Un Chief to Visit Antarctica and Amazon

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who has made climate change a priority, will visit the Antarctic and the Amazon rain forest during a South American tour starting next week, the United Nations has confirmed.

The visits will be “so that he can see first-hand the effects of climate change and deforestation on the environment,” U.N. spokeswoman Marie Okabe told a news briefing.

Okabe said he would visit Punta Arenas on the southern tip of Chile, located beneath a hole in the ozone layer, and the nearby Torres del Paine national park, where glaciers have been affected by global warming. During the trip to Antarctica he would be briefed by scientists at research stations, she said.

Hopefully then the UN can crank up the political pressure on the US.