My Antarctic trail: A journey to the end of the world
Nitish Pandey discusses his experience aboard the 2041 Expedition to Antarctica with Mihika Jindal, where he spent 10 days to learn about climate change and witness the glory of the lost continent.
The annual Antarctica expedition “2041” receives some 6,000 applications from prospective participants each year, of which only around 80 people get selected. This group then gets to travel, as the “2041” team, to Antarctica, the planet’s southernmost continent, almost entirely covered in ice. The team of visitors is then given a firsthand experience of the clear manifestations of climate change on this vulnerable landscape. We spoke to Nitish Pandey, who went for the March 2015 chapter of the “2041“expedition, to learn more about his experiences. Q. When did you decide to sign up for this expedition? A. I have been a nature enthusiast since my childhood and have been contributing to the cause in whatever little way I could, all through school and college. All my campaigns taught me just one thing — awareness is the key. I found out about this expedition and Robert Swan, who founded it when I was in college and was super impressed with this entire initiative. So I applied and thankfully got a positive response. It has definitely been an experience of a lifetime. Q. Tell us about the “2041” expedition. A. This expedition is hosted by Robert Swan, who was the first person to walk across the North and the South Poles. Now every year, he picks 50-80 people from around the globe and takes them to Antarctica to give them a first-hand experience of that fragile ecosystem and how climate change is impacting the planet. The expedition equips you to engage in any kind of debates around environmental depletion and its effects because of the firsthand experience that one gets.
It’s also very interesting to understand why this expedition is called “2041”. There is a treaty that protects Antarctica from all drilling and mining activities. And that treaty will be revisited in 2041, when it will be open to amendments, revocation or modification, which could open this zone for resource exploitation; just like the North Pole recently allowed access to countries for drilling oil. Q. And what i s t he process to sign up for this expedition? A. It’s a simple process. You fill out a form, which asks you to spell out your reason to join, the skill set that you will bring to the table, whether you’d be able to acclimatise to extreme climate and the sort of commitment that you can make after the expedition. This is not a fancy holiday; we commit to contributing in some way or the other to nature. And thanks to the expedition, we now have a huge network. We are all like friends and if someone shares an initiative, there is always some ready help. Q. And what about the cost? A. The entire expedition cost me $22,000. But I didn’t pay this amount myself — everyone gathers funds through crowdfunding. My friends and family helped me out and I had some corporate sponsors. This entire process of accumulating funds was the toughest part though, because I had to reach out to many people and also face rejection multiple times. But it was also the most interesting part, because I got to spread the word about the expedition “2041”, which most people weren’t aware of. Q. Did you get any sort of formal training before you sailed out to Antarctica? A. The 2041 team is talented, and it has been doing this for almost a decade. Our journey started from Ushuaia in Argentina, which is the southern-most city [of South America, also called the End of the World]. Our two-day stay there went by attending seminars on inspiration, leadership and sustainability, followed by some coaching to use mountaineering equipment and a gear check. We realised that this was not an endurance test and people come from all sorts of backgrounds. For instance, we had this woman in our team from Macao, who had never hiked before. And she was very close to giving up when we were in the middle of climbing this really steep mountain. But she resolved to complete her climb and emerged a changed person. So everyone’s basically pushing themselves and are supported by a great team. Q. What was the duration of the expedition? A. Almost two weeks. We started from Ushuaia in a ship called Sea Spirit, which was our home throughout. We took two days to sail from Argentina to the western peninsula region of Antarctica. We witnessed the vast wild life, icebergs, mountains and the popular Deception Island where the Westerners used to hunt whales for oil, which has caused a 99% drop in whale population in the last century. Q. Deception Island? A. It’s one amazing feature. It’s a circular ring of mountains within which lies a pool of open waters. It’s a caldera of a dormant volcano. It is called the Deception Island because from the outside one cannot imagine what it opens into. And there is this extremely narrow passage called the Neptune Door through which the Captain had to steer the ship — it was one beautiful experience! I, in fact, have this crazy picture of me going inside a crater and coming out of it. It felt like I was visiting the centre of the earth. Q. What was your first impression of the place? A. The fact that we think of Antarctica as this lonely deserted place is not true at all. It’s flourishing with life. There are 39 different species of penguins, so many species of birds, some three types of seals, whales and whatnot. The albatross with its three-metre-wide wingspan is quite a common sight. Another interesting bird we saw was Petrel, which is nicknamed “Jesus Birds” because it can walk on water. We witnessed an overpopulated school of whales within a distance of one metre from us. The whole ecosystem there is very mature and has a sense of balance and harmony. It’s nothing like here, where we keep exploiting resources for luxury, with no concern for sustainability. The way we are going, especially in the West, we’re going to need three planets to fulfil our needs. Q. Did you spend any time on land? A. For one night. And it was one brilliant night. We dug out snow, made a trench and built an ice wall around it to protect ourselves from the wind, which goes as high as 30-40 miles an hour at night. We slept there in our sleeping bags. I happened to wake up in the middle of the night and what I saw was literally out of this world: the entire spiral of our Milky Way. It was a mixed feeling; while on the one hand it made me feel really, really small, it was also very empowering for it felt like I could suddenly comprehend this entire universe. Q. As far as climate change and its impacts are concerned, what did you primarily observe? A. Antarctica holds about 70% of the fresh water of the world. With the deteriorating climate situation, all that ice is going to eventually melt, which can affect at least 500 million lives. And this is a chain reaction. Imagine if half a billion lives are affected and those many people have to relocate to another place. There will be complete chaos in terms of social and economic needs. In fact it’s amusing how people are encashing this opportunity. Instead of making an effort to preserve nature and make amends, a new form of tourism is being promoted, which encourages tourism on an island that will soon drown.
The fact that we think of Antarctica as this lonely deserted place is not true at all. It’s flourishing with life. There are 39 different species of penguins, so many species of birds, some three types of seals, whales and whatnot. The whole ecosystem there is very mature and has a sense of balance and harmony. It’s nothing like here.
Q. Were you involved in any kind of research during the expedition? A. Yes. Robert Swan wanted me to test this prototype that had been built by a Enhanced Energy Design called ice- melter, which will use solar energy to melt ice, charge lamps and other electrical equipment. This will be used by Swan in December 2016, when he is taking the South Pole challenge where he will prove that one can walk to and through the South Pole just using renewable energy. So, we were required to test this machine in different climatic conditions and carry out some related research.