Cuba crisis when the Antarctic Treaty was born during 1961 during the cold war. This is the finest example I think we have of international cooperation and essentially has preserved Antarctica to this point today. And it's only through this cooperation that we have a hope in peace in the environment.

Our second objective was education-to bring about an awareness in an organized fashion to our schoolchildren. I always feel in education there's two parts to that. No. 1 is the inspiration. Without the inspiration there really is no learning.

And I saw the expedition with the adventure and the dogs and the international component of the people from six cultures as drawing the attention, drawing the inspiration of the young kids. Along with that we developed curriculums which enabled 15 million children to follow the expedition around the globe. I saw this education for our children as sort of the foundation investment in Antarctica. Also there was the media in which we made 2.5 million impressions to adults.

In addition to the goals, there was the adventure itself. We chose, purposely, to cross the longest possible route, which was about 3,700 miles. It took us 220 days. And Antarctica is a paradox. On one side there's a very pristine beauty. Most of what we see in pictures is the beauty side, just the skin of Antarctica-the wildlife, the incredible vast penguins, seals, whales, incredible reserve of animals down there and the mountains that rise out of the sea. Throughout our 3,700-mile travel we saw not one jet stream. I was always thinking I'd see a jet cross overhead but not even a jet stream. We saw no effects of man except for the few bases that we crossed through.

The other side of the paradox of Antarctica is it's a novel place. When Scott, Robert F. Scott, died on his return from Antarctica in 1912, he made the second to the last sentence in his journal: "God, this is an awful place." And when I read that before going down to Antarctica, I really didn't understand that because I was still a little bit idealistic.

But the interior of the continent, which makes up over 90 percent of the continent itself, is very brutal, very cold, with inhuman storms. It's almost like crossing the face of another planet-no sign of any life at all, no heart, no spirit, no soul. Last year at this time we were locked into a 60-day storm, nonstop storm, something I never expected in my life to see.

We had laid out food caches the year before and we couldn't find the caches. We had relied on technology here to bring in the food. We had also relied on technology for our rescue but there was no way we could get an airplane in in this storm, let alone even get out radio communications. So we were really in a precarious position. We questioned our survival, the survival of our dogs.

Also, at that time, a failure would mean that Jean-Louis and I each would be $1 million in debt returning back to our respective homes. The only way we hung through was how you face most major problems, which is by keeping very positive.

And, within our group, we collectively had a very strong faith and a very strong hope. And it was this collective power that really cemented us together. Some days I didn't really know how we were going to survive this storm getting up in the morning or how we

would actually even be able to travel when you couldn't see 40 feet in front of you, it was 40 below with a 50-mile-an-hour wind.

But also we had to do it. There was no other choice. What really supported us, especially myself at that time, was the children. I had such faith in this expedition that we couldn't fail because of our children, because you saw a few pictures of the penguins that you received from Jim. We have a whole garage full of such papers that we've received through trans-Antarctica and that's where I really drew my strength during the storms.

It was a similar storm like this that we lost Keizo Funatsu on the second to our last day. He disappeared when he went out to feed his dogs on March 1. We went out for a rescue on that evening, couldn't find him. We didn't know the next morning if we'd find him at all or if he'd be dead. Very fortunately, we did find him the next morning at 7 o'clock and he was in relatively good health.

We had many crevasses. Crevasses, by the way, are very deep cracks in the ice which are often covered by snow and ice and you have to cross those. The real problem with the dogsled is the sleds are very heavy. You could lose a whole team in these crevasses and you can be in a very serious situation.

Then there was the brutality of the plateau, which makes up about 70 percent of the Antarctic surface. Up at 10,000 feet at the top of the world it's very windy, very cold. And we were on that plateau area for 42 months.

But it was the hope and the faith and our collective spirit that pulled the six of us together across Antarctica. When we came out on the other end last March, we came out to a different world. Last year you recall the Berlin wall, the rise of democracy in the Eastern European countries.

We had just heard glimpses of this on the radio or third-hand information on that. But when we stepped off the ship, the Russian ship in Australia last March, we faced this in just a full swallow. We saw actual change in the attitudes of people. For the first time in my life, returning from an expedition, I came back to a hopeful world, people that were really optimistic and looking positively at world peace.

We also saw, in the many tens of thousands of children, a deep concern for the environment. I questioned where this concern came from. I know it's not just from the parents. There's almost a sort of survival reflex in our younger children that their values now are for the environment. Not so much what they're going to do with their life but it's a concern for the environment.

In our world tour we saw a huge swell of public opinion that had started around Antarctica. And this was not just from Trans-Antarctica. I saw this happening 3 or 4 years ago around the Antarctic in 1990 that the swell of public opinion would start coming up. And we saw that trans-Antarctica was an opportunity to galvanize this. The swell of public opinion has actually swayed the policymakers around the world. We saw Australia and France take a right-hand turn last year to preserve Antarctica. We toured China. The President of China, publicly in front of the press, committed to total preservation of Antarctica. They admitted that for the first time they saw an opportunity for world peace through Antarctica,

through international cooperation. They never saw that opportunity, they said; the President said that to us in front of the press. They never saw that opportunity before trans-Antarctica.

They decided to increase the amount of science, their investigative science in Antarctica. They saw the importance of rapidly increasing their study in science to investigate the atmosphere.

The Soviets also, we met with Foreign Prime Minister Shevardnadze, Vice President Lukianov. They committed also to preservation of Antarctica.

Also they took that one step further and they said they want to commit more to more zones, like the Arctic, similar to the Antarctic where we have international cooperation.

And what concerned me all along was the leadership role of the United States. I saw individuals in Congress, Senate, EPA had certain individuals taking on a role but internationally we have been dragging our feet when it came to the Antarctic issue.

Actually this Antarctic issue is almost a freebie. There's no real special interests that we're stepping on here. But it's a great opportunity for the United States.

If we don't act on it, we're going to really look bad in the world community because all the other nations-I'll tell you, all the other nations are acting on it. And this is an opportunity, starting in Chile in 1990-and this is why I think it's very important to act on this bill immediately. But there is an opportunity here to take a leadership role in the environment. Because the world has always looked up to the United States and the world needs to look up to the United States as an example setter for the environment.

I'll conclude this by saying our direction starts with individuals, especially individuals in this room that are in leadership and policymaking positions. It takes two things-one is vision-the ability to see ahead. And the other is courage to take action. Because, to be effective, we have to see what we are doing to the environment and we have to see the effect that this is going to have on the future of humanity.

We also need-and the people in this room also need the strength to ride above the restraints of 'special interests to take action for the preservation of Antarctica.

Thank you.

[Prepared statement of Mr. Steger follows:]

STATEMENT BY WILL STEGER,
POLAR EXPLORER AND EDUCATOR

When I completed the Trans-Antarctica Expedition in March of 1990, having spent seven months in virtual isolation from the world, I was struck by what a different place the world had become. Mankind had taken quantum leaps, showing the strength of the human spirit to move collectively toward a new sense of freedom. The face of Eastern Europe had changed. The Soviet Union was implementing measures in its economy, changes that a year before had been unthinkable. The Berlin Wall had fallen and in its place blossomed forth a resurgence of hope and faith within man, proving that, in fact, the unthinkable could become reality. The power of man's collective will had changed what seemed to be unchangeable.

Often solutions to environmental problems appear to be as impossible as the city of Berlin without a wall seemed just a short while ago. It is easy not to fight for solutions to such overwhelming dilemmas. It is much harder to seek common ground, to move forward and to confront directly the problems we face. Daily our attention is riveted by concerns in the Middle East; all the while the clock continues to tick away on the serious environmental problems we face. Yet, the Middle East or other imminent crises continually divert us from attacking these looming environmental issues.

What the human species needs today is a major environmental victory. We need an environmental Berlin Wall. This would give us a sense that in fact we can preserve a piece of our common heritage. Antarctica is poised to play this role for mankind. It calls us to unite our spirit, to prove our ability to tackle a global environmental threat, and to motivate us to move to protect the planet.

Antarctica is a brutal and foreign place. Yet in spite of its harshness, its beauty is unsurpassed. There is a purity, a beauty, a cleanliness in the air, in the ice, and in the mountains. This purity reinforces the geographic isolation of this continent at the bottom of the earth.

It is this stark nature that makes this area one of the best places on earth to study the effects of pollution. Due to of the central role the continent plays in the Earth's weather patterns, severe changes in the global climate are likely to be detected first in Antarctica. The continent's vast frozen ice crust, which accounts for more than 90 percent of the world's ice and 70 percent of the world's fresh water, contains an invaluable record of the Earth's climatic history. Ice cores drilled by scientists provide accurate information on increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide and other global pollutants back 160,000 years. In effect, Antarctica is a barometer of the world's health.

But the environmental profligacies of the civilized world are beginning to take a toll even on Antarctica. With the global temperature rising and the ozone layer depleting as a result of the burning of fossil fuels and the use of chloroflorocarbons, the ice shelves that surround Antarctica are breaking off more rapidly than in the past. This not only changes the salinity and temperature of the Earth's oceans, but will cause the levels of the seas to rise. The increase in fresh water being added to the ocean will ultimately lead to a change in the ocean currents and, therefore, result in permanent changes in the weather patterns around the world.

The melting and freezing of the ice cap has been a natural cycle for millions of years resulting in drastic changes in the Earth's weather systems and the topography of our land forms. This is a very delicate balance which most recently accounted for the past ice ages. The major problem is that mankind now faces an upsetting of this delicate balance. Through pollution of the atmosphere and the destruction of the natural environment, the atmosphere is warming at an alarming rate.

Mother Earth will not wait much longer, for the damage is nearing the irreversible point. After thousands of years, humanity is at the brink. Attention must be focused on the preservation of the planet and in providing a healthy environment for our children and our children's children.

We must continue to move ourselves from self-centeredness to an awareness of the whole and how it functions. An understanding needs to be developed of the interdependency of the ecosystems and the human species on the planet. Antarctica is a focal point in aiding us in this understanding with its role as a measure of the Earth's barometer.

The crucial decisions are in the hands of a few. They always have been. You are in a position here of making a significant contribution. Most of you on this Subcommittee are from parts of this country that rarely see ice and snow, much less the kinds of winds and temperatures that are common to the Antarctic days. I can understand how this world may seem so very foreign to you. However, consider the fragility of this striking yet precious part of our planet. Consider the interdependent nature of our planet. Consider your responsibilities to the people of this nation and to other nations and to your children. The preservation of Antarctica is imperative. It represents our ability to work together with the nations of the world toward a common goal, respecting our cultural differences, yet seeking something that is greater than our individual special interests that of preserving part of the planet, of putting a stop to the spiral of depleting our limited resources and threatening human life in the process.

I strongly support the effort of the House of Representatives to put the United States in a leadership position to preserve the Antarctic continent. This legislation, H.R. 4514, the Antarctic World Park and Protection Act of 1990, introduced by Congressman Bruce F. Vento of Minnesota, is directly in line with efforts for this nation to move forward in providing a clear environmental victory for mankind. This is a "no-lose" situation for our nation.