“When we go out today,we have to stay together. And if the bear guides say back to the skidoos, you get back NOW.This is polar bear country.” Anne Jensen is an archaeologist of the charismatic – and extremely hardy sort. To conduct excavations in the Arctic, you’d have to be. She had held us all entranced in the disused theatre now used as a storeroom by BASC, telling us all about the history of the region and her efforts to preserve old indigenous grave sites and remove remains for reburial before coastal erosion washes them into the water. We’d heard from Chris yesterday how the retreat of the sea ice leaves the coastline more vulnerable to storms and pressure from wild ocean waves.Today Anne took us on an excursion to Point Barrow, the northernmost point in the USA,to visit one of the sites. We weren’t going to be able to see much. The locals told me this was the worst kind of day for a trip out.
Our expedition leader Marc Cornelissen rounded up his charges before we settled onto the snow machines and sledges.”Has everybody got FULL Arctic gear? I don’t want to hear anybody has forgotten a pack, their gloves or anything else. This will be a long ride, the strong wind in our faces on the way out and you need to make sure you don’t get cold”.
It was an amazing trip, a tiny taste of the life of an Arctic explorer. Sitting on the flat wooden sledge,the wind and the exhaust from the skidoo blew the snow into our faces and everywhere else.At times I couldn’t tell where the sky ended and the snow began. And when we reached the point where the two seas meet – all we could see was snow-covered ice, all around.
In spite of the wind and snow, I managed to record Anne Jensen’s introduction to the location. Available below, for your listening pleasure.Click onto the link:

We left our overnight stop in Anchorage at 4am after two and a half hours of sleep, bound for Barrow, 330 miles above the Arctic Circle, northernmost point in the USA and home to the ancient Inupiaq culture.

The Inupiaq name is Ukpiagvik, which means “place to hunt the snowy owls”. The locals themselves say this is probably one of the harshest locations in the Arctic.
All about Barrow
The plane to Barrow stops at Fairbanks and Prudhoe Bay, “the oil place”. I was sandwiched between two oil-workers, the one in dungares and baseball cap, the other in his parka and woolly hat – all the way to Prudhoe Bay. We had to get de-iced in between, there was some snow in the air – and of course plenty on the ground. Outside the air was prickling with ice crystals – inside the cabin, with steadily rising excitement in our small group of Europeans. Airfields with snow-ploughs and tiny terminal buildings. A taste of travel in Arctic Alaska. There is no road to Barrow. The air connection is the lifeline.
We were met by Alice, coordinator at BASC, the Barrow Arctic Science Consortium, which is hosting us and providing our accommodation. She’s a real character and one of the most welcoming and hospitable people I’ve ever come across. In her informal, chatty way, as she drives us from the airport, she is teaching us a lot about her Eskimo heritage – and the role it still plays in everyday life in Barrow.
The Barrow Arctic Science Consortium
This is whale-hunting country – difficult for a lot of us, concerned as we are to “save the whales”. One of the Eskimos joked “is this the Greenpeace lot”? Of course we understand the difference between subsistence whaling as part of the indigenous culture and commercial whaling. And we’ve learned a lot about the Inupiat culture today and just how central the “harvesting” of a limited quota of bowhead whales is to it. Still, I found it hard to stomach all the details of the hunt – let alone the result. And that was definitely the dish of the day. In the Heritage Centre, we learned all about it. Then, at short notice, Alice told us we were invited to a feast.

When the “whaling captain”’s family has finished preparing and cooking up the whale meat, blubber and innards, the whole village is invited to come and eat and take away bags for the family. All generations were collected in the “Captain”’s kitchen. It’s clearly a very special – and very social – occasion. We didn’t want to intrude for too long, but had some interesting conversations in the house and outside, besides some of the bloody remains of the whale. From Jenny, a tough lady, to Kayan, a modern young man complete with ear stud, the people I talked to all had tales to tell of climate change.

The sea freezing later in the year than before, thinner ice, changes in the species of wildlife in the region. Everybody is concerned. This is clearly an issue here. But when it comes to awareness of the need to reduce emissions, the price of petrol is clearly a higher incentive than worry about global warming. In this icy, harsh climate, in an area as remote as you can find, heating and fuel are not a luxury. “Alternative energy man? Sure, give me a solar-powered snow-machine and I’ll use it” – Kayan laughs and heads off for some whalemeat.

A new study says climate change is having a far greater impact on the Arctic and much faster than previously thought. Like the other journalists and media organisations on the distribution list,this information reached me yesterday from WWF, for publication as of midnight last night.The results of the “Arctic Climate Science Update” are dramatic.
Read the report for yourself via WWF Arctic Programme
But there was no mention of all this on the radio news or in the papers I read this morning. Could it be that melting sea ice, even the melting of the Greenland Ice Sheet and the wide-ranging impacts no longer make the headlines? Are people getting bored with reading about it and starting to take it for granted? Let’s see if it makes the news in the course of today or tomorrow.
I also got these photos from Narsaq in Southern Greenland. The girls are launching a “Messenger Kayak” from an ice floe in the bay. Against the background of a conference on climate change and sustainable development being held in their town, they want to make the voices of young Greenlanders heard, taking on responsibility for the future and asking their leaders to take action on climate change and pollution. Good on you girls.

The picture was taken by Anders Rosenberg, Indra Film.
More info on the Greenland youth initiative

At least I’ve heard quite a few of my neighbours and friends talking about a 2-part film documentary which was shown on German tv last week and this week, which included dramatisations of what climate change is likely to mean for countries like Bangladesh – far away but clearly drastic impact – and places like Cologne in Germany, with huge chemical plants right next to the river Rhine – definitely too close for comfort. I found the film a bit too sensational in style, but I am increasingly coming to the conclusion that we need this sort of tv coverage (evening prime time viewing slot) to get the message across.
What did make the news this morning – John McCain is proposing dropping fuel taxes during the summer holidays. Clearly a very popular proposal. Shame about the climate.
Here are some more pictures from Justin Anderson. They were taken in Denali National Park in January. “Mt. McKinley sunsets”. Emily Schwing adds “it was actually perpetual sunset all day long”. This is Alaska as we’d like to keep it:

Emily Schwing works at the university in Fairbanks, Alaska, she’s also a journalist and contributes great stories to Living Planet. I’m hoping to meet up with her and introduce her to the Climate College “ambassadors” when we get to the Fairbanks area.
In the meantime, she sent me some beautiful pictures from Alaska, some taken by herself, some by her friend Justin Anderson. This is one of Justin’s.

Thanks Emily and Justin. Your pictures are beautiful.

I’ve just come out of the studio where Nina Haase and I were producing this week’s Living Planet programme, which goes on the air and on the net tomorrow:
“Environment matters around the globe” – DW’s Living Planet
It includes a story on wind energy by Hanno Schiffer, who is also the one who came up with the “Ice Blog” title. Thanks again Hanno! Hanno’s been speaking to some people who are optimistic that after the US election, things will be looking up for the environment.I’ll be interested to talk to people in Alaska about that while we’re on the road.
We have also been working on a series of features on biodiversity ahead of the big UN conference taking place in Bonn in May. This week Laura Spurway visits a kind of “Noah’s Arch” for endangered species of farm animals. Now there’s something you don’t often hear about. And I tell you, the donkey’s a scream.
We were at a press conference organised by the IUCN here in Bonn today. It was held at the “Environmental Law Centre” – agreed, that doesn’t sound very exciting. But they have some interesting topics on their agenda for the big conference, including “women and biodiversity”. No, it doesn’t mean they think we women are an endangered species. I’ll leave it at that and let you look up the rest on their website.
iucn –
sometimes still known as World Conservation Union
Thanks to Susie L. who sent in a comment on the photos from Australia.Glad you liked them Susie and I’ll try not to disappoint you with the coming ones.Susie and some colleagues are coming to Bonn on a field trip this summer, including a visit to our radio station here. Looking forward to meeting you all then.

Yesterday I read an interesting press release from the Alfred Wegener Institute, Germany’s polar research institute. It made the “panorama” page of our regional paper this morning. Their research vessel the Polarstern has just completed an Antarctic cruise and come up with the puzzling result that the deep sea in the Antarctic is actually getting colder. At the same time satellite images from the Antarctic summer have shown the largest extent of sea-ice on record. The question is whether this is the start of a new trend, or just a one-off. The last ARCTIC summer was the warmest on record. The trouble is this latest report on Antarctic cooling might make a lot of people think global warming isn’t a danger after all.
See the latest information on the AWI English web page
Meanwhile, here in Bonn, Germany,it is beginning to feel like spring. The tulips in my garden are in full bloom. After a long cold, wet spell, it looks as if it’s going to heat up in the course of the week – in time to make sure my transition to the Alaskan Arctic is a bit of a shock to the system.
I’ve decided to look out some of my favourite ice and snow pictures to put us all in the right mood.

“Cloud wisps over Ny Alesund”. This shows fjord and glaciers taken from the French-German Arctic research base in Ny Alesund on Svalbard, Spitzbergen last June. I was lucky to get a couple of days of this sort of weather. It’s more likely to be overcast. But even those days still have a certain charm. The colours look completely different, as in this pic:

This is me in my survival suit at the Kongswegen glacier, taken on the same trip. The photo was taken by Rainer Vockenroth, the head of the research base, which is run jointly by the French and the German polar research institutes.We went along the glacier in a small boat. The water was 2°C, which means you can become unconscious in five minutes – unless you’re wearing one of these uncomfortable but admittedly useful outfits.