Carbon Neutral to the North Pole
The Journey
The North Pole Expedition is a journey to be undertaken by a small team of 3 or 4 people in February and March 2009. The journey will be a hazardous one - negotiating extreme cold and polar bears between Ward Hunt Island (Canada) and the North Pole. The distance as the crow flies is about 800 kms, though the journey will be considerably longer as sea currents push the team backwards and route finding through open leads and ice ridges will necessitate frequent deviations. Given the effect of global warming in the Arctic there is no garantee of success.
The journey will epitomise the classical challenges of human endeavour. Team members will need to draw deep into their reserves of courage, determination, resilience and hope. They will need to manage their relationships and ability to function as a team during times of high challenge. They will experience strong highs and lows as the inevitable challenges of weather, cold and difficult contrast with the beauty of the arctic, the joys of gaining ground and the emotional warmth generated by a cohesive and productive team effort.
Students in schools across Victoria will follow the journey, learning from the experiences of the team and reflecting on their own challenges and triumphs. Communication from the team will allow real time provision of information - providing students with a learning scenario with no certain outcome - a true reflection of life's challenges. Young people involved in Lead On may also become involved, undertaking real organisational, marketing, communication or support roles.
The North Pole expedition will capture the involvement of young people in the project through the creation of a documentary that will follow the journey of the Lead On participants and some students. The documentary will be shaped to promote mental health - using both the experiences of the young people and the expeditioners to identify real life lessons about resilience and good mental health.
Finally the expedition will follow the precedent of previous expeditions undertaken by Linda Beilharz in being carbon neutral - utilising interest in the expedition to educate about and modelgreenhouse gas emission reduction and offsetting
The Team
Linda Beilharz
Rob Rigato
Kerryn Wratt
What is Carbon Neutral?
- this expedition will have a neutral effect on the amount of Greenhouse gas in the atmosphere.
What we put in we will take out!
How do we do it? - we will use an audit tool to predict the greenhouse gas emissions that will occur during our expedition (including the flights to get there and back again).
We will then sequester the equivalent of those emissions- eg by buying carbon offset credits from the Bendigo Bank. The Bank will then plant trees which will absorb carbon as they grow. Those trees will be indigenous to the area in which they are planted, chosen and located to support biodiversity and the water cycle, decrease salinity and generally complement the surrounding ecosystem.
We will be doing what we can to reduce our emissions in the first place by minimising fuel use, reducing use of packaging and choosing low emission production of gear where possible and so on.
Find out more about 'Carbon Neutral'