John’s Polar Adventures

It has been a while since I have posted, but I have been swamped with work lately. I just wanted to update you all on some of the cool actions that are going on across the world related to the Voyage:

-Green Finger is expanding across the world to celebrities, government officials, and people of all ages

-Casper and Emma have started the UK Youth Climate Coalition

-Jayme is biking from the Ft McMurray tarsands over 1000 km to Calgary

-Karl Oskar and Maria are connecting with a ton of people across Norway including leaders of the youth party, musicians, and cartoon characters

-Ben is going to be a part of the SustainUS delegation to Posnan

-And tons of other stuff, too!

On my end, I am closing off my semester at the BioStation with research projects and finals as well as gearing up for the year with LSA Student Government. Additionally, I’m finishing up my internship with Greenwala in the next few weeks. Stay tuned for further information on the launch in September!

Through my work with Greenwala, I have been exposed to some really cool actions going on across the US. Over the next week, I’ll be posting some cool links to different actions that you can work on in your own community.

It has been a while since I last wrote anything but I have been really busy at the BioStation between class and Greenwala stuff. There is a short article in the Detroit Free Press about me and the Voyage. The reporter was really nice and seemed genuinely interested in the issue. Check out the article here: “How to tell your mom about climate change”

The Voyage is featured at the top of the ABC News Travel page in a story called: “What I Did On My Summer Vacation: Fought Global Warming”. Ben is friends with the reporter and encouraged her to write a piece on us.  It is a really nice story, with interviews from Ben, Eunice, Neil, Shaun Martin (the WWF US staffer who recruited me and Ben) and I. It also features a good amount of Sindre’s sweet pictures. Click here to give it a read.

While my polar adventures may be over (for the moment at least), I came home in a whirlwind and quickly moved into my cabin at the UM BioStation in less than 24 hours after my plane landed. The Voyage may be over, but now the work begins on the ground.

I started class yesterday with Rivers, Lakes, and Wetlands (every M and Th) and continue tomorrow with General Ecology (every W and Sat). We jumped right in both figuratively and literally as we started our afternoon session of Rivers with trips to three field sites to collect invertebrates and conduct some measurements. Although it was at least 8 hours of class, the day went by really quickly and my small class of 9 really had a lot of fun.

I also officially started work on my Greenwala internship on Monday as well, working on some different content related to green building. If you haven’t yet already, you all should create an account at www.greenwala.com so you can be a part of the Beta launch featuring some of the content that I’ve been working on

As Voyagers, we are still keeping in touch with one another as we all start to conceptualize how we can be most effective within our own countries. Most of us are still in the digestion phase as we try to process all of the information that we have been given over the course of the trip.

As things progress over the summer, I’ll continue to use the blog to keep you in the loop to life at the BioStation, work at Greenwala, Energy Futures and SG activities, post-Voyage developments, and anything else that comes to mind. I may not update it as frequently, but keep on reading!

Emma Biermann, one of the fellow voyagers from the UK, has an amazing opportunity to be featured on the BBC show “Question Time” as a voice for all youth. From what I’ve been told, “Question Time” is roughly the equivalent of the US “Meet the Press” roundtables. She has already made it to the Top 10 after what I can imagine were a ton of applicants. If you have a chance, check out her video and leave a comment to support her.

Today was our last day on the boat and we said goodbye to the great staff that became our friend over the last week. After disembarkation, we quickly headed to UNIS (The university on Svalbard specializing in Arctic sciences). A really prominent glaciologist Jack Kohler quickly stopped by to give a really concise and informative lecture about glacial recessions on Svalbard. Oftentimes on this trip we have been asked by press if we have seen climate change happening directly and Dr Kohler had a great response to this regarding glaciers. He said that while it is impossible to tell which centimeter is a response to human impacts and which is a response to other stresses, he noted that it is one piece of a puzzle and that globally all of these trends of recession are consistent.

We also said goodbye to Soli Townsend today who quickly became an integral part of our trip. She really gave some great advice and tips that came in handy on our trip and will continue to be useful as we return home. This came in great help today when we had a special meeting with some Norwegian VIPs. At the moment, we are not allowed to give more details, but check up with me in a couple weeks to get more info!

Tomorrow we head to Oslo where the program will inevitably reach its close. It is bittersweet to leave all of the people who I have lived, learned, and been incredibly cold with over the last 10 days but, we are all going to stay connected and continue to use this network to unify our varying efforts in working towards a sustainable future. Everyone has such diverse backgrounds and interests, so the projects that come out of this group are sure to be just as fascinating. 

Today we were able to visit a Polish research station that is rarely open to visitors. They gave us a great presentation on their research and how it relates to climate change. They also gave us a glimpse into what it is like to live in the Arctic, even in the winter when it is 24 hours of darkness. We stayed for only a short period of time and were able to play with their giant huskies for a bit before heading back to the boat.

In the afternoon, we took our last zodiac tour in a fjord with a huge amount of glaciers. We saw a few seals and patiently maneuvered through all of the icebergs and sea ice that accumulated in the bay.

Although I won’t be back in the States until Saturday, being that it is the last day on the boat, it has provided us with a great opportunity to reflect on all of the amazing experiences we have had since we have embarked. We have been blessed with great weather and water, a friendly and confident group of cruise staff, and incredible luck with wildlife viewing. The combination of all of these factors has really helped make this experience an unforgettable one!

Today we heard an amazing lecture from Soli Townsend who is a professional climate change communicator. She makes a living running a company that creates advertising and marketing material from clients as far apart as Greenpeace and Shell. She gave us some great tips on strengthening and tailoring messages for different audiences. Later in the day we had more time with her as we worked on creating our united vision as a group. Although we all head back to our home countries soon, we still would like to create a universal message that we would like to relay through whatever venues we may have at home.

As part of the trip, WWF-US is creating a video for promotional use and today we all had our one-on-one interviews. They will be using this footage, along with footage from the rest of the trip, to show people why people like us care about climate change and its effects.

We also took another great hike today (part of which was on top of a glacier!). It was the steepest hike so far and was really fun to go down, as we were able to slide for part of it. The day ended with a surprise by the crew as they treated us to a great BBQ on top of the deck.

Tomorrow is the last day on the boat and it is been really cool to live in close quarters with such intelligent and innovative people. They have all challenged me to think in different ways and I know that I’ll be able to pool from their incredible experiences to strengthen my own message.

Dear Jens Stoltenberg,

We are the students of WWF’s Voyage for the Future, a 10-day boat voyage in Svalbard, Norway. We represent nine countries with vested interests in the Arctic. We have come together because we are concerned about the many issues regarding the Arctic region, including climate change. On our trip, we have come face to face with these problems and discussed many potential solutions that we would like to share with you.

You take a break for summer. Climate change does not. This summer, Arctic sea ice levels are predicted to be the lowest in history by far. Youth in every corner of the world consider climate change to be the defining issue of our time. Thank you so much for your help so far in tackling the climate crisis, particularly your pledge of 15 billion NOK to end deforestation. We propose a meeting with you to discuss your continued role in a sustainable future on Friday, June 20th, before we return home to our respective countries. Would you prefer a meeting for breakfast or lunch? Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,
The WWF Voyage for the Future:

Maria Waag – Norway
Karl Oskar Teien – Norway
Evanne Nowak – Holland
Michiel Jansen – Holland
Greta Hamann – Germany
Johannes Barthelmess – Germany
Emma Bierman – United Kingdom
Casper ter Kuile – United Kingdom
Jeremy Brammer – Canada
Jayme Collins – Canada
Sven Heijbel – Sweden
Nanny-Maja Anderback –Sweden
Ekatarina Levitskaya – Russia
Dmitry Vladimirov – Russia
Yuriko Murakami – Japan
Shunta Takagi – Japan
Ben Wessel – United States
John Monaghan – United States

Over the last two days we have managed to be both incredibly productive while still having a lot of fun. We have had lectures on the deep geologic past, tipping points, and marine ecology that have really helped to form the foundation of our understanding on climate change. The purpose is not to train us to be climate scientists or environmental chemists but rather to reinforce the fact that the change that we are advocating for is backed up by hard science.

We also did a lot of brainstorming as students to figure out how we can best utilize our networks and skills to maximize the impact that we can make from this experience (The Japanese ambassadors are even giving a presentation a couple weeks after they return home at the G8 Meeting in Hokkiado, Japan!)

On a less serious note, we tested the arctic waters today with a quick dip at a rocky beach near the landing site of our zodiacs. We naturally sang “It’s Getting Hot in Here” before we all entered the water, only to jump back out nearly instantly after entering. It was incredibly cold but also pretty exhilarating. We dried off pretty quickly and headed back to the boat’s sauna. All in all, another great day in the Arctic!