Dinosaur Thing

Wrapping up Antarctica

Well its now 10 days I returned from Antarctica and as I was warned it really is absolutely impossible to convey the experience to anyone. If you want some idea of how it was for us you might want to toddle over to the group flickr site where some frankly stunning images from the team are being accumulated.

From my perspective it was simply the most amazing trip of my life. It really isn't hard to see how Robert, Anne and the rest of the 2041 team as well as many of the people we met along the way have become seduced by Antarctica's beauty and so passionately want to protect it. From my point of view my wee boy Callum is anxious to go back there with me and my commitment is to one day take him there and do all in my power to make sure that it remains that beautiful and that I leave him a planet worth inhabiting.

That latter part scares me the most. From what I've learned on the trip and the many models presented to me it kind of looks like this to me. First of all we are now pumping CO2 into the atmosphere at an exponential rate. By doing nothing and simply "hoping the scientists are wrong" or "that the planet will somehow sort itself out, it always seems to have done in the past" we end up with pretty much an uninhabitable planet from around 2050 onwards. Not a great prospect to leave your kids. What worried me even more was if the Kyoto promises are lived up to that only improves the uninhabilatibilty by 10 percent. So pretty depressing that an agreement almost universally agreed (President Chimp excepted) to and pathetically adhered to still leaves our kids in jeopardy. Its time to get real about this. The average Brit pumps 10 tonnes of CO2 a year into the atmosphere. That's got to get down to 2 tonnes soon. The average American is on 20 tonnes a year. So if they don't eat themselves to death then its time not only get real there but seriously penalise such an abominable lifestyle. Sadly that's not enough. The developing world is fast moving into the same league and without our help to innovate how they cook, heat and transport themselves the game will be up soon after 2050 despite our own lifestyle efforts.

So that's the rant over with. As I said in my blogs on the trip I learned a whole lot about leadership. First of all true leaders are pretty lonely people. Its a tough life especially when the risks are high or if you are so distanced from your organisation that every word is hung onto. Leadership really is earned and doesn't just fall upon you because you want to or because you came from the right school, right gender or have a good haircut. I truly saw individuals earn leadership, some are young and need to get comfortable with that weight others will need to learn that lesson and really ask if they are up to it. I also heard a lot of misconceptions that you need to put life on hold to be a leader. Rubbish. This is a life choice. Make things like time for family or friends work for you or let them go but never put them on hold, that's just plain selfish.

Onto new stuff. In DC on Monday for my keynote interview on 3D Training Learning and collaboration. More on the blog after the event but if your in town and tuning in I look forward to seeing you.

Antarctica Day 10: Turning for home

Well I was finally successful in connecting the Satellite BGAN. I did it from the top of the ship’s freezing deck whilst others headed off to the Vernadsky station and an original UK station that has been preserved as a tourist attraction more than anything else. So you should now see a lot of video and photos in the Expedition website. Doing it from the top of the ship took ages as the ship gradually and naturally moves around. I had to stop and redo around 3 times.

Then at 5 p.m. we ceremoniously rang six bells each for the team, staff, Antarctica, Drakes Passage and Neptune for a safe passage.

As I type the swells are picking up again and its getting hard to type or read. Drinking is a problem as well. One of the many catchphrases is keep one hand free for the ship and I have to confess being a bit naughty by cutting in Al Murray style for “One hand for the ship and two hands for the beer !!”

Anyway I’ve got my scopoderm patch on which is pretty effective at countering the seasickness but the side effects of drowsiness, perpetually dry mouth and, wait for it, diminished eyesight make life a little unpleasant.

Leaving Antarctica behind feels odd. I can completely understand the seduction of the place and why people come back time and again. I felt strangely comfortable here, despite the cold. But I miss my family and now can’t get home fast enough.

Expedition Antarctic Day 9: 7th Continent and Camping on ice

Well today I became part of a very exclusive club (or so I thought) who’ve managed to set foot on all 7 continents. This one is very special though. I’ve been away from home now for sometime and home seems almost hard to conceive of now. I can see how people have been seduced by Antarctica and find it hard to leave. Please don’t get me wrong. I miss my family terribly but it feels like I’m on another planet here and my other life is just too far away to control so I’ve temporarily let go of it. I again failed to get satellite comms. going which has left me way behind on posting video and photos to the expedition website. One more time from Vernadsky Station and hopefully more successful this time. At the end of the day we camped out on a ice dome in Paradise Harbour. I came to admire Robert Swan even more tonight for 2 reasons. First because I’m only now realising that my understanding of his achievements reaching 2 poles on foot were only a fragment of the understanding I have now. Secondly we had around 80 people camping tonight and I heard him check that absolutely every single one was tucked in warmly with no possibility of freezing. A care of leadership that I’ve rarely ever come across. The night wasn’t as tough as I thought. I was convinced I had no sleep at all but I must have managed a good 5 or so hours. The worst was around 3 when I was both dying for a pee and cold. I put the inevitable off for around 45 minutes then ventured off behind some rocks. Peeing at minus 10 from under 4 layers is far from easy but just barely managed. Grabbing a couple of hand warmers on the way back into my sleeping bag made the whole venture worth the excursion. I woke up from the whole experience preparing to whinge but you know it wasn’t that bad. But box ticked and not rushing to do it again. My little bunk rocking in the Drake tonight will do just fine.

Technorati Tags: Expedition Antarctic Antarctica

Expedition Antarctic Day 8 On the bottom of the world Ma !

So yesterday we broke through the storm finally and headed to King George Island, our first landfall in Antarctica. A lot of very odd feelings today and I was glad to discuss most of them with Roger Burton last night. The landing spot was the Russian base where Robert Swan has his eBase located. I used this as the spot to use the BGAN and send images of our trip so far along with video of the storm hitting the boat. It left me 45 minutes behind the hike to the Glacier beyond the Uruguay base but no matter. It gave me 45 minutes of wandering there with no other human being in site and a sensation of peace that I rarely come across nowadays. the odd feeling was that the crude red buildings of the bases here still felt comfortable. Almost as though I enjoyed the wilderness but only so long as civilisation was beyond the next hill.

Today we started our excursions early with a zodiac cruise around Wilhelmina Bay. The sun finally came out and treated us to some truly wonderful views of icebergs, 4 humped back whales, a small colony of male fur seals and the wreck of an old whaler that sank here in 1925.

Our evenings here have been spiced by the retelling of Robert Swan’s story of reaching both the poles and his adventures thereafter. Wonderfully eccentric and at the same time colourful, humble and honest. Robert’s been far from distant here. He’s visited the seasick team members with tea and toast and made time to connect in some way with all of us.