Climate action in the Arctic | Acrtic, Climate change, Wildlife | TerraPass: Fight global warming, promote alternative energy
We set out by ship from Svalbard, a three-hour plane flight from Oslo, Norway — the closest land to the North Pole. There are no trees or bushes, even grasses on Svalbard — just lichens, mosses, and low-to-the-ground flowering plants. Plants raise their heads at their own peril given the Arctic winds and temperatures. We were there at the optimum time to see them flower. We saw many in bloom including the Svalbard poppy and the Compass plant. The top few inches of the tundra were unfrozen in July, though I don’t think the temperatures ever reached 40 degrees during our stay. The ground was a wonderful spongy carpet of brilliant colors.
We saw many polar bears that depend on summer sea ice, which is vanishing. One bear, having gorged a seal, was in a food coma, seemingly oblivious to the ship’s presence, sprawled out with his bear-belly hanging off him and onto the ice. We heard about another bear that was starving and weighed less than 200 pounds at one point. Luckily, she was caught months later and is now up to 1,000 pounds. We saw many caribou (also called reindeer). We saw cliffs with thousands of sea birds, seemingly all talking in unison. The sun never set on our entire exploration, which made for many late night discussions — helped along by a midnight feeding provided by the crew.
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1 comment:
There was one passage in that report I found alarming.
Another day we hiked with Jimmy & Rosalynn Carter. Jimmy’s perseverance in climbing a hill at age 81 was remarkable. The Carters also kayaked twice, including one outing with freezing wind blowing off the glacier. They are an amazing couple.
I expect the worst president of the modern era to come out with an America bashing alarmist book soon.
Ah what the heck. We might get lucky with Jimmy's stigma being a big enough iceberg to sinking the USS Climate Change.
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