Seminar call to ban Ice mining

Press, 19 July 1989, Page 7

Seminar call to ban Ice mining

By

OLIVER RIDDELL in Wellington

A call for the banning of all mineral activity in Antarctica has come from a seminar held at the University of Auckland. Four resolutions were passed by the 120 participants without dissent, said Associate Professor John Hay, director of envionmental science at the university. They were: • That we do not support the Convention on the Regulation of Antarctic Mineral Resource Activities. • That we request the Government to work towards extending the existing moratorium which prohibits mineral activities in Antarctica. • That we call on the Government not to ratify the Antarctic Minerals Convention but rather to promote Antarctica as a World Park. • That we urge the Government to announce publicly its support for the designation of Antarctica as a World Park and urge it to promote this proposal at the Antarctic Treaty consultative meeting to be held in Paris during October. Dr Hay said participants had been asked to present opposing points of view to these resolutions, but none had. The seminar had been conducted as part of the university’s continuing education programme, and had attracted a broad Cross-section of the community. “For this reason the views expressed may well be held by a majority of New Zealanders,” he said. The Government should give them “urgent and favourable consideration.”