But Will, how do you know that human CO2 emissions caused anything that you saw?

Arctic explorer: 'Understanding global warming not rocket science'

MAHTOMEDI — Both doubting the existence of and fearing global warming are dangerous approaches to dealing with its reality, an internationally-known environmentalist and avid adventurer told a packed house Wednesday, Oct. 1 at the Chautauqua Fine Arts Center in Mahtomedi.

“We need to go at this with a desire for positive change,” said Mahtomedi native Will Steger. “We can all do our part.”

Steger’s hour-long presentation featured photos and video clips from his 1,400-mile dogsled expedition across Ellesmere Island in the Canadian Arctic this past March through June. And while Steger’s stories about polar bears in camp, wolves pestering his crew’s sled dogs and temperatures that dropped to 30 below zero captivated the crowd, the driving point of his talk was that global warming is a reality.

It’s one thing to look at charts and numbers that try to explain global warming, but it’s entirely different to see the reality of it firsthand, Steger said.

During his trip, Steger traveled across ice fields that should have been smooth surfaces, but are now choppy and broken up as a result of climate change. Areas where glaciers once stood are now empty canyons, he said, and rivers are flowing across some of the ice fields.

“Understanding global warming is not rocket science,” he said, adding that he has seen dramatic change in the Arctic region he has vastly explored.