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Geoff Green is heading south for Christmas — way south.
Green leaves Christmas Day to lead a three-week Students on Ice expedition to Antarctica. It will be Green’s 83rd visit to the southern continent.
The Chelsea resident — a polar adventurer, outdoor expert and member of the Order of Canada — founded Students on Ice 15 years ago as a way to introduce young people from around the world to the unique and fragile environments of the north and south poles.
That this year’s trip occurs on the centennial of Sir Ernest Shackleton’s epic journey makes it especially significant.
“The fact that we’re going to be, literally, in Shackleton’s footsteps, makes it very powerful for the kids,” Green said.
In 1914, Shackleton and his 27-man crew sailed aboard the ship Endurance to Antarctica, intending to cross the continent on foot. When Endurance was caught and crushed by ice, Shackleton and his crew dragged their lifeboats across the ice pack to the open ocean and sailed to the nearest land, inhospitable Elephant Island, about 100 kilometres away.
Leaving most of his crew behind, Shackleton and five others then sailed an open boat to get help from a whaling station on South Georgia Island, more than 1,200 kilometres away across the stormiest seas in the world. All the men were eventually rescued, two years after their journey began.
“He was a great leader. The lesson of perseverance, courage, determination and optimism — there’s so many great life lessons you can teach the kids with the Shackleton story,” Green said. “It’s a story that really resonates with the kids.”
The Students on Ice expedition will sail from Ushuaia, Argentina for a two-day crossing of Drake Passage, passing Elephant Island — even today it’s too difficult to land there — and on to the Antarctic Peninsula. Though the itinerary is weather dependent, they plan to visit penguin colonies, a scientific research station and even sail inside the crater of Deception Island, a dormant volcano where geothermal activity heats the beach sand to hot tub-like temperatures.
The group — 66 students and 23 leaders, crew and guest lecturers — will also take ice cores and monitor instruments that are measuring glacier movements. Students on Ice is a charitable foundation and about half of the students have scholarships to cover the $15,000 cost of the trip.
Green caught the polar bug in the 1990s when he was chosen to take part in an expedition to Ellesmere Island in the High Arctic. He went on to lead expeditions — scientific, adventure and tourism — to both the Arctic and Antarctic.
“I’d seen how powerfully and changed adults were by going to Antarctica — and in some cases these were really jaded and cynical people who’d been everywhere and done everything — but it really made them look at things differently,” Green said.
“This is a place that’s so powerful and the sense of awe and wonder and the feeling of humility that it gives people is unparalleled. And that’s where Students on Ice was born. Imagine giving that feeling to kids at their very beginning of their life when it could shape their future.”
Two students from Eastern Ontario will make the journey, University of Ottawa student Sarah Veber, a Newfoundland native, and William Sanderson of Sydenham, north of Kingston.
For Veber, it’s her second trip with Students on Ice: In 2013, she took part in an Arctic cruise. Veber is covering some of the cost through her own fundraising with the rest coming from “very supportive parents.”
“The most amazing thing is to stand in front of an ice-covered fiord and see the effects of climate change,” she said. “No one is telling you about it; you’re seeing it firsthand.”
Veber, 18, a first-year student studying biochemistry and music, has taken what she learned during her first Students on Ice trip and educated others through speaking engagements with student groups.
“Raising awareness is one of the most important things you can do to spark change,” she said.
You can follow the Students on Ice journey at www.studentsonice.com
bcrawford@ottawacitizen.com
Twitter.com/getBAC
查看原文...
Green leaves Christmas Day to lead a three-week Students on Ice expedition to Antarctica. It will be Green’s 83rd visit to the southern continent.
The Chelsea resident — a polar adventurer, outdoor expert and member of the Order of Canada — founded Students on Ice 15 years ago as a way to introduce young people from around the world to the unique and fragile environments of the north and south poles.
That this year’s trip occurs on the centennial of Sir Ernest Shackleton’s epic journey makes it especially significant.
“The fact that we’re going to be, literally, in Shackleton’s footsteps, makes it very powerful for the kids,” Green said.
In 1914, Shackleton and his 27-man crew sailed aboard the ship Endurance to Antarctica, intending to cross the continent on foot. When Endurance was caught and crushed by ice, Shackleton and his crew dragged their lifeboats across the ice pack to the open ocean and sailed to the nearest land, inhospitable Elephant Island, about 100 kilometres away.
Leaving most of his crew behind, Shackleton and five others then sailed an open boat to get help from a whaling station on South Georgia Island, more than 1,200 kilometres away across the stormiest seas in the world. All the men were eventually rescued, two years after their journey began.
“He was a great leader. The lesson of perseverance, courage, determination and optimism — there’s so many great life lessons you can teach the kids with the Shackleton story,” Green said. “It’s a story that really resonates with the kids.”
The Students on Ice expedition will sail from Ushuaia, Argentina for a two-day crossing of Drake Passage, passing Elephant Island — even today it’s too difficult to land there — and on to the Antarctic Peninsula. Though the itinerary is weather dependent, they plan to visit penguin colonies, a scientific research station and even sail inside the crater of Deception Island, a dormant volcano where geothermal activity heats the beach sand to hot tub-like temperatures.
The group — 66 students and 23 leaders, crew and guest lecturers — will also take ice cores and monitor instruments that are measuring glacier movements. Students on Ice is a charitable foundation and about half of the students have scholarships to cover the $15,000 cost of the trip.
Green caught the polar bug in the 1990s when he was chosen to take part in an expedition to Ellesmere Island in the High Arctic. He went on to lead expeditions — scientific, adventure and tourism — to both the Arctic and Antarctic.
“I’d seen how powerfully and changed adults were by going to Antarctica — and in some cases these were really jaded and cynical people who’d been everywhere and done everything — but it really made them look at things differently,” Green said.
“This is a place that’s so powerful and the sense of awe and wonder and the feeling of humility that it gives people is unparalleled. And that’s where Students on Ice was born. Imagine giving that feeling to kids at their very beginning of their life when it could shape their future.”
Two students from Eastern Ontario will make the journey, University of Ottawa student Sarah Veber, a Newfoundland native, and William Sanderson of Sydenham, north of Kingston.
For Veber, it’s her second trip with Students on Ice: In 2013, she took part in an Arctic cruise. Veber is covering some of the cost through her own fundraising with the rest coming from “very supportive parents.”
“The most amazing thing is to stand in front of an ice-covered fiord and see the effects of climate change,” she said. “No one is telling you about it; you’re seeing it firsthand.”
Veber, 18, a first-year student studying biochemistry and music, has taken what she learned during her first Students on Ice trip and educated others through speaking engagements with student groups.
“Raising awareness is one of the most important things you can do to spark change,” she said.
You can follow the Students on Ice journey at www.studentsonice.com
bcrawford@ottawacitizen.com
Twitter.com/getBAC
查看原文...
