The Lemmings Mystery

On French Television, my friends Olivier Gilg and Brigitte Sabard explain why populations of lemmings go up and down and up and down... (I was with them in Greenland last year). Enjoy! or via this link: http://www.france3.fr/STATIC/video/index-fr.php?titre=Lemmings&url=mms://a988.v101995.c10199.e.vm.akamaistream.net/7/988/10199/3f97c7e6/ftvigrp.download.akamai.com/10199/sgv/diff/videotheque/regions/bfc/emissions/cotedocs/7B5DA_b21a_jt_081018_lemmings.wmv&section=regions_bfc&rubrique=video

Rabobank supports Green Cross and the Arctic!

Oct. 8: off-site meeting with top officers of Rabobank near New York. I have a chance to present the conclusions of our Pax Arctica expedition. Very smart questions from a parterre of challenging business people. Thanks Emmanuel (Durand) for organizing this.

Arctic Transitions - presentation today Oct. 7, 2008

French American School of NY in Mamaroneck
8 AM sharp the auditorium was full of 6th through 12th grade students interested in learning about the PAX ARCTICA Expedition. Luc moderated the presentation with Flaam and Aïnhoa offering personal insights and memories about their month long experience. The slide show brought plenty of ohhh and ahh’s especially when photos of animals flashed up on the screen. Fleur Desazars said, “Ca m'a fait rêver”. (It made me dream.) Students seemed captivated and there were many specific questions about the environment. After the presentation one young student timidly asked Flaam “did you see Santa Claus”?

New Moon!

Here is the trailer of my friend Laurent Lichtenstein's new documentary "New Moon", describing man's efforts to return to the Moon in 2020. As we were on the southern side of Devon Island looking for polar bears, Laurent was filming at the Devon Island HMP, a "MArs analog" research station on the northern side of the island. Here is the link:

http://exposureroom.com/c13c8f4c8878416ea48138c2c4745607/

The Arctic comes to FASNY

Two proud students of the French-American School of New York, and their expedition friends, display the FASNY flag in front of a glacier near Otto Fjord on July 17, 2o08. They will present the results of the Pax Arctica Expedition at a school-wide meeting on October 7, 2008 at FASNY. Don't miss it!!

Amber - July 9, 2008

The joy of rafting and walking!

November 21st in Moscow

On November 21st, adults and children from the Pax Arctica 2008 Expedition will meet with President Gorbachev in Moscow and present the results of their observations and findings. Sponsors will also be present. For information, email to: lh@sagax.com.

From Kenya to Kikuru (Baffin Island)

Today Kuria reflects on his trip to the Arctic. He does so in Kikuyu, his native language, English and Swahili:

KIKUYU
Rugendo raw guthii gitingi kia rugongo nirwacenjirie muturire wakwa na njira nene muno tondu uria nature ndiciragia riu tiguo ndireciria. Nihotete kuona mbere muno ota uria gikuyu kiugaga ati muthomi mugi aikagia maitho kabere. Mbere iyo itanathii rugendo ruru ndionaga mbere ya iniuru riakwa ndaturite ndikunikiire gikorogocaini kana njera nini handu ndirerorera muturire kamwanyaini na ritho rimwe.
Undu wa bata muno ndathomire ni ati no muhaka ngoragwo hindi ciothe ndugamite
wega ta njamba gatagatiini ka andu othe na hote gucenjia uria andu maikaraga muno makiria kuiga bururi wi mutheru na kuhanda miti nigetha ikahota kugucia mbura. Thi no kuhiuha irahiuha niundu wa kwaga kumimenyerera. Mbarabu iria iturite kuu riu ni yambiriirie guthira kwambiririe kugia na urugari thi yothe. Tugukirora naku twarega kumenyerera thi ino twaheirwo ni Ngai witu. Andu othe nondimorie maige bururi wi mutheru ota uria mahota.
Ningucokeria Ngai ngatho muno na andu othe aria mandugamiriire na magituma thii rugendo ruru. Aria othe maturugamiriire na gutuhe indo iria ciothe twendaga cia guthii. Na muno makiria njokerie Sebastian Copeland ngatho cia mwanya niundu wa wira munene andutiire wa kuona ati ndi na kindu giothe, kunumbuiya ta mwana wake, na kemenyerera hindi ciothe. Ngai aroromurathima.
ifundisha kutokana na safari hii ni kuwa na tumainifu nikiwa kwa jumuiya ili tuweze kubandilisha mazingila. Watu wote wapande miti na waihifadhi, na tena waweke nchi ikiwa safi. Mwenyezi Mungu alitupatia tuihifadhi.
huku wote walionisaidia nikaweza kwenda kwa hii safari. Shukurani nyingi Kwa wote tulipoenda na wao, wadhamini wote, hasaa Sebastian Copeland aliefanya chochote kuhakikisha nimeenda naye na nimepata chochote nilipohitaji. Alinifanya mwanawe na sitasahau kamwe.


ENGLISH
This expedition changed the way I think about life and helped me arrange short term and long term goals.
I never really looked out of the bubble of my life and when I did it never took as much effect till I went on this expedition. One of the things I learned on this trip that keeps me confident while back in society is greatness in building consistency at all times not just a moment. It definitely changed my life in a positive direction. I would like to thank Sebastian mostly for including me in this life changing experience. I would also like to thank everyone that invested in this trip and all the sponsors that sponsored us also. I also want thank everyone that experienced along with me because every single individual taught something different. I wish we spent more time together in the North Arctic as a group because getting to be with a group of people for three weeks builds up the relationships tremendously. I loved every second of this trip. Seeing global warming with my eyes helped my ability of expressing the way I feel so now when I tell people of ways to help prevent global warming, it makes me feel great.


SWAHILI
Safari hii ya boriti kaskazini ilibadirisha mafikirio yang ya maisha na ilinisaidia kubadirisha vile ninaweza kuona maisha yang ya leo na miaka ijayo.
Mbeleni sikuwa na ona mere, nilikuwa nimejisingila na mafikilio ya hapa na leo. Nilipokuwa ninajaribu kufikiria juu ya maisha ya miaka ijayo, sikuweza kwa sababu ya visuishi vingi mpaka nilienda kwa safari hii ya boriti kaskazini. Kitu ya maana sana nilijifundisha kutokana na safari hii ni kuwa na tumainifu nikiwa kwa jumuiya ili tuweze kubandilisha mazingila. Watu wote wapande miti na waihifadhi, na tena waweke nchi ikiwa safi. Mwenyezi Mungu alitupatia tuihifadhi.
Ninas nilipohitaji. Alinifanya mwanawe na sitasahau

Wally Broecker receives Balzan Award

Back in the spring, my daughter Flaam and I had the chance to have a very interesting guided tour of Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory with Peter DeMenocal
http://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/~peter/
We are happy to hear that Wally Broecker, who works there) has just won the prestigious Balzan Award for science achievement http://www.columbiaspectator.com/node/55639
He is also the author of the recently released Fixing Climate. He is famous for coining what many consider the first use of the phrase “global warming” in a 1975 article.

La Société de la Terre Plate?

''Il nous reste sept ans pour inverser la courbe des émissions de CO2''

Rajendra Pachauri préside depuis 2002 le Groupe intergouvernemental d'experts sur l'évolution du climat (GIEC) dont les rapports ont posé scientifiquement la réalité du changement climatique.

[...]
Le Monde : Que pensez-vous des doutes exprimés par certains sur la réalité du changement climatique ?

Rajendra Pachauri : Ils sont marginaux et reflètent le plus souvent des intérêts particuliers qui redoutent d'être pénalisés par la transition à une économie décarbonée. Mais, objectivement, il n'y a plus de place pour le doute. La science a apporté tellement de preuves. Nous n'avons plus besoin d'aucune démonstration pour savoir sur une base scientifique que le réchauffement climatique est en cours et que l'essentiel de ce réchauffement est le fait des activités humaines. Mais il restera toujours des gens pour le contester. Il existe encore une Société de la Terre plate, dont les membres continuent et continueront encore pendant des siècles de nier la rotondité de la Terre...

[...]

more on Gov. Palin and Alaskan Bears...

From today's New York Times:
Rick Steiner, a University of Alaska professor, sought the e-mail messages of state scientists who had examined the effect of global warming on polar bears. (Ms. Palin said the scientists had found no ill effects, and she has sued the federal government to block the listing of the bears as endangered.) An administration official told Mr. Steiner that it would cost $468,784 to process his request.

When Mr. Steiner finally obtained the e-mail messages — through a federal records request — he discovered that state scientists had in fact agreed that the bears were in danger, records show. [...]

Full story at: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/14/us/politics/14palin.html?hp

Expedition Flashback: July 28

A midnight rainbow - Radstock Bay - July 28, 2008.
More at:http://www.sagaxexpeditions.com/2US%20-%204.4%20-%20Pax%20Photos-Videos.html?feedId=1798088&loc=en_US

Drill, baby drill...

A great comment from my dear friend Fran Dorf's blog, re Thomas Friedman new book Hot, Flat and Crowded... (http://frandorf.com/)

On going green, Tom Friedman calls John McCain “bloody dishonest.”
Posted: 09 Sep 2008 08:50 AM CDT
Yesterday on NPR, in an interview with Fresh Air’s Terry Gross, Tom Friedman, Pulitzer Prize winning NYTimes columnist, told it like it is on the absolute necessity to go green. Although I definitely disagreed with him on the lead up to the Iraq war (which I always thought not only incredibly stupid but a strategic and moral catastrophe, and he originally supported), Friedman remains among the most brilliant commentators we have in this country. Friedman ought to be required reading (or listening) for every American. Here are a few memorable (approximated) quotes from that interview that drill down (you should pardon the pun) the problem with electing John McCain:

When I heard Rudi Guiliani lead that crowd (at the Repub convention) in chanting “Drill Baby Drill,” I thought, what planet are these people inhabiting? It’s as if on the eve of the advent of computer technology, the Republicans were out there saying “Let’s stick with the IBM Selectric Typewriter.” Type baby type. Type. Type. Type.

If the Petro-dictators–the leaders of the world’s most repressive, anti-modern, anti-woman regimes like Saudi Arabia, which we’re supporting by our addiction to oil, either foreign OR domestic–were up in the bleachers at that convention, they would have been giving each other high fives! They WANT us to remain focused on fossil fuels.

We ought to be promoting fuels from Heaven (wind, solar, etc) rather than fuels from hell (fossil based)

John McCain, whom I used to respect, has been ‘bloody dishonest.’ He’s making people stupid, and it’s frankly disgusting.

John McCain’s support for lifting the federal gas tax for a summer giveaway was absurd and misleading.

We ought to have 100000 innovators working in 100000 garages.

The current tax and production credits for wind and solar energy expire on December 31. A bill to extend them has been brought up in Congress eight times and John McCain didn’t show up to vote eight times. Obama showed up three times and voted to extend. So now, at this crucial time, the solar and wind innovators in this country are at a dead stop, frozen. Nobody is starting new projects. This makes no sense at all.

President Bush claimed we have an addiction to oil, but do you think he invited all these senators, Republican’s and Democrats, to Camp David and said, “Let’s work it out.” Do you think he lifted one little finger, one pinky to help?

Remember when Ronald Reagan pulled Jimmy Carter’s solar panels off the White House?

When Reagan canceled Carter’s tax credits for wind, Denmark bought the top American wind company and now has the largest wind company in the world.

Now WHICH party and WHICH Candidate are green? George Bush (and John McCain, his twin) don’t want to work it out because the Republican party (of which John McCain is a bonafide member, matter how much they try to distract you with their lipsticked Pitbull and claims of being energy savvy mavericks and change agents), is completely in the pocket of the big oil companies. Make no mistake. The only change they’re going to give you is to move even farther to the right than even George Bush. It’s amazing: Here we have a candidate John McCain who’s made a completely irresponsible pick for Vice President, and in addition has picked just possibly the most anti-green person he could have found. Apparently, in addition to her extremist views on religion, book banning, teaching creationism in school as science, her belief that you can turn gay people straight, and so much else, Sarah Palin also apparently believes global warming isn’t man made. Great. While the rest of the world is moving forward in science and technology and medicine, we’ll be increasing our deficits as Republicans always do; restricting the most promising line of medical research, stem cells; continuing to consume oil at a planet-killing rate; teaching Adam and Eve as science to our young people; arguing over gays; adding to the world’s overpopulation in a resource limited world by pushing abstinence only and restricting access to sex education, birth control and abortion. Now that would be a catastrophe. And the Republicans continue to live in a fantasy world and insist that America is still and always will be the world’s “leader,” and call anyone who would dare speak truth unpatriotic.

To hear the whole Fresh Air interview here’s the link on NPRhttp://www.npr.org/templates/player/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=4&islist=true&id=13&d=09-08-2008

Be afraid, people. Be very afraid. Bush calls us the angry left? But I’m not angry, I’m mostly just sad. I grieve for the demise of this country and this planet. But instead of fighting as we go down, some of us will be chanting “Drill Baby Drill.”

Already, in 1897...

From Uncle Vanya (1897) - Anton Chekhov: A quote which could have been written today:

"Human beings have been endowed with reason and a creative power so that they can add to what they have been given. But until now they have been not creative, but destructive. Forests are disappearing, rivers are drying up, wildlife is becoming extinct, the climate’s being ruined and with every passing day the earth is becoming poorer and uglier."

Expedition photos now on the web site!

A selection of photos from the Pax Arctica expedition in the Canadian Arctic is now on the web site at:
http://www.sagaxexpeditions.com/2US%20-%204.4%20-%20Pax%20Photos-Videos.html?feedId=1798088&loc=en_US

Enjoy! and let us know what you think.