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Brazilian Antarctic Base Will Cost US$ 99.6 Million but Resources for Research Are Lacking

03/06/2017 - 11h47

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MARCELO LEITE AND LALO DE ALMEIDA
SPECIAL ENVOYS TO ANTARCTICA

It's 10 PM on the 16th of December 2016. The Austral day is still light in the South Shetland archipelago at the edge of the Antarctic peninsula where King George island is located.

Laborers from the Chinese Electronics Importation and Exportation Corporation had disembarked from the Young Sheng cargo ship the previous day to begin construction on the equivalent of a palace at the end of the world to fulfil a contract for US$ 99,6 million (about R$ 314 million over three years) with the Brazilian government to construct the new EACF (Antarctic Commander Ferraz Station).

The allocation for the project for this year, R$ 128 million (US$ 41 million), is 68 times larger than what is budgeted for all national Antarctic research, R$ 1.86 million (US$ 591,000).

Conducting "substantial research activities" (research of significant quantity and quality) is one of the pre-conditions for any country to participate as a consulting, voting member of the Antarctic Treaty of 1959.

When fully completed, which is set for March of 2018, the new base will rise above the beautiful cove of the Admiralty bay on two long connected metal blocks.

Judging from sketches of the interior of the new base, the large and well-illuminated spaces project the EACF light years of distance ahead of traditional Antarctic stations, which weren't much more than huts made of wood or rock, nearly as rustic as the refuges for whale and seal hunters, Antarctica's pioneers.

Translated by LLOYD HARDER

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