Eyewitness Voices: North Pole Expedition Team on Climate Change Impacts ...

I rediscovered this interview in 2011 when the eight of us from our successful 1986 North Pole Expedition where each of us spoke about the impact of climate change in the world's we individually work in, or have worked in.

Telling our climate stories

• 
  
  Will Steger and I have been friends since 1984 when we met in the lakes District in the UK. He was planning an expedition to the North Pole in 1986 and invited me to join him in view of my dog-sledging experience in Antarctica some years earlier.In 1985 we did a 1500 km training trip from Arctic Red River down the Mackenzie River in Canada to the Arctic Ocean, then crossed the border between Canada and the Alaska (US) and carried on to Point Barrow Alaska.

All 8 of us on the 1986 Expedition carried on promoting climate change which then was beginning have an impact in many parts of the world. 

In 2006, he founded Climate Generation: A Will Steger Legacy (formerly the Will Steger Foundation) to educate the public about climate change that he had witnessed in the Arctic and elsewhere. All of that was made possible by credibility he had established on the North Pole trek. Here is a copy of the newsletter Climate Generation News , his organisation produces regularly. 

Letter from the Executive Director

This month kicked off with our annual donor appreciation breakfast at Red Stag, where supporters learned through storytelling how our work has been influenced by the Paris climate agreement. Our staff’s stories brought COP21 to life again, while connecting the experience of the UN conference with our climate change programming moving forward

Together with the Minneapolis Film Society, MN350 and Food & Water Watch, we joined film director Jon Bowermaster for a screening and panel discussion of his new film Dear President Obama, featuring stories of individuals impacted by the fracking industry and the clean energy revolution that is happening now across the US.

On Saturday, May 7th, we were thrilled to have over 20 allies and supporters join us as we began the process of mapping a new strategic plan for our organization. The feedback, thoughtful insights, and energy that filled the room were truly inspiring! On behalf of our whole staff, I want to extend a heartfelt thanks to everyone who took the time to be there or filled out our survey for input.

Throughout this spring, our high school youth involved in YEA! MN are wrapping up their action projects before the end of the school year, and planning for their year-end retreat at the Steger Wilderness Center. At the same time, our education team is pulling together a robust agenda for our 11th annual Summer Institute for Climate Change Education at Macalester College, happening June 21-24.

Looking ahead to summer, we hope to see you at our Institute in June or at the Northern Spark festival on June 11, where the theme is Climate Chaos – Climate Rising. We are proud to be working with a team of architects and artists who are creating an interactive look at climate data and climate impacts through ice!

Thanks you for engaging in, sustaining and supporting our work in the ways that you can!

Sincerely,

Nicole Rom, Executive Director

Education

Past Summer Institute testimonials highlight what you can expect this year!

Attendees at last year’s 10th Annual Summer Institute for Climate Change Education had a lot to say about this powerful and much-needed professional development experience. You can add your testimonial to the growing ranks of Summer Institute alumni by registering and attending this year’s Institute, which is right around the corner! Here’s what past educators have had to say:

Fabulous speakers, staff, workshops, and presenters plus tasty, fresh food in a great setting – what an awesome combination!

Since I have been a teacher, there are two institutes/trainings that have made more than a lasting impression on me. This is definitely one of them. I wish the three days weren’t up, or that we could have at least one more day! This was so awesome. Thank you so much for an insightful and resource-filled week. Kudos to ALL of you who are a part of Climate Generation!

Carrying the stories of COP21 forward

It honestly wasn’t until April 22, the day the Paris Agreement was signed, that I truly felt I had returned from Paris and COP21. On Earth Day, 174 nations and the EU signed the Paris Agreement, the largest number of signatures to an international agreement in one day, ever. It was both a privilege and an honor to not only be present at COP21, where the Paris Agreement was developed and finalized, but to be present with ten education ambassadors committed to climate change education. In the past few weeks, I finally took time to look back and reflect on all the moments that made our time there memorable and transformational. There are many stories I could tell, but I think this is the one that best captures how COP21 transformed all of us who were able to attend: Kristen’s Climate Story – Landing from Paris.

Katharine Hayhoe talks changing minds on climate

During Earth Week, some of the staff attended a talk by atmospheric scientist Katharine Hayhoe, who is an associate professor at Texas Tech University, director of their Climate Science Center, and a personal climate hero for many of us. Her research focuses on how we should communicate about climate change, and how to use that dialogue to then inspire action on solutions. In her talk, she emphasized that we don’t need to share ever more facts and figures to bring people around; rather, we should respectfully connect with the other person through shared values that motivate our concern about climate change. We need to connect what we know to be true in the head to what the heart is feeling. Her talk affirmed our model of place-based climate storytelling that we used during our Climate Minnesota convenings last year. Share your climate story with us at stories@climategen.org and we’ll add it to our online collection!

Emerging Leaders

Relational organizing at work in the YEA! MN program

Relationships are at the heart of movement building. In order to win long-term change, we need to cultivate sustaining relationships to support the long-haul work that will get us there. We need one another to weather the storms of our world and move forward our visions for our communities. This year, YEA! MN student leaders Addie Welch, Kendra Roedl and Liam DelMain have come together to intentionally navigate their relationship with the East Phillips neighborhood. The growing relationship between YEA! MN student leaders and Tamales y Bicicletas brings us to exciting work ahead of us: we’re creating momentum for environmental justice in East Phillips and more broadly among young people around the Twin Cities. Join us for two upcoming opportunities to build relationships in our local community – on Wednesday, May 18 we’re partnering with Tamales Y Bicicletas for a Toxic Tour Bike Ride of East Phillips, and on Tuesday, May 24 we will be holding an environmental justice listening session in the community. Reach out to yeamn@climategen.org with any questions.

Former YEA! MN student Becca Krasky selected as 2016 Fossil Free Fellow

Have you wondered where YEA! MN students go after they graduate and leave our program? Becca Krasky joined YEA! MN as a junior at Minneapolis South High School, where she helped launch a compost competition between rival high schools and a campaign to reduce plastic bottle waste through the installation of hydration stations on campus. She traveled with us to Power Shift 2013, a national youth climate summit in Pittsburgh, PA, and upon graduation, went on to Macalester College, where she joined the student divestment group Fossil Free Macalester. This spring, Becca was accepted as a 2016 Fossil Free Fellow with 350.org. Chosen from hundreds of applicants, she will join a diverse group of 24 fossil fuel divestment campaigners from across the U.S. for 10 weeks this summer. Fellows gain hands-on experience in climate and justice-based organizing by working on projects across the U.S. with 350.org and partner organizations. Congratulations Becca!

#ActOnClimate

Catch MN Stories in a Changing Climate in Duluth, or schedule your own screening!

On Tuesday, June 7th, join Climate Generation at Zeitgeist Arts Cafe in Duluth for an evening of film and live storytelling! We’ll be showing the Twin Cities PBS Minnesota Stories in a Changing Climate film, followed by a storytelling panel of Duluth residents sharing their climate stories, and a reception with beer donated by Bent Paddle. If you’d like to bring Minnesota Stories in a Changing Climate to your community, neighborhood group, or office, schedule a screening here.

In the News

Renowned polar explorer tackles NWO wilderness

At the end of April, our founder Will Steger returned from his annual solo expedition, where he traveled from north of the Quetico down to his homestead in Ely. He left earlier this year in hopes of catching the mid-winter cold, but travel conditions in a changing climate have become a “wild card.”

Photo of the Month

Our annual donor appreciation breakfast was fun and story-filled! Team members highlighted our effort to build and sustain the momentum of the Paris climate agreement in our programming. Thanks to all our supporters who joined us for this annual tradition!

SHARE THIS:

PUBLISHED IN:

• Climate Generation News

TOPIC TAGS:

• actonclimate
 
• climategen10
 
• climateliteracy
 
• climatemn
 
• ClimateStories
• NorthernSpark
 
• summerinsti

Almost killed by a herd of Musk Oxen and discovering white wolves

Ellesmere Island is a vast, lonely land whose inhabitants must struggle to make out a living. Wolves are tireless travelers who roam the thousands of square miles of their territory in search of prey. Photo: Jim Brandenburg

Luck ! I don't believe in that imposter. You create your chances. I have been fortunate, or perhaps strategic during my life by creating opportunities. Being in the right place at the right time has opened so many doors.. In late February 1986 when I was a member of the Steger International Polar Expedition, I met Jim Brandenburg, an internationally renowned nature photographer, at a remote weather station, at 80 degrees north, not far from the North Pole. In fact our reason for being there was to reach the North Pole unsupported using dogs to pull our sledges. The meeting with Jim Brandenburg and the White Wolves is told by Jim himself . Living with an Arctic Legend Jim Brangdenburg the trail to the Pack http://home.datacomm.ch/daniel.netzer/wolves/al_trail.html The Eureka personnel rarely took advantage of the natural world outside. To be sure, the winter environment is about as hospitable to human flesh as outer space: a half-hour without your proper "space suit" and you will almost certainly expire. Still, after a few days at the station waiting out expeditionary snafus, I felt myself getting extremely jumpy from boredom and claustrophobia. For three days in a row, I had whiled away the hours by aiming my binoculars through the murky blue twilight at a distant herd of musk oxen, which looked like raisins in the snow. I thought it might be fun to take a closer look. Bob McKerrow, a Steger team member from New Zealand, agreed to go along. We assumed the herd was very close, but after a half-hour of steady hiking we realized that they were at least four miles away from the station. Lacking any experience with the animals, we approached with great caution. There are no trees to climb in the high Arctic, and we felt quite certain that the horns and hooves of an adult musk ox could make short work of us. As we came closer, the magnificent ancient beasts, living remnants from the Stone Age, came into sharper focus. Having grown up on the prairie, I had expected musk oxen to be similar in size to buffalo. In reality, they are much smaller - about the size of cows, though they are more closely related to goats than to cattle. With their sure-footed hooves, they have little trouble scrambling along rocky precipices. I could see the animals' extremely long guard hairs, almost a yard in length. Thanks to these hairs, which are prized for yarn, as well as their highly insulated undercoats, musk oxen are never affected by the cold, no matter how low the temperature drops. Noting their indifference to the climate, it occurred to me for the first of many times in the Arctic how nice it would be to have a little more hair myself. Musk Oxen, Ellesmere Island. Photo: Bob McKerrow At one point, we evidently got a little too close to the herd, because they quickly assumed their classic protective circle: a phalanx of horns and front hooves radiating at every point on the circumference, flanks shoved together at the center. This strategy, evolved over eons of living in a treeless environment, is a very effective way to protect the young against Arctic wolves, the major predator of musk oxen. It is not so effective against human predators like the Inuits who found the musk oxen relatively easy to kill. McKerrow and I backed off and the musk oxen resumed their grazing, pawing holes in the snow to get at the frozen grass and sedge below. We studied them for hours, until finally cold and fatigue got the better of us and we decided to begin the long hike back to the station. The sun at this time of year lurks just below the horizon for most of the day, creating a kind of permanent blue dusk. On the way back, I trailed behind, taking photographs of the landscape. McKerrow was about a quarter-mile ahead when it happened. A pack of six Arctic wolves, trotting in a direct line of march over a nearby rise, appeared like ghosts materializing from the blue ether. At first, I thought I must have been hallucinating from cold, hunger and fatigue. Three of them split to my left. Three others swung around to a steep embankment that flanked a nearby frozen creek. They trotted to the top and sat there, eyeing me, their bodies silhouetted against the murky horizon. Alpha 1. The Mother of the pack. Photo: Jim Brandenburg One wolf, which I thought might be the leader of the pack, sat on the ridge and inspected me with a kind of fearless, bemused curiosity. Much later, when I returned to search for a pack to live with and photograph, I would remember this individual wolf and be convinced he was the same alpha male I would come to know as Buster. Some years after meeting Jim Brandenburg in a remote part of the Arctic, he went on to publish his amazing book: White Wolf:White Wolf:Living with an Arctic Legend. Jim sent me a an autographed copy of his book when it was first published and I quote from the publisher It is a new landmark in nature publishing. With a pack of wild Arctic wolves, Jim Brandenburg has created an extraordinary portfolio of wildlife photographs. The Arctic wolf, a powerful and compelling predator, has been captured ever sogently in the pages of White Wolf. Brandenburg reveals his love for both his subjects and his art as he describes in the text his thoughts and emotions while photographing a magnficent Arctic wolf, the alpha male of the pack. Polar Bears on Ellesmere Island, Photo: Bob McKerrow

Coldest Journey ever in Antarctica.

In 1970 I spent the winter in Antarctica and traveled extensively on foot  in various parts of the Wright valley in temperatures below - 50 o C. Here I got to know how difficult and dangerous it is to travel in winter in the Antarctic.
 Again in the winter of 1986, we trained on Iqaluit (Baffin Island) for our unsupported dogsled journey to the North Pole. 
At the end of February 1986, I met renowned British explorer Sir Ranulph Fiennes at Eureka weather station on Ellesmere Island. We were both heading for the north pole. He was with Dr. Michael Stroud and was planning to manhaul. We were an 8 person team using a 50 huskies pulling sledges.

It was there in Resolute I met Sir Ran and we discussed the dangers of setting off at the end of February/early March when temperatures drop to below minus sixty degree centigrade.  When Ran announced that he was attempting to cross Antarctica in winter I shuddered as I knew using motorized tracked-vehicles would not offer the versatility that dogs offer. Dogs are warm, metal is unforgivably cold.

So spare a thought then for the Coldest Journey team, stuck on the Antarctic plateau in temperatures of about -50C.

The five-man team have had to abandon their attempt to cross Antarctica in midwinter, which would have been a world first.

They had only managed to complete 313km of their near-4000km journey since setting out from Crown Bay in Queen Maud Land three months ago.

They were supposed to reach McMurdo Sound, near Antarctica New Zealand's Scott Base, before the official end of winter on August 19.

The team's leader, British veteran polar explorer Brian Newham, said that after travelling through a difficult mountain range, they had encountered a massive field of crevasses that appeared to stretch a further 100km south.

All their research in the five years leading up to the journey's start indicated the terrain would have been easier in that area.

"It wasn't quite as easy as we thought," he said in an update posted on the expedition website. "Progress has been incredibly slow."

Ground-penetrating radar and foot reconnaissance were used to try to find a safe route through the treacherous area.

Snow was bulldozed into crevasses and bridges were built to slowly winch their heavy vehicles across.

"But now we are in the permanent darkness of winter and the crevassing, if anything, has got worse."

There was a risk the large deep crevasses could swallow their vehicles.

"In my judgment, there is no real choice. I believe it would be reckless and irresponsible to press on and risk the obvious dangers while incurring excessive fuel consumption," Mr Newham said.

The men plan to stay put until warmer temperatures allow them to backtrack to the coast, where they'll be collected by ship.

They plan to spend their time expanding their science and education programmes.

The expedition had travelled the furthest and highest of any expedition in winter months in Antarctica.

Pictures on their website of ice sneaking around window seals into their caboose bedrooms at -50C highlighted the challenging living conditions they faced.

Renowned British explorer Sir Ranulph Fiennes was originally the expedition leader and had planned to ski the entire route.

He had to withdraw after suffering frostbite in two fingers of his left hand prior to the journey's start.

The other team members are British engineer Ian Prickett, British doctor Rob Lambert, Canadian mechanic Spencer Smirl and Irish mechanic/driver Richmond Dykes.

They still hope to raise $12 million for the charity Seeing is Believing, which tackles preventable blindness in developing countries.

Sir Edmund Hillary pioneered Antarctic crossings by tractor, becoming in 1958 the world's first person to reach the South Pole by motorised vehicle. However, his expedition took place in the summer.

Thanks to  Fairfax NZ News for permission to quote friom ntheir article.