Tree planting is no climate solution at northern high latitudes

8th November, 2024

 

Writing in the journal Nature Geoscience, an international group of scientists led by researchers at the University of Århus and the University of Cambridge, argue that tree planting at high latitudes will accelerate, rather than decelerate, global warming.

As climate continues to warm, trees can be planted further and further north, and large-scale tree-planting projects in the Arctic have been championed as a way to mitigate the worst effects of climate change. However, when trees are planted in the wrong places - such as normally treeless tundra and mires, as well as large areas of the boreal forest with relatively open tree canopies - they can make global warming worse.

Shackleton's Cabin on BBC iPlayer featuring SPRI Archives

12th January, 2023

 

Naomi Boneham, SPRI's Archivist appears in the film in interview with Sven Habermann sharing Shackleton's diaries.

On 5 January 1922, world-famous Antarctic explorer Ernest Shackleton died of a heart attack in his cabin aboard The Quest during his final expedition to the South Pole. Shackleton's Cabin follows Sven as enthusiast Sven Habermann rebuilds the cabin and explores the life and final days of his hero.

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A new graphic novel brings story of Scott’s expedition to the South Pole to life

28th October, 2022

 

To celebrate the centennial year of the publication of The Worst Journey in the World by Apsley Cherry-Garrard, an account of Scott's infamous expedition to the South Pole, SPRI Institute Associate and former Disney animator Sarah Airriess has transformed Cherry's tome into a soon-to-be published graphic novel. Retelling the story through cinematic visuals, the novel keeps as true as possible to the original account while bringing out the emotional core of Cherry's tale, and open up a classic book to new audiences.

The first volume of The Worst Journey in the World: The Graphic Novel, will be published by independent publisher, Indie Novella, and will be available to buy online and via selected distributors from 24th November 2022. The book is made in collaboration with the Scott Polar Research Institute, Cambridge, using our archives to inform the narrative, and the collection of the Polar Museum to inform the drawings.

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Shackleton's ship Endurance found

9th March, 2022

 

The wreck of Sir Ernest Shackleton's ship Endurance has been found 3000m deep on the floor of the Weddell Sea.

Ernest Shackleton's diary from the expedition is cared for by the Institute's archive, which is available to researchers working on the history of the polar regions.

In February, the BBC visited the Institute to make a film about the diary and some of our other Shackleton related collections, to mark the departure of the search expedition.

The Anthropocene defined as an event, not an epoch

15th November, 2021

 

Professor Phil Gibbard writes: What is the Anthropocene? When did it start? Ask ten experts and you're likely to get ten different answers. The solution is to define the Anthropocene as a geological event: the aggregated effects of human activities that are transforming the Earth system and altering biodiversity, producing a substantial record in sedimentary strata and in human-modified ground.

This definition, published in the Geoscience journal Episodes, is applicable across academic fields and explicitly recognises that the Anthropocene interval varies in time and space.