[ISL] "Debris from abandoned WW II-era Arctic military base polluting Greenland"
CBC News' Sima Sahar Zerehi has a photo-heavy feature describing how the decay of an American military base from the Second World War in Greenland threatens catastrophe.
It's an image that requires a double-take: a pristine Arctic landscape in Greenland, dotted with rusted debris from an abandoned World War II military base.
Bluie East II was a U.S. military base built in eastern Greenland in 1942. It was used to bring in supplies, refuel planes and manage flights in need of an emergency landing pad.
When the site, which housed 200 to 300 soldiers, was abandoned in 1947, everything was left behind to rust and break down.
"I was really just shocked at it, it was beyond belief," says Ken Bower, a graphic designer from New York City who stumbled across the site for the first time in 2012.
"You have this absolute pristine, picture-perfect landscape and then sitting in that landscape is all the hazardous materials."
It's an image that requires a double-take: a pristine Arctic landscape in Greenland, dotted with rusted debris from an abandoned World War II military base.
Bluie East II was a U.S. military base built in eastern Greenland in 1942. It was used to bring in supplies, refuel planes and manage flights in need of an emergency landing pad.
When the site, which housed 200 to 300 soldiers, was abandoned in 1947, everything was left behind to rust and break down.
"I was really just shocked at it, it was beyond belief," says Ken Bower, a graphic designer from New York City who stumbled across the site for the first time in 2012.
"You have this absolute pristine, picture-perfect landscape and then sitting in that landscape is all the hazardous materials."