
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