Melting North: Arctic Climate Emergency Countdown

⏱️ 16 min read                                                    

If you listen hard enough, you can hear the icy whispers of the Arctic telling the world something very urgent. In this frozen frontier, the stakes have never been higher. We’re going to take journey into the heart of Earth's climate crisis, guided by explorer Felicity Aston, who warns that time is slipping through our fingers like melting ice. She will explain what climate change truly looks like in the Arctic, and why we must act now before it's too late.

Welcome to That's Life, I Swear. This podcast is about life's happenings in this world that conjure up such words as intriguing, frightening, life-changing, inspiring, and more. I'm Rick Barron your host. 

That said, here's the rest of this story…

Before I dive into this story I ready need to do a proper introduction of Felicity Aston. 
I mean she is remarkable individual and a force of nature. 

She carved her name into the annals of polar exploration with an extraordinary accomplishment in 2012. Felicity became the first woman to traverse the vast, frozen expanse of Antarctica…alone. Her lonely 1100 miles journey across the icy wilderness took an astonishing 59 days, a remarkable accomplishment that secured her a place in the Guinness World Records.

Aston's love affair with the Antarctic began years earlier in 2000 when, at the tender age of 23, she embarked on her inaugural voyage to the frozen continent as a meteorologist for the British Antarctic Survey. For two and a half years, including two consecutive winters, she called Rothera Research Station on the Antarctic Peninsula her home, diligently monitoring the region's climate and ozone levels.

This early experience ignited a passion within Aston, propelling her to organize and lead numerous expeditions to the world's most remote corners, with a particular focus on the Polar Regions. Her expeditionary résumé is nothing short of awe-inspiring:

·       The first British Women's crossing of Greenland 

·       A 3,700-mile drive to the South Pole

·       A mind-boggling 22,400 miles journey to the Pole of Cold

·       And the leadership of international teams of intrepid women on ski expeditions to both the North and South Poles.

Felicity Aston's thirst for exploration is ongoing, as she continually seeks out novel and captivating ways to share the expedition experience with the world at large. Her Kaspersky Lab Commonwealth Antarctic Expedition broke new ground by becoming the first to 'Tweet to the Pole,' allowing a global audience to follow her journey in real-time. 

A prolific author, Aston has written five books and contributed to several others, her words gracing the pages of numerous publications both in the UK and abroad. Her expeditionary tales have transcended the written word, as evidenced by her month-long airship voyage across North America in 2013, co-presenting the two-part BBC Science documentary 'Operation Cloud Lab: Secrets of the Skies,' a fascinating exploration of the atmosphere.

In 2016, Aston retraced the historic route of the 1898 Klondike Goldrush across the Yukon,  co-presenting a documentary mini-series for BBC History, allowing viewers to experience the trials and tribulations of this legendary journey. Her expeditions have since been captured through the lenses of numerous independent filmmakers, including a poignant film about climate change by Groundtruth Productions for COP26 and Exposure, a Holly Morris film that delved into Aston's 2018 Euro-Arabian North Pole expedition project.

Through her multifaceted endeavors, Felicity Aston has emerged as a modern-day poet, regaling audiences worldwide with tales of her intrepid adventures, while simultaneously raising awareness about the fragile and awe-inspiring polar environments.

3- She has forged close collaborations with numerous expedition-related organizations, charities, and projects, lending her expertise as a trustee, patron, or ambassador. These include The British Antarctic Monument Trust, Equal Adventure, the First Women project, and the Great Britain and Ireland Chapter of The Explorers Club. Additionally, Aston holds the esteemed title of Godmother to the PC6 ice-class expedition ship, Silver Endeavour, a testament to her standing within the exploration community.

Aston's accomplishments have not gone unrecognized, the list is long and impressive, she has:

·       been elected as a Fellow of both the prestigious Royal Geographical Society in London and The Explorers Club in New York

·       She is an esteemed member of the Society of Women Geographers

·       A 2008 Churchill Fellow

·       Recipient of the Ginny Fiennes Award from the Transglobe Expedition Trust

·       The 2014 Women of Discovery Award from WINGS WorldQuest

·       The 2019 Special Contribution Award from National Geographic Traveller UK

·       The Womenomics Science Award 2021

·       An Honorary Doctorate from Canterbury Christ Church University 

·       In 2015, she was honored with The Queen's Polar Medal and appointed an MBE for her services to polar exploration

Aston's life is a testament to her unwavering spirit of adventure and her commitment to furthering our understanding of the natural world. She divides her time between her home on the remote Vigur Island in Iceland and her native United Kingdom. 

Now, the story

Through various expeditions to the Arctic, Felicity took time to capture thoughts on what she saw and experienced. One thought kept building up with her, and that was that we as a world, need to understand what climate change looks like in the Artic. She left there with a stark reality. 

We are running out of time to truly understand this unique environment. For Felicity, it was as if Mother Nature is slapping the world in its face, saying WAKE UP!

The annals of Arctic exploration by European and North American expeditions are replete with harrowing tales of misfortune and mortality. Navigating the region's unforgiving terrain presented countless obstacles, which is why the first humans to traverse the frozen expanse of the Arctic Ocean and reach the geographic North Pole, the apex of the globe, did not accomplish this feat until 1969—the same year that man set foot on the moon.

In the present day, it is no longer feasible to undertake a journey across the Arctic Ocean's pack ice to the North Pole, as was done in 1969. 

Why?

The ice cover has diminished to such an extent that this is no longer possible. Most modern-day expeditions commence not from land, but from sea ice situated approximately 60 miles from the Pole. Yet even these partial treks have become increasingly precarious, given the rising temperatures witnessed in recent decades. Ice that was once solid and stable well into the summer months now fractures in the spring. The window for ski travel near the North Pole has contracted to a mere three-week period in April, and this window grows smaller with each passing year.

In response to the changing conditions, explorers have adapted by finding novel ways to traverse the Arctic Ocean. Some have elected to embark on their journeys during the darkness of winter, before the sea ice has had a chance to weaken. Others have taken to hauling canoes and kayaks, enabling them to navigate the ever-expanding stretches of open water between ice floes. The first time Felicity Aston traveled to the North Pole was in 2015. She served as a guide aboard a Russian nuclear-powered icebreaker, escorting adventurous tourists to and from the Siberian coast. The massive 14-story vessel's spoon-shaped bow crushed a path through the frozen sea, sending vibrant turquoise blocks of ice, some the size of houses, tumbling along its sides. While the ice appeared formidable, Felicity, a meteorologist, climate scientist, and seasoned polar explorer, knew it to be in a precarious state of decline. She witnessed firsthand how the Arctic Ocean’s Sea ice was not only receding but also newer, thinner, and less stable.

Felicity spent those voyages gathering data about the sea ice as part of a citizen science project. She was awe strucked by the realization her data was the only sea ice data from the Arctic Ocean basin entered into a global database that year. Felicity had a good understanding of past climates and ability to predict future scenarios relies heavily on computer models, but the accuracy of these models is contingent on the quality of the data that informs them. The Arctic Ocean Sea ice remains a relative data void, leaving much to be understood about this unique environment before the opportunity to do so potentially slips away.

In 2018, Felicity returned to the Arctic Ocean, this time leading an international team of women hailing from across Europe and the Middle East on a ski expedition. They flew from the polar frontier town of Longyearbyen, the capital of the Norwegian Svalbard archipelago, to a base camp floating on the pack ice. From there, the team embarked on the roughly 60-mile trek to reach the North Pole, many of them becoming either the first person or the first woman from their respective countries to make such a journey.

Felicity toke copious notes in describing what she and the team experienced. She said that skiing across the Arctic Ocean's pack ice is an awe-inspiring experience. Shards of ice, like monumental sculptures, protrude skyward through the floes. Heaps of ice boulders form long, snaking obstacles called pressure ridges. The dark gashes of open water between the floes, known as leads, appear to steam, creating an eerie fog that hangs low over the ice due to the exposed ocean being warmer than the air above it. After seven grueling days, Felicity's team arrived at the top of the world.

Upon returning from the North Pole that year, Felicity was eager to document and record as much as possible about this precious landscape. She quickly created a project called the B.I.G. (Before It's Gone) Expedition, with the aim of making the most of the diminishing opportunities to explore the region. Felicity had a sense that such ski expeditions would not be feasible for much longer, though little did she know just how prophetic that notion would prove to be.

In the spring of 2019, no ski team could traverse the Arctic Ocean to reach the North Pole. The long year held true in the springs from 2020 to 2023. The only team to have succeeded in reaching the North Pole by ski since 2018 was forced to do so in the extreme cold and darkness of winter, starting and finishing their journey from boats—an incredible feat. As a fellow polar explorer observed, "We're not chasing firsts anymore. We're chasing lasts."

While few may care less about explorers like Felicity being unable to plant flags at the North Pole any longer, this reality should drive home the fact that fundamental, climate and environmental change generated by humans, is not a distant hypothetical future. Its impact has already been felt in the polar regions for years, just as it has all over the world.

In 2022, Felicity traveled back to Svalbard, this time with the B.I.G. Expedition Team, to embark on a 10-day ski expedition aimed at collecting snow, ice, and water samples from sea ice in two fjords and at regular stops throughout the journey. Prepared for temperatures of minus 20°C and below, they instead encountered conditions so warm that it rained for much of the expedition. The snow was heavy with water and stuck to their skis, rendering travel slow and difficult.

The following year, when Felicity attempted to return to those same fjords, they were shocked to find open water where there had previously been solid ice cover. While variability in weather, snow cover, and sea ice in the Arctic has always existed, the region is now experiencing far more unpredictability and far greater extremes. In this case, they were able to sample sea ice in only one fjord; the other will remain a data blank that may be too late to fill.

In 2023, the B.I.G. Expedition team traveled to the northernmost tip of Iceland's, to sample snow for microplastic and black carbon content. When Felicity had checked the route the previous year, they found that the usual winter access to the glacier was blocked by too much snow. However, when she returned with the team, there was no snow whatsoever. They spent a laborious day carrying their sledges and skis on their backs over rocky grassland, low scrub, and fast-flowing rivers, trying to reach the snowline of the glacier high above them. The photographs of an expedition ski team in full polar kit on a tiny patch of snow look liked a climate change awareness campaign. Arctic explorers are now as endangered as polar bears.

Felicity shared her thoughts where she said, “the polar regions may seem distant, but their fate is intertwined with ours, and the warning is clear. The loss of sea ice will affect ocean and atmospheric currents, weather systems, and, of course, the climate. As these expeditions make plain, we need to plan for the unpredictable.”

In hindsight, 2023 proved to be the warmest year on record, with the current year poised to surpass it. Scientists have issued warnings about the effects of these changes for so long that Felicity fears we have grown numb to their voices or fail to appreciate the looming catastrophe. Increased weather volatility will disrupt our food supplies. Melting ice sheets will cause sea levels to rise and coastal cities to flood. Receding glaciers will alter river flows and impede access to water resources. Yes, this warning has been expressed a bazillion times, but it seems to always fall on deaf ears.

Recently this year, Felicity and The B.I.G. Expedition embarked on another ski journey, this time across some of the oldest and thickest sea ice in the Arctic Ocean. They gathered as much data as possible, from collecting snow and ice samples to observations of arctic clouds. They packed extra clothing and equipment to cope with a wider range of possible conditions and developed an array of contingency plans in case the landscape they encounter differs from their expectations. This is the new reality for Arctic expeditions.

Historians refer to the grand polar expeditions of the early 20th century as the "heroic age of exploration." Felicity believes the work of the current century may prove even more heroic. Past explorers saw themselves as conquerors of an unknown environment. Today's explorers are striving to understand and preserve these same places, ultimately to help the rest of humanity. The stakes are high if not darn right frightening. 

What can we learn from this story? What's the takeaway?

In the vast expanse of the Arctic, a crucial transformation is underway—one that challenges our understanding of Earth's delicate balance. Scientists now warn that Arctic ice is vanishing at an alarming pace, outpacing previous predictions. This ice, akin to the planet's air conditioning system, plays a vital role in regulating global climate. Its reflective surface deflects sunlight during summer, while its insulating presence traps heat in the ocean during winter, maintaining atmospheric equilibrium. 

However, as this ice dwindles, so too does its ability to mitigate warming. Climate models forecast a sobering reality: the Arctic could be ice-free by 2050, a mere 26 years from now. 

Drop the mic. 

Well, there you go, my friends; that's life, I swear

For further information regarding the material covered in this episode, I invite you to visit my website, which you can find on Apple Podcasts, for show notes calling out key pieces of content mentioned and the episode transcript.

As always, I thank you for the privilege of you listening and your interest. 

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