2008 Woodie Awards
Explorer leads expedition students
By: Kara Scheerhorn
Issue date: 3/28/08 Section: News
Arctic explorer and global warming activist Will Steger believes young people are the key to solving global warming.
"The first step is taking the initiative to educate yourself about (environmental concerns) and to look at your own personal habits," he said.
Steger is traveling 1,400 miles with college-aged students on a dogsled expedition through the Arctic Circle, across Ellesmere Island. Steger and his team hope to investigate the devastation global warming has caused in the arctic.
Steger and a team of young people from England, Norway, Canada and the United States will lead the expedition, which is set to begin Friday.
The last remaining ice shelves in the North Atlantic are rapidly disintegrating because of increasing carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere, Steger said.
This is Steger's eighth polar expedition. In his 40 years of traveling through the Arctic, he has come across countless examples of the effects of global warming.
"The Larson Ice Shelf disintegrated in 2002, which was a real wake up call for me," he said. "Every ice shelf I've traveled on has collapsed."
Steger also has detected higher winter temperatures, a tremendous amount of runoff, higher sea levels and a major loss in sea ice on the Arctic ocean.
Tom Rohrer, environmental studies program director, said higher temperatures could be the result of global warming.
"An abundance of scientific research states that polar temperatures are rising dramatically," he said.
By giving the younger generation knowledge and first-hand experience in the effects of global warming, Steger feels he is preparing young leaders to make a difference.
Rohrer said experts don't know what the exact results of global warming, but it will be something today's young generation will have to deal with.
"It's up to this generation to rapidly reduce greenhouse gases," he said.
news@cm-life.com
"The first step is taking the initiative to educate yourself about (environmental concerns) and to look at your own personal habits," he said.
Steger is traveling 1,400 miles with college-aged students on a dogsled expedition through the Arctic Circle, across Ellesmere Island. Steger and his team hope to investigate the devastation global warming has caused in the arctic.
Steger and a team of young people from England, Norway, Canada and the United States will lead the expedition, which is set to begin Friday.
The last remaining ice shelves in the North Atlantic are rapidly disintegrating because of increasing carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere, Steger said.
This is Steger's eighth polar expedition. In his 40 years of traveling through the Arctic, he has come across countless examples of the effects of global warming.
"The Larson Ice Shelf disintegrated in 2002, which was a real wake up call for me," he said. "Every ice shelf I've traveled on has collapsed."
Steger also has detected higher winter temperatures, a tremendous amount of runoff, higher sea levels and a major loss in sea ice on the Arctic ocean.
Tom Rohrer, environmental studies program director, said higher temperatures could be the result of global warming.
"An abundance of scientific research states that polar temperatures are rising dramatically," he said.
By giving the younger generation knowledge and first-hand experience in the effects of global warming, Steger feels he is preparing young leaders to make a difference.
Rohrer said experts don't know what the exact results of global warming, but it will be something today's young generation will have to deal with.
"It's up to this generation to rapidly reduce greenhouse gases," he said.
news@cm-life.com
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