I’ve seen the impact of global warming on our planet

Sir, – They say that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing and over the past few months reading your letters pages regarding your readers’ reactions to climate change I am somewhat perplexed.

The good news is that we live in a democracy, and as such we are all entitled to our own opinions based on knowledge gained.

For some, no matter what the weight of evidence presented, some opinions will never change.

Personally, I have been lucky to have been part of several expeditions to Antarctica, Greenland and northern Canada and two years ago to north and eastern Russia.

During these expeditions I have been lucky enough to be in the presence of experts in climatology and glaciology, both visiting research sites and listening to lectures.

I have also seen the effect of global warming at certain sites like South Georgia (where I was able to visit it twice over a period of 10 years) and Wrangel Island high up in the Russian Arctic. However, I confess not to be an expert in these subjects but hope that I can form my own opinion based on the knowledge learned. One film that inspired me was “Ice and the Sky”, an amazing documentary on the work of Claude Lorius in Antarctica using ice cores to study climate change.

I am in no doubt that global warming is happening, and that since the industrial revolution and more recently since the 1960s greenhouse gases have had a big effect on the planet.

A lot of correspondence has been on CO2 emissions. However, greenhouse gases are also made up of water vapour, methane, ozone, nitrous oxide as well as CO2.

On my trip to Russia I learned that 65% of Russia is made up of frozen tundra, of which a large proportion is getting warmer.

The effect of this may well release substantial amounts of CO2 and methane into the atmosphere.

The war in Ukraine has even had an effect on science in the Arctic, as recent studies involving Russian and Western scientists working together have had to be abandoned.

A lot has been written about the effect climate change will have on wildlife.

Wrangel Island has the largest polar bear population in the world. However, the surrounding ice melt has meant that these animals are under threat.

The amazing island of South Georgia was cleared of non endemic rodent species and reindeer between 2011 to 2015, this was due to glacier melt which up until then restricted the area rodents were inhabiting. I was lucky enough to visit the island before and after the removal of rodents, but was concerned at how much the glaciers had retreated over that time.

In conclusion, I am no expert and I live in awe of the many scientists working in hostile conditions to monitor climate change.

In the end they are the experts in their field and, whilst there may be some disagreements, we have to go along with their findings, although in the end it will be up to world politicians to implement change.

However, maybe it is time for the younger generation to decide their future – I’m not sure my generation has made that good a job of it.