Antarctica

SANTIAGO, Chile, Aug. 25 (UPI) — After spending nearly two months unable to leave Antarctica with his aircraft, American pilot and influencer Ethan Guo, 19, is set to return to Punta Arenas aboard an icebreaker in early September.

Chilean authorities said Guo altered his flight plan and landed without authorization on the continent June 1, and they forced his small aircraft to remain at the Chilean air base in Antarctica at which he set down.

Officials said Guo was not barred from leaving, but he chose to stay at the base until the dispute was resolved. Prosecutors argued that the 19-year-old American influencer broke “multiple national and international regulations” by changing his flight plans without prior notice and landing in a sector of Antarctica claimed by Chile.

“Ethan Guo will board the icebreaker Almirante Viel in early September, which will allow him to return to Punta Arenas. I want to thank the Chilean Navy for helping resolve this humanitarian problem, because he had no way to leave Antarctica other than flying his own aircraft, which was not authorized,” his lawyer, Jaime Barrientos, told UPI.

Since 2024, Guo has led the campaign “Flight Against Cancer,” aiming to become the first pilot to fly solo across all seven continents in a Cessna 182Q, while raising $1 million for childhood cancer research after his cousin was diagnosed with the disease.

On June 28, Guo took off from Punta Arenas, bound for Ushuaia, Argentina, but changed course due to weather and landed instead at Teniente Marsh Air Base on King George Island, about 745 miles away.

Chilean officials said he filed a flight plan to depart from Punta Arenas, which he later failed to follow. By changing course without notice, an emergency protocol was triggered. The country’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation accused him of violating aviation rules and jeopardizing air safety.

Barrientos countered that Guo had received clearance to modify his plan.

“There is irrefutable evidence that he established communication with the DGAC, made the change and was expressly authorized to land at Teniente Marsh,” he said.

Speaking with Chilean newspaper Las Últimas Noticias, Guo said he never lied about his route.

“What happened on June 28 was deeply unfair. I didn’t understand the language they spoke to me in, and I was not allowed to present evidence to defend my case,” he said.

Living at the Chilean base, Guo described the experience as stressful and isolating.

“I spend 90% of my time in my room, and there isn’t much to do. Not everyone here speaks English, but they’ve treated me kindly. Despite the unfair legal process I’ve faced, I have a very good impression of Chile and its people.”

The case was closed through an out-of-court settlement. Regional prosecutor Cristián Crisosto said Guo agreed to donate $30,000 to charity and is barred from returning to Chile for three years.

As for the aircraft, Barrientos said the DGAC reached a deal allowing an authorized pilot to fly it back to Punta Arenas and then to the United States.

“We are complying with DGAC requirements so the plane can be returned as soon as possible,” he said.

Guo’s lawyer emphasized the young pilot’s experience: “He has landed in 50 countries, including war zones, crossed the Atlantic twice and flown more than 10 hours over the ocean. He was fully qualified to make the return flight, but we accepted the alternatives provided by the DGAC.”

For now, Guo said he only wants to move on.

“I haven’t seen my family or friends in months, so I hope to reunite with them soon. I just want to close this chapter of my life.”

Negotiations to secure a global treaty to combat plastic pollution were in limbo as talks entered their final day after dozens of countries rejected the latest draft text.

With time running out to seal a deal among the 184 countries gathered at the United Nations in Geneva, the talks’ chair, Luis Vayas Valdivieso, produced a draft text based on the few areas of convergence, in an attempt to find common ground.

But the draft succeeded only in infuriating virtually all corners, and the text was immediately shredded as one country after another ripped it to bits.

For the self-styled ambitious countries, it was an empty document shorn of bold action like curbing production and phasing out toxic ingredients, and reduced to a waste management accord.

And for the so-called Like-Minded Group, with Gulf states leading the charge, it crossed too many of their red lines and did not do enough to narrow the scope of what they might be signing up for.

The talks towards a legally binding instrument on tackling plastic pollution opened on August 5 and were scheduled to close on Thursday, the latest attempt after five previous rounds of talks over the past two and a half years which failed to seal an agreement.

Valdivieso’s draft text does not limit plastic production or address chemicals used in plastic products, which have been contentious issues at the talks.

About 100 countries want to limit production as well as tackle cleanup and recycling. Many have said it’s essential to address toxic chemicals. Oil-producing countries only want to eliminate plastic waste.

The larger bloc of countries seeking more ambitious actions blasted what they consider a dearth of legally binding action. But oil-producing states said the text went too far for their liking.

Lowered ambition or ambition for all?

Panama said the goal was to end plastic pollution, not simply to reach an agreement.

“It is not ambition: it is surrender,” their negotiator said.

The European Union said the proposal was “not acceptable” and lacked “clear, robust and actionable measures”, while Kenya said there were “no global binding obligations on anything”.

Tuvalu, speaking for 14 Pacific island developing states, said the draft risked producing a treaty “that fails to protect our people, culture and ecosystem from the existential threat of plastic pollution”.

Britain called it a text that drives countries “towards the lowest common denominator”, and Norway said it was “not delivering on our promise … to end plastic pollution”.

Bangladesh said the draft “fundamentally fails” to reflect the “urgency of the crisis”, saying that it did not address the full life cycle of plastic items, nor their toxic chemical ingredients and their health impacts.

Oil-producing states, which call themselves the Like-Minded Group – and include Saudi Arabia, Russia and Iran – want the treaty to focus primarily on waste management.

Kuwait, speaking for the group, said the text had “gone beyond our red lines”, adding that “without consensus, there is no treaty worth signing”.

“This is not about lowering ambition: it’s about making ambition possible for all,” it said.

Saudi Arabia said there were “many red lines crossed for the Arab Group” and reiterated calls for the scope of the treaty to be defined “once and for all”.

The United Arab Emirates said the draft “goes beyond the mandate” for the talks, while Qatar said that without a clear definition of scope, “we don’t understand what obligations we are entering into”.

India, while backing Kuwait, saw the draft as “a good enough starting point ” to go forward on finalising the text.

The draft could now change significantly and a new version is expected on Thursday, the last scheduled day of the negotiations.

With ministers in Geneva for the final day of negotiations, environmental NGOs following the talks urged them to grasp the moment.

The World Wide Fund for Nature said the remaining hours would be “critical in turning this around”.

“The implications of a watered-down, compromised text on people and nature around the world is immense,” and failure on Thursday “means more damage, more harm, more suffering”, it said.

Greenpeace delegation chief Graham Forbes called on ministers to “uphold the ambition they have promised” and address “the root cause: the relentless expansion of plastic production”.

The Center for International Environmental Law’s delegation chief David Azoulay said the draft was a “mockery”, and as for eventually getting to a deal, he said: “It will be very difficult to come back from this.”

More than 400 million tonnes of plastic are produced globally each year, half of which is for single-use items.

Nearly half, or 46 percent, ends up in landfills, while 17 percent is incinerated and 22 percent is mismanaged and becomes rubbish.

THE remains of a Brit researcher who died in Antarctica have been discovered nearly six decades after a tragic accident.

Dennis “Tink” Bell, at the time 25, fell into a crevasse during an Antarctic mission – leaving his devastated family unable to repatriate his body.

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Dennis’s body was never recovered until January 29 – when a team of Polish researchers from the Henryk Arctowski Polish Antarctic Station stumbled upon bones later confirmed to be his.

His brother, David Bell, told the BBC: “I had long given up on finding my brother. It is just remarkable, astonishing. I can’t get over it.”

Born in 1934, Dennis worked with the RAF and trained as a meteorologist before joining the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey – later renamed the British Antarctic Survey.

In 1958, he began a two-year posting at the UK base in Admiralty Bay, Antarctica.

His main role was to send up weather balloons and radio the data back to the UK every three hours – work that meant firing up a generator in brutal sub-zero conditions.

The base sat on King George Island – around 75 miles off the northern tip of the Antarctic Peninsula.

Archivist Ieuan Hopkins from the British Antarctic Survey unearthed detailed reports describing work on the “ridiculously isolated” island.

One report described Dennis as “cheerful and industrious, with a mischievous sense of humour and fondness for practical jokes”.

He was said to have loved the husky dogs that pulled sledges around the island and was known as the hut’s best cook – often managing the food store through the long winter when no supplies could get in.

The fatal accident happened just weeks after his 25th birthday, while Dennis was surveying King George Island to help map the terrain.

On July 26 1959 – deep in the Antarctic winter – Dennis and his colleague and pal Jeff Stokes had climbed and surveyed a glacier.

Dennis was encouraging the weary dogs but wasn’t wearing his skis when he suddenly vanished into a crevasse, according to British Antarctic Survey accounts.

Jeff shouted down to him and Dennis was able to call back, grabbing hold of a rope lowered in a rescue attempt.

The dogs pulled at the rope, hauling Dennis – who had attached it to his belt – up towards the edge of the hole.

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But tragically, the belt broke and Dennis fell back into the crevasse.

When Jeff called out again, Dennis didn’t reply.

David Bell recalled how, in July 1959, a telegram boy knocked on the door of the Bells’ family home in Harrow, London to deliver the devastating news of Dennis’ death.

He said two men from Dennis’s base later visited the family and brought a sheepskin as a gesture of sympathy.

“But there was no conclusion. There was no service; there was no anything. Just Dennis gone,” David says.

David described feeling overwhelmed by the news and expressed his gratitude to the Polish researchers who found his remains.

“I’m just sad my parents never got to see this day,” he said.

David, who lives in Australia, plans to visit England with his sister Valerie so they can lay their beloved brother to rest.

“It’s wonderful; I’m going to meet my brother. You might say we shouldn’t be thrilled, but we are,” David said.

“He’s been found – he’s come home now.”

Professor Dame Jane Francis, Director of the British Antarctic Survey, paid tribute to Dennis: “Dennis was one of the many brave personnel who contributed to the early science and exploration of Antarctica under extraordinarily harsh conditions.

“Even though he was lost in 1959, his memory lived on among colleagues and in the legacy of polar research.”

Since 1944, 29 people have died working in the British Antarctic Territory on scientific missions, according to the British Antarctic Monument Trust.

Among them were Alan Sharman and Russell Thompson, who also died in 1959.

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UN chief Antonio Guterres says ‘the fossil fuel age is flailing and failing’ as renewable energy becomes cheaper.

The global switch to renewable energy has passed a “positive tipping point”, and solar and wind power will become even cheaper and more widespread, according to two reports.

Last year, 74 percent of the growth in electricity generated worldwide was from wind, solar and other green sources, according to a report compiled by multiple United Nations agencies called Seizing the Moment of Opportunity. It was published on Tuesday.

It found that 92.5 percent of all new electricity capacity added to the grid worldwide in 2024 came from renewables. Meanwhile, sales of electric vehicles were up from 500,000 in 2015 to more than 17 million in 2024.

The three cheapest electricity sources globally last year were onshore wind, solar panels and new hydropower, according to an energy cost report by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), an intergovernmental organisation. Solar power now is 41 percent cheaper and wind power is 53 percent cheaper globally than the lowest-cost fossil fuel, the reports said.

“The fossil fuel age is flailing and failing,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a speech at the UN headquarters in New York City.

“We are in the dawn of a new energy era. An era where cheap, clean, abundant energy powers a world rich in economic opportunity.”

“Just follow the money,” Guterres said, quoting the reports, which showed last year there was $2 trillion in investment in green energy, which is about $800bn more than in fossil fuels.

Renewables are booming despite fossil fuels getting nearly nine times the government consumption subsidies as they do, Guterres and the reports said.

In 2023, global fossil fuel subsidies amounted to $620bn, compared with $70bn for renewables, the UN report said.

Still, the UN warned that the switch to renewable energy is not happening fast enough.

Despite the boom in renewables, fossil fuel production globally is still increasing instead of going down in response. UN officials said that’s because power demand is increasing overall, spurred by developing countries, artificial intelligence data centres and the need for cooling in an ever warmer world.

Guterres warned nations that are hanging on to fossil fuels that they were heading down a dangerous path that would make them poorer not richer.

“Countries that cling to fossil fuels are not protecting their economies. They [are] sabotaging them – driving up costs, undermining competitiveness, locking in stranded assets,” Guterres said.

The global renewables growth has been mostly in countries like China – where one-tenth of the economy is tied up in green energy – as well as countries such as India and Brazil.

Africa represented less than 2 percent of the new green energy capacity installed last year despite having great electrification needs, the reports said.

“The Global South must be empowered to generate its own electricity without adding to already unsustainable level of debts,” Bahamian climate scientist Adelle Thomas of the Natural Resources Defense Council, who did not work on the reports, told The Associated Press news agency.

Guterres called on major technology firms to power data centres completely with renewables by 2030.

“A typical AI data centre eats up as much electricity as 100,000 homes,” Guterres said. “By 2030, data centres could consume as much electricity as all of Japan does today.”

“The future is being built in the cloud,” the UN chief said.

“It must be powered by the sun, the wind and the promise of a better world.”