John Kerry, US State Secretary, will be going to Antarctica for Climate Change.
He will be the first top US official to visit Antarctica, where the largest protected marine reserve is located. He will be visiting the McMurdo Station, Ross Island and Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station.
According to a previous report, there was a scientist who died in McMurdo Station a month ago. Gordon Hamilton is a climate scientist who died in a snowmobile accident while in the field.
He is known for his ice sheet studies in Antarctica and is part of the U.S. Antarctica Program, where he's studying ice shelves stability in the McMurdo Station. They were mapping the McMurdo shear zone when the accident happened. Hamilton was riding a snow machine when it hit a crevasse and fell 100 ft. into the ice.
Yahoo News reported that this visit comes after two weeks of the international agreement to create the world's largest marine protected area, in hopes to preserve the fauna and flora of the Ross Sea. This reserve will cover more than 598,000 square miles which is equivalent to 1.55 million square kilometers.
They explained that Kerry is a long time global warming advocate. He was a key force in the Paris global climate agreement that happened in 2015.
This will be the last tour of Kerry as the Secretary of State before Obama's presidency ends on January 20, 2017. Just recently, Kerry released a statement that Pres. Obama signed a Presidential Memorandum on Climate Change and National Security.
He explained that this establishes a framework for federal agencies that will ensure that impacts of climate-change will be considered on their national security doctrines, policies and plans. He said that the President is aware of he impacts of climate change and believes that climate change will present security challenges for the United States and other countries in the next 20 years.
