In the footsteps of Shackleton

In 1908, Ernest Shackleton and his team set off to explore the Antarctic "terra incognita"... Towards the end of last year, some of their descendants embarked on an expedition to retrace Shackleton's footsteps.

There is a nice arcticle and video clips from the BBC here and their expedition is the subject of this evening's Timewatch at 8.40pm on BBC2.

Polar Journeys...

Digital Explorer's Jamie Buchanan-Dunlop is currently en route to Antarctica... He is headed for Bellingshausen and the E-Base - a permanent educational base "to share the beauty of this continent with students and leaders around the world". During their time in Antarctica, Jamie and the team he is with will be only be using renewable energy - to demonstrate that if it's possible in Antarctica, it's possible here in the UK too.

Lots to investigate on the E-Base website and if you've been bitten by the Twitter bug, you could follow Jamie's journey there too.


You might well have heard in the news about the Catlin Arctic Survey team, who are now 5 days into their expedition to measure and map the Arctic sea ice. They too have a website and can be followed on Twitter and Facebook...

South Polar Gazette

Want to know what's going on in the Antarctic? Then check out the South Pole Gazette...

Strong tea for heroes!

It seems that I am a little behind on this one as it has been about since September last year, but I have just spotted Captain Scott's Strong Expedition Tea in Tesco...

5p from each box of tea purchased will go to the United Kingdom Antarctic Heritage Trust (UKAHT) and be used to help to preserve Captain Scott's hut on Ross Island. More here...

Have you had any? Did you like it?

Britain to claim parts of Antarctic seabed...

Back in September, we heard stories of a "Cold Rush" with Russia planting a flag on the Arctic seabed...

This week, it was announced that the UK Foreign Office is preparing a claim to extend British Antarctic territory by a million square kilometres and increase Britain's oil, gas and mineral rights... Mining in the Antarctic is currently banned by the Madrid Protocol to the Antarctic Treaty, but this is up for review in 2041. A spokeswoman for the Foreign Office said that there were no plans at the moment to exploit mineral deposits in the Antarctic, but that the claim would be a "safeguard for the future".

The map below shows the current British Antarctic claim...

Unsurprisingly, the plans have been condemned by environmental groups... Go here to see what Greenpeace have to say about it all.

What do you think? Should Britain - or anyone else - be claiming Antarctic territory? Should mineral exploitation be allowed? Who should make the decisions about these issues?

Tourism threatens Antarctica

An interesting article in an excellent environmental supplement in the Times last week - well worth a read before GGA4 tomorrow!

I thought this was an interesting choice of image under the headline "Tourism threatens Antarctica" as well!!

Some other articles of interest that I found while I was looking for this:

Carbon map of Britain's most toxic cities

Big increase in hurricanes is not caused by global heating

Farming is blamed as birds take flight

Seven Days - baby boom, housing and biofuel

Build on the Green Belt and build now

(And loads more besides - www.timesonline.co.uk - all these came up when I typed "environment" into the search...)

Year 13 meet an Antarctic explorer...

If you were asked to name a famous Antarctic explorer, chances are it might be Robert Falcon Scott or Ernest Shackleton... But probably not this man!

The Yr 13 geographers though, were lucky enough to "meet" Tom Crean - sometimes referred to as the "Unsung Hero" of Polar exploration, via a videoconference with the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich last week.

Crean, who grew up near Annascaul, a small village in Co. Kerry, was part of three major South Pole expeditions - Discovery and Terra Nova with Scott, and Endurance with Shackleton. Unlike Scott and Shackleton, who both died on expeditions, however, Crean returned to Annascaul, where he married Nell and opened a pub called the South Pole Inn. He died in Annascaul in 1938, from a burst appendix...

DME - Antarctica

Those of you in Year 11 who are sitting/re-sitting the DME will know that it is about Antarctica, and will have already done lots of research... However, the following websites (which are in no particular order) might still be of use to you! Let me know if you find any more that are good!

Discovering Antarctica
Cool Antarctica
International Polar Year
British Antarctic Survey
Australian Antarctic Division
Classroom Antarctica

More to come about the DME after I've been to a brainstorm meeting tomorrow...

Norwegian cruise ship grounded in Antarctic...

Passengers from the Nordkapp - a Norwegian cruise ship that ran aground near Deception Island in the South Shetlands yesterday - have been rescued and are on their way to Ushuaia in Argentina. Fortunately, it seems that on this occasion, no-one was injured and there hasn't been any environmental damage. Conservation organisations are concerned though, that this is a warning of what could happen in the future... With only 280 passengers, the Nordkapp is a relatively small ship, compared to others that visit - the consequences could be very serious if a similar thing were to happen with a bigger ship...


Click on the picture for the full story...

Human Activity in Cold Environments - Yr13

Once we have looked at last week's test (!!) we will be starting to look (properly!) at human activity in cold environments tomorrow.

Tony Cassidy and Alan Parkinson (aka GeoBlogs) have been teaching the Pilot GCSE this year, and part of the course requires the study of an "Extreme Environment". Tony went for Antarctica, and Alan for Svalbard - both of them have been blogging for their students, and both blogs have some excellent links and resources (as well as other interesting geographical things) that will be useful to you...

www.pilotgcseradicalgeography.co.uk

www.kespilotgeography.blogspot.com

Lenin in the Antarctic!

The picture shows Team N2i - who have made history by walking to the centre of Antarctica. Since they set off at the beginning of December, the three men from Gloucestershire, together with their Canadian guide, have trekked over 1000 miles, pulling heavy sledges, and without any mechanical assistance.

Although the Pole of Inaccessibility has been reached before, the team of Russian scientists who visited in 1958 used snow-tracked vehicles to get there.

Whilst the UK team wait to be collected, they plan to dig for the hut that the Russians are reputed to have built, on top of which stands a life-size bust of Lenin!

Click on the picture for the full story, or here for the team's website (if you don't like feet, don't click... you've been warned!!).

The Big Melt...

You might well have already seen that ITV News are running a series of features about Antarctica and global warming this week, with reports live from the Antarctic... I missed the first one this evening, but there is lots of information on the website - including video clips, a quiz, websites and an opportunity to email your questions about Antarctica and climate change (unfortunately it's to their Science Editor, rather than Geography Editor, but you can't win 'em all!).




Click on the picture to go to the site, and make sure you're watching tomorrow...

The mysteries of Lake Vostok!

Nope... not the latest Harry Potter! Lake Vostok is a huge lake (big enough to provide London with enough water to last 5000 years!!) underneath the Antarctic ice. It has been "entombed" in ice for at least 15 million years, according to the Independent today, and it's in the news because scientists want to drill down through the ice to investigate the lake - which could be home to unknown life forms... Although scientists have known about Lake Vostok for some time now, drilling has been on hold because they worried that they would contaminate the lake. Now though (and in time for the International Polar Year), they think they have found a better method, and plan to go ahead with their work.

But why isn't the lake frozen?

How can things be living there if it's so cold and has no light?

And should the scientists be investigating (and risking irreversible damage to the lake and whatever might be in it)? Or should they leave well along?

The image shows the location of Lake Vostok... Click on it to link to the full story on the Independent website.

Where are you guaranteed a White Christmas in the middle of summer?

In Antarctica, of course!

I found these fantastic pictures on the BBC website this morning...