Buenos Aires Herald 
President Javier Milei arrived at the Argentine Marambio Base in Antarctica at noon on Saturday, intending to launch a contamination control program promoted by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Milei’s trip could signal a change in his stance on environmental issues: during the electoral campaign he made statements denying climate change.
Milei’s first visit to Antarctica has a busy agenda that also includes a visit to Esperanza, another of Argentina’s outposts on the continent.
The President’s Office wrote in an X post that Milei left the city of Río Gallegos for Antarctica after 9 a.m. The announcement is accompanied by a photo in which the President is seen walking along the runway of the military airport with his sister and Secretary General of the Presidency, Karina Milei, and Defense Minister Luis Petri.
“President Javier Milei departs for the Marambio Joint Antarctic Base” was the message on the President’s departure. He took off for Marambio in an Argentine Airforce C-130 Hercules of the Argentine Air Force to Marambio, where he arrived at noon.
Milei went into the white continent with an IAEA team including its Argentine president, Rafael Gorssi. The team’s goal is to study the impact of microplastics on Antarctica’s environment and wildlife, in collaboration with the Argentine government.
The trip is part of NUTEC Plastics, an IAEA initiative to address the global challenge of plastic pollution. Scientists believe microplastics and nanoplastics have significantly contributed to greenhouse gas emissions, so the issue affects climate change.
Milei’s support of such an initiative has drawn attention since he has consistently said that climate change is a “communist hoax” and even claimed that he does not see “any problem” in pollution.
According to the IAEA’s website, the NUTEC Plastics initiative brings together countries and partners from around the world to fight plastic pollution on two fronts — “at point of source, by introducing new technologies to improve plastic recycling; and in the ocean, where the bulk of plastic waste ends up.”
Nuclear technology plays a key role on both fronts since irradiation can be used to treat existing plastics and to render them fit for recycling. Nuclear science is also used to trace plastics in the ocean, particularly microplastics.
— With information from Télam
