The government of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands is considering a proposal from Japan to lease Pagan, a beautiful and biologically unique island, as a dumping ground for tons of tsunami debris. This is after it was originally slated by the US Military as a warfare training ground and ballistic testing site (not a good option either). For an island nation, limited in land, burying one of its most beautiful and diverse islands with garbage from Japan is not only environmentally unconscionable, but is degrading to the people of the CNMI.
Pagan Island
Close your eyes and transport yourself to a desert island in the South Pacific. Swaying palm trees, expansive beaches, and fringing coral reefs, all topped with a steaming volcano. This island is teeming with life; by day beautiful birds and butterflies abound, by night huge bats feed on abundant fruit. In the shade of coco palms, stone ruins of a culture long extinct persist. While this might seem like an idyllic image straight out of a post WWII Hollywood movie, places like this do exist. While not free of ecological problems, as a result of a tumultuous human past, Pagan Island fits this description to a tee.
Mariana Fruit Bat on Pagan Island
Pagan is one of the largest and most biologically and geologically diverse islands in the Mariana Archipelago. Three volcanic cones constitute the landmass of Pagan, of which the highest, Mount Pagan, is active and produces a constant cloud of steam and ash. Of the native and endemic flora and fauna of the Marianas, Pagan is host to many of them; including threatened and endangered species, such as the single island endemic subspecies of the Mariana fruit bat, the endemic Micronesian megapode, the threatened tree snail Partula gibba, leatherback, loggerhead, hawksbill, and green sea turtles. Already confined to a small island archipelago, the island biota of the Northern Mariana Islands are under siege by human induced habitat destruction, especially on the more populated islands of Guam, Saipan, Tinian, and Rota.
Sunrise Over Mount Pagan
Indigenous human habitation of Pagan dates back some 3000 years, and has been intermittent based on commercial exploitation by various foreign colonizers, beginning with the Spanish discovery of the islands by Megellan in 1521. More recently, Japan occupied Pagan during WWII, settling some 2000 soldiers and indenturing the indigenous Chamorro population to work in pozzolan mines (volcanic ash used in the manufacture of cement). After the surrender of the Japanese garrison in 1945, the US administered the Northern Mariana Islands. In the 1950s, parts of Pagan became a copra farm and cattle ranch, of which efforts were abandoned in the 1970s. In 1981, the eruption of Mount Pagan forced the remaining local population to relocate to Saipan. Since that eruption, Pagan has remained largely uninhabited.
With the recent relocation of US military personnel from Japan to Guam, and the subsequent military build up in the islands, the US military set its sights on Pagan as a place for warfare training and ballistic testing. While it is unclear if this is still in the works, the Government of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands is considering leasing Pagan Island to Japanese investors to dump tons of tsunami debris, and mine millions of tons of pozzolan. The Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands is a small land-limited island nation. Turning one of their most biologically diverse islands into a permanent garbage dump for a wealthy country is an ill-fated and atrocious act.
Marianas Honeyeater on Pagan Island
Pagan is a BEAUTIFUL island! It’s where u call PARADISE! Why would others want to destroy the beauty of it?! NONSENSE I SHALL SAY! SO GO DUMP YOUR TRASH SOMEWHERE ELSE! PEACE…
“…burying one of its most beautiful islands with garbage from Japan is not only environmentally unconscionable but is degrading to the people of the CNMI.”
It’s degrading to all of the Marianas – Guam too!
I will change it to include Guam too. Thank you for the perspective.
Save Pågan Island! Attention Guåhan, Luta, Tini’an, Sa’ipan! Please sign this petition to PROTECT Japan’s proposal to the C.N.M.I. Government to use Pågan Island as a DUMPING SITE for the debris left over by Tsunami, Earthquake that happened not to long ago which affect Japan! SIGN THIS PETITION TO STOP IT! Why can’t Japan just have one of THEIR OWN ISLANDS as a DUMPING GROUND! PROTECT OUR SINAHI ARCHIPELAGO! SPREAD THE WORD AND SIGN THE PETITION VIA THE LINK!
R u kidding me?!?!? Y would someone destroy an island so beautiful!!! I strongly say NO!!! Stop trying to destroy everything… there r other issues to worry about in the cnmi then japan problems!!!
If Japan can build an island for an airport on their ocean, they should just build an other island and dumb all their waste including the redioactive waste from their nuclear power plans. It is their main intention is to remove all nuclear waste from their country since their country is againts it so they wanted as far away from Japan. The people of the CNMI sould protest any agreement with any country thats going to do more damages to their islands. If those countries wouldn’t do it in their back yard. No country shall do it in the CNMI.
Japan should be a good neighbor an clean it’s mess. By doing this it would preserve the ecosystem. An maintain the beauty of this island! Don’t trash Pagan Island..
ANOTHER STUPID IDEA!! from Fitials administration!!! When are you all going to come up with any good ideas that will bring business back and lift up the economy that is already knocking on Hell’s door??!!! Better yet, why don’t you all just go away!!! the CNMI cannot afford you!!!.. you cannot blame previous administrations because you all have been the previous administrations… you just keep taking turns destroying the CNMI’s economy while keeping yourselves rich!!! oh yeah… NO JAPANESE TRASH ALLOWED ON PAGAN!!!! NO JAPANESE TRASH ALLOWED ON PAGAN!!!!
Wow, this is not good at all.
Man!!!! go dump your shit somewhere else! are there any alternatives from letting this happen!!!!?
We need to save what is left of our archipelago. We are destroying our lands and oceans, from Guahan to Sa’ipan. All the development in the name of “progress” is destroying the environment that maintained life for thousands of years.
I do not support mining or proposing to dump radioactive or not, debris and dumps on our islands. We have enough pollution from the military and activity in our islands. Who wants to live in a concrete jungle of an island, or dump island?
Save Pagan
F&@# off Japan. Don’t mess with our islands!
CNMI citizens had better begin a serious protest. Garbage and debri is bad enough….but if they start slipping in radioactive waste as well….where does the NMI legislature stand?
Help spread the word by sharing the petition with family and friends. We must get the word out. Thanks for your support!
please stop raping and exploiting what little resources we have in the northern mariana islands. LEAVE US ALONE!!! KEEP YOUR GARBAGE IN YOUR OWN BACKYARD!!!!!!!!
Not that any place on earth deserves toxic waste, but can we possibly dump it in uninhabited areas of the Arctic or Antarctica instead?
All must email, twitter, facebook,etc. not only friends but most important is your congresmen and senators, only they call the shots at this level.
What a joke! Pagan is one of the prettiest islands I have had the chance to see. Shame on anyone who would even consider turning this place into a target practice or a garbage dump!
Boycott Japanese Radioactive Pollution!
They must not share their Nuclear waste any more!
Is the financially stricken CNMI that desperate for money?? Your land, that land, “PAGAN” and all the rest of the chain is PRICELESS!!
We need to save the entire CNMI. Under Fitial’s dictatorship, we all are dying. Pagan is part of this. Look at the whole picture. This is only part of it.
Hellooooooooooooooooo! Isn’t it enough that they are bombing one of our Farallon de Mendinilla! Isn’t it enough that they have taken three of our most pristine (islands) northern most islands for the Marianas Trench Monument for President Bush! Isn’t it enough that they are sending the soldiers over from Okinawa Japan! It is in my blood to fight for what is due to our people and our islands! We will not let these beautiful islands go just like that! So to all of you my Refaluwasch and Chamorro people, lets stand firm together and stop these invaders from ruining our very essence of having freedom, peace, and harmony with mother earth’s finest group of islands here in the deepest trench of the world. “GOD IS ITS CREATION: PEOPLE IS ITS CREMATION!”
Humbly yours,
Rayme Baybe Kapileo of Laly 4
I see alot of stupid comments by uniformed people here! Before you hate hear what i have to say. Pagan is the most BEAUTIFUL island i have seen in the CNMI! I have seen them all including Uracas that doesn’t mean that the people who have never been to these islands opinions are of anyless importantance. But lets be intellegent about this comments that use profanity should be removed blaming this person or that should be removed. This I supposed to be about saving a beautiful island. Its not intended for political slams. And ideas to dump it on the artic how is that about protecting the enviroment And turning it into a landfill would be a crime even. Pagan already has been mistreated and ignored for years. For example those of us that have been there know about barrels of used oil left and forgotten the tar spill on the airport equipment left to rot away in a failed mining attempt. The first thing we need to look at is getting the means for the people of these islands to be able to reside there with their families. For example schools,some form of emergency medical support transportation. Most of the residents who have kids go months without seeing them to be on their island. So anything positive about saving the island i want to hear. NO MORE TRASH. And no more talking trash be part of the solution not the problem. I lived in Pagan for two years and hate the idea of a beautiful place being destroted anywhere.
http://www.civilbeat.com/articles/2012/05/30/15955-pacific-island-could-be-spared-from-becoming-tsunami-dump-site/
Chamorros should resettle the island and grow food instead of getting food stamps or raping it for pozolan.
Why are our citizens acting as if not empowered?! “The Government” is not a dictatorship! Doesn’t “Common Wealth” mean a political community founded for the common good, public welfare? If the CWNMI cannot, immediately see … the destruction of our islands … then get those officials out of there!!! Why is this even an issue? Is it really that much of an effort to tell these foreign intruders to step off? If the trash and debris is not good enough to place on Japanese soil … why is our islands even considered? And the military … training ground? After two world wars, numerous conflicts, war in Middle East … how was training done then? Step off intruders … to your thing in your own back yard!