Scott Polar Research Institute‘Walking on Thin Ice: co-operation in the face of a changing climate’ is an exhibition put together in collaboration with twelve teenagers. In August 2019, the co-curation team met at the Scott Polar Institute (SPRI) for a week of activities. By the end of the week, they had a framework for their exhibition. They met and talked with researchers studying the Polar Regions, developing their own knowledge of the issues posed by climate change. They visited the British Antarctic Survey, for a similar series of talks with researchers there.
The co-curators worked to reach a consensus on the themes their exhibition would draw upon. This was made possible by engaging with the collection of the Polar Museum at SPRI, and thinking about the best objects and archival documents to include. In the time after their week of hard work, the Polar Museum team brought their ideas to life, and were pleased to welcome the co-curation team back to the museum at the end of November 2019, to launch the exhibition and celebrate their achievements. What follows is the text of the exhibition, with accompanying photographs of it in situ in the temporary gallery of the Polar Museum.
Lush Landscapes to Icy Continent
For the whole of human history there has been ice in the Antarctic. But when dinosaurs roamed the Earth during the Cretaceous Period 145-66 million years ago, things looked very different. Antarctica was still part of a large landmass reaching from South America to Australasia. High levels of volcanic activity were releasing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere in greater concentrations than today. Global temperatures were warmer, thanks to the ‘greenhouse effect’ of carbon dioxide trapping heat from the Sun in the Earth’s atmosphere. Some scientists estimate that the seas around the Antarctic were as warm as 30°C during this period.
The warmer Antarctic climate meant that many plants and animals flourished in sub-tropical forests similar to those in New Zealand and Tasmania today. Gingkos, Monkey Puzzle trees and ferns survived through the polar winter, when no light may have reached them for months at a time. The fossilised remains of Leaellynasaura – a small herbivorous dinosaur with large optic lobes (the part of the brain involved in vision) – have also been found, suggesting that dinosaurs may have adapted ‘night-vision’ to help them forage in the darkness of the polar night.
56-55 million years ago, Antarctica broke off from Australasia, becoming the separate continent that it is today. Around 33 million years ago, it became largely covered in ice and, although global temperatures fluctuated, they would never again be warm enough to sustain an ice-free Antarctic.
Breaking the Cycle
Understanding how Earth’s climate has changed over millennia, decades and single years can help scientists to build a big picture of our current climate and make predictions about the future.
There have always been variations in the Earth’s climate. Even in the last 650,000 years – a relatively short period in our planet’s history – there have been seven cycles of colder and warmer periods. The modern climate era is marked by the end of the last ice age about 10,000 years ago. During warmer periods, higher levels of carbon dioxide are recorded. This is because carbon dioxide traps heat from the Sun in the Earth’s atmosphere, leading to warming global temperatures.
By analysing tiny bubbles of air trapped in ice cores collected from ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica, scientists reveal the impact of fluctuating levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide on global temperature. Today measurements show unprecedented levels of carbon dioxide well above the natural cycles of the last 650,000 years. The rate at which levels of this gas are increasing is also about 100 times faster than in any previous cycles. Research by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) indicates a 90% likelihood that recent changes in global temperature are directly linked to human activity releasing larger amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
Impacts
The impacts of climate change are already being felt at levels that range from human lives to the planet’s smallest micro-organisms.
Arctic animals are of fundamental importance to Inuit life. Firmly embedded within cultural practices, they are also a primary source of nutritious food. Many Arctic animals, like seals, walrus and polar bears, are themselves dependent on sea ice as a place to hunt, rest and give birth. But as sea ice decreases year on year, these animals’ lives, and the futures of their species, are being threatened. The loss of Arctic species would not only deal an enormous ecological blow, but also spell the loss of the traditional ecological knowledge and cultural foundation stones of northern peoples.
At the microscopic end of the food chain, recent studies have suggested that, as global temperatures rise, some areas of the ocean will see increased evaporation from their surface waters. The resulting increase in water density will trap microplastics (plastics measuring less than 5 mm introduced into the oceanic environment by the breaking up of plastic pollutants) at the surface. Microplastics in these upper levels are consumed by micro-organisms such as plankton, which form the basis of the oceanic food chain, inevitably infiltrating the food we eat.
By continuing to support interdisciplinary research and cooperation into climate change, we can be well placed to address its wide-ranging impacts.
Climate Research Behind the Scenes
The Polar regions are often described as the ‘front line’ of climate change because change is happening there faster than anywhere else on Earth. The Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets hold 99% of the world’s fresh water. If they were to melt, global sea levels would rise by over 60 metres. As a result, scientists have been looking to the poles to help predict the effects of a changing climate.
In January 2019, a team of researchers from the British Antarctic Survey visited the Rutford Ice Stream in Antarctica – a 300 km long, 25 km wide, relatively fast-moving stream of ice which flows into the Weddell Sea. They used a technique called ‘hot water drilling’ to drill 3 holes over 2 km deep into the ice. Scientific instruments were lowered into the bore holes including sensors to determine how ‘slippery’ the sediment was underneath the ice. By determining the slipperiness of the sediment, the team can predict how the flow of the ice stream will be affected by ongoing environmental change. Will it speed up? By how much? How much more ice will flow into the Weddell Sea? These predictions can then be used to create models to estimate the rate at which sea levels will rise in the future.
Arctic Exploitation
The rich natural resources of the Arctic and the scattered indigenous groups who live there have meant that for centuries the region has been seen by outsiders as a fruitful ‘wilderness’ to be claimed by the most intrepid.
In 1576 the English explorer Martin Frobisher went north to look for a fabled trade route known as the North West Passage. He did not find it, but he did discover rocks which he thought contained gold. Frobisher believed that he had a colonial right to claim whatever he found in the Arctic, with no regard for the indigenous groups who had lived there for thousands of years. As a result, in 1578, he took 400 men to quarry 1,100 tons of rock from several mines. Frobisher had actually mined iron pyrite (also known as ‘fool’s gold’) which was worth only a fraction of the gold of his dreams.
The Inuit communities lived sustainably in their environment, taking only what they needed from it. In contrast, Frobisher and successive waves of outsiders exploited this land and its natural resources. This assumed ‘ownership’ of the Arctic by outside powers is echoed today by the behaviour of energy companies prospecting new gas and oil fields. Now that the Arctic is again becoming a place of economic interest, as melting sea ice makes it more accessible, will history repeat itself?
Expedition Research
Polar exploration in the 19th and 20th centuries is often linked to personal glory – historic heroes carrying out daring feats of bravery and claiming new territories, often fuelled by patriotism. These stories certainly have their place in the narrative of the past, but that is only a part of these expeditions. Scientific research was undertaken on most historic expeditions. The data and samples which the explorers recorded and collected can provide a valuable baseline for modern research and our understanding of how the global environment is changing.
Many polar expeditions recorded meteorological data in the form of ships’ logs and undertook first-hand research into areas as broad as air and ocean temperatures, geomagnetic conditions and geology. Modern researchers have studied datasets from John Ross’s Arctic expedition aboard Victory (1829-1833) and fossils collected from Captain Scott’s British Antarctic Expedition aboard Terra Nova (1910-1913) were used to support the hypothesis of the ancient global supercontinent, Pangea.
The changes that have occurred since these expeditions, both to the global environment and to scientific equipment, would have been incomprehensible at the time. Nevertheless, as a result of their systematic approach to observation and methodical collection of data and specimens, the explorers of the past are providing invaluable scientific knowledge to the researchers of today.
United by Nature, Guided by Science
Across the world, many different groups are finding their voices and working in their own distinct ways to combat the causes, and study the effects, of climate change.
In Alaska, Gwich’in communities have been instrumental in pushing back against plans to extract oil and gas from the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, which is home to the culturally important Porcupine caribou herd (one of the largest migratory caribou herds in North America). Although the federal government is still seeking to go ahead with these extractions, the UN has highlighted indigenous sovereignty as an important cornerstone in attempting to address climate change. The Gwich’in and other indigenous groups have spent thousands of years cultivating powerful relationships with their localities. The specialist knowledge of their environments built up over time could aid understanding of our changing climate.
Up until the 1960s, female scientists were largely excluded from undertaking research in the Antarctic. Today around 55% of the Association of Polar Early Career Scientists members are female, and women hold leading and influential positions, such as Professor Dame Jane Francis, Director of the British Antarctic Survey. The Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR), set up in 1958 to facilitate international collaboration in Antarctic science, is also committed to promoting diversity in this field. In 2016 SCAR supported a ‘wikibomb’, to write the online profiles of over 100 female researchers and there are now more female Antarctic researchers than males on Wikipedia.
Climate change is a global issue and boundary-crossing cooperation is our best tool to slow its effects.
Climate Voices
Greta Thunberg was only 15 when she began the series of strikes which led to her international recognition. Greta chose to strike outside her school to raise awareness of climate issues and demand that the Swedish Government commit to meeting the emissions targets laid out in the 2015 Paris Agreement. The idea took off and soon she was part of a group which founded the ‘Fridays For Future’ initiative. The idea – to take strike action every Friday until change is made – struck a chord with young people worldwide.
A little over a year later, Greta has gone from striking on her own outside her school, to being the figurehead of an international movement. The Global Climate Strike from the 20th-27th September 2019 saw 7.6 million people worldwide strike to demand action on climate change. The movement has expanded to include millions of scientists, businesses, celebrities and adults from a wide variety of backgrounds joining young people on the streets.
Greta is not the only young person campaigning for change. Xiye Bastida is a Mexican activist bringing indigenous perspectives to her conversations about climate. Nadia Nazar is an Indian American activist who uses art to communicate on climate issues. Autumn Peltier, has for years been speaking up about water quality in Canadian indigenous communities. All these young people have found their voices in combating environmental crises and the changing climate.
Acknowledgments
This exhibition was developed as part of a co-curation project with twelve teenagers from around the UK who visited the Scott Polar Research Institute (SPRI) and Selwyn College for a week in August 2019. Their hard work and dedication provided the framework for the exhibition, while their passion and drive were a source of inspiration for every member of SPRI who had the pleasure of working with them. Thank you: Alice, Charlotte, Erin, JoJo, Lera, Maddie, Molly, Morgan, Nancy, Naomi, Nicolas and Sophie.
The Institute especially wishes to thank Dr Matt Wise and Selwyn College for hosting the co-curation team and for their project development work. Thanks, too, to Downing College and Dr Michael Bravo, the University of Cambridge Admissions and Environment and Energy teams. We also thank the researchers who worked with the team: at SPRI – Henry Anderson-Elliott, Dr Ragnhild Freng Dale, Rebecca Dell, Dr Frazer Christie, Samuel Cook, Sasha Montelli, Morgan Seag and at the British Antarctic Survey, Hilary Blagbrough, Professor Melody Clark, Dr Peter Davis, Laura Gerrish, Dr Huw Griffiths, Louise Ireland, Dr Robert Mulvaney, Dr Stephen Roberts and Professor David Vaughan. Thanks also to Dr Chandrika Nath and the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research, the UK Antarctic Heritage Trust and Whippet Coaches. Finally, for their help in putting on the exhibition, our thanks go to: Paul Anker, C. Balhatchet, Beach-o-matic, Cat Cooper, Chloe Cupid, Vicky Gardener, S. Holmes, T. Kingsnorth, Laura Kissel, Dr Katrin Linse, J. Marsden, Weronika Murray and Robert Nicholls.
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