I wish to thank the Interagency Committee, the National Science Foundation, and the community of Arctic scientists for convening this workshop on Arctic contamination. Back when we wrote the Arctic Research and Policy Act, the Act that chartered the Interagency Committee and created the Arctic Research Commission, noboy envisioned that you'd have to deal with widespread Arctic environmental contamination. But I commend you and the Commission for taking the subject very seriously. On behalf of all Alaskans, I also want to thank you for convening this workshop here in Alaska, in view of those with a great stake in the issue.
Arctic contamination is one environmental legacy of the Cold War.
If the Cold War can be likened to a wild party, then we've reached the morning after. It's time to wake up, look around, survey the damage, and clean up the mess. Some of the mess is in our own backyard, but the situation looks far worse when we look next door to our Russian neighbors. Last August, we convened a hearing of the Senate Intelligence Commitiee in Fairbanks highlighting environmental problems in the Former Soviet Union. It was the first and only time that this Committee ever held a field hearing, and one of the very few tim es it has convened hearings fully open to the public.