With a big pleasure, I am supporting Eric Larsen’s #IcePhoto Wednesday on Twitter. Today is Wednesday. So, here we go!
Today I am presenting images from Silvertip Expedition & Diving Management‘s 2011 March trips to Antarctica with Oceanwide Expeditions.
Ella Darlington. Working on the back deck this afternoon...
What a fantastic message I received yesterday… from Ella Darlington, Education and Outreach Officer of Education Through Expeditions NGO, who is currently working on the RRS James Cook scientific ship in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, nearing the equator. At present most of her work is aimed at tropical and ocean environments.
So… let’s begin our story.
A few months ago I started following UK-based Polar explorer Anthony Jinman‘s activity. I found all his works to be extremely exciting and helpful. It was him, who started the non-profit Education Through Expedition project. Just recently he launched the ETElive.org outreach platform designed to help educators and explorers to cover their current expeditions.
A week ago Anthony Jinman invited me through facebook to join the event called Ask Ella a Question. The first reaction was like, “Who is Ella and why should I ask her questions?”
The answer was, “I’m Eleanor, or Ella, Darlington. I’m here documenting life at sea onboard the RSS James Cook in the form of photos, videos and this blog, for Plymouth Marine Laboratories. ‘An easy job’ I hear you say. Well that’s not all… I’m also here working for a not-for-profit organisation called Education Through Expeditions (www.etelive.org), who are also based in Plymouth. This is the trickier part of my job – Education and Outreach – making science fun and applicable in the classroom. I am able to answer questions for the next 6 weeks… If any of you out there are teachers, or have kids in schools, or know of young people in youth groups etc. who would be interested in following and getting involved then please pass on the information. I’m discovering that it really is a two-way project!”
Anthony Jinman, the UK Arctic explorer, works hard as usual. This time he is arranging International Scott Centenary Expedition 2012 dedicated to Captain Robert Falcon Scott RN, who a century ago set out with his companions for the South Pole and never returned. Now their descendents will embark on a journey of commemoration. They will lead a sledging team to Captain Scott’s final resting place, to meet relatives from all five families involved and hold a memorial service for the nation.
ISCE 2012 is a part of the Education Through Expeditions project, that you might find in my list of Cold-Related Projects.
GOOD NEWS!
If you are 18-30 year old, there is a chance for you to join that expedition. Anthony Jinman announced the competition. What you need to do is to write an article of 500-1,000 words entitled: “Why Captain Scott is important to me.”
More about the writing competition on the FB page ISCE Daily Telegraph Competition.
It might sound insane, but I love the COLD… Cold weather. Cold climate. Gorgeous angel-like snow. Fragile mighty ice. Unique northern peoples with their traditional way of living… That’s why this blog still exists… and hope, it will have further development 
Please, watch the above video slideshow presented by the Uummannaq Music project (the world’s northernmost moving music platform based at the Children’s Home in Uummannaq, Greenland, 590 kilometers north of the Artic Circle) and share Greenland kids’ JOY ABOUT COLD!
On my side, in the Siberian city of Yakutsk, it’s getting colder and colder. The previous night, on September 12, 2010, was already with -1C. In two days, we are promised to have -4C and even snow-n-rain by the end of the current week! Today I received a message from George Lessard, our Canadian friend, who informed about today’s first frost in Yellowknife!
So… it’s the right time to declare the start of the new Cold United season.
Plans? A lot!
We will follow major significant volunteer/non-governmental/ordinary people’s projects dedicated to cold regions like Polar Circle with Arctic, Siberia, Scandinavia, Greenland, Canada, Alaska… and, yeah, Antarctic. Like Uummannaq Music and other great ones listed on the Cold-Related Projects page.
We will try to keep sharing northern peoples’ experience of living in the cold condition. In my personal turn, I am eager to provide various information on how the life is going on in Yakutsk, the world’s coldest city and capital of the biggest Siberian/Russian region.
Stay tuned and feel free to let us know, what you would love to see on our blog. If you’ve got great cold-related initiatives or proposals, inform us via the Cold United contact form, our Facebook page or the Twitter account @ColdUnited.
Education Through Expeditions
ANTONY JINMAN, PROJECT FOUNDER:
“My aim is simple. It is to inspire and educate children globally about world climate change and to do so through my interactive expeditions and related school outreach work. My focus is primarily, but not exclusively, on the arctic regions, its Inuit people, its animals and landscape.”
Education Through Expeditions is a Community Interest Company which aims to provide educators with current and innovative distance-learning resources to support climate change education.
The Portal. The principal learning vehicle that will reinforce this aim is the Education Through Expeditions world website; a two dimensional interactive portal which will act as a show-case for ongoing global expeditions and research projects and create a hub of learning about climate change within the home, at school and other community settings… (more…)
Even herders riding on reindeer at their winter pastures near Verkhoyansk. Yakutia, Siberia, Russia.
I really love what the UK couple Bryan & Cherry Alexander do. They’ve got a great collection of “cold” pictures on the website ArcticPhoto.co.uk. It’s their stock library. Yeah, they make money on their works, but they are pro photographers. The point is that they are totally devoted to Arctic and Antarctic! That’s what I love in them.
I found their website eight years ago, when I searched pictures from Yakutia’s Arctic. They’ve got amazing photographs of the ordinary people of Verkhoyansk, the 2nd or, maybe, the 1st Pole of Cold in the northern hemisphere. In their Yakutia-related collection you can see hunters, horse herders, reindeer herders, Yakut villagers, Even nomads, etc. I think they were the first international photographers, who managed to visit Verkhoyanks in 90s.
No need to introduce Bryan & Cherry Alexander. They are pretty well-known. Their cold-related works are regular printed in the world’s leading magazines. They’ve got photos from all Arctic regions – Northern Siberia, Greenland, Alaska, Arctic Canada and Arctic Scandinavia. Their power is their ability “to document the lives of the native peoples who live in these remote places.”
If you are interested, what type of people live in the Arctic zone, just check out their collection with photographs of Inuit, Innu, Cree, Dene, Komi, Khanty, Nenets, Dolgan, Nganasan, Even, Evenk, Evenki, Yakut, Chukchi, Sami, Selkup, and Yupik. Even with watermarks they are pretty informative
And if you wonder how to keep your cameras safe in the extreme cold, read their tips. (more…)
Sir David is filming for a BBC 1 series, Frozen Planet
Sir David Attenborough has realised a life-long ambition and reached the North Pole, the BBC has said.
The broadcaster, 84, is filming in the Arctic Circle for Frozen Planet, a BBC One series due to air in late 2011.
Sir David, who has also visited the South Pole for the series, said it was a “huge privilege” to reach both Poles.
The BBC said the seven-part series is the “ultimate polar expedition to the last great wilderness on the planet – before the regions change forever”.
Speaking from the Svalbard archipelago, 700 miles from the North Pole, Sir David said: “The Poles – North and South – look superficially very similar.
The UK and the Arctic snowstorm. Photo by BBC.
Is it the day after tomorrow? No, it is the day before today! Is it the beginning of the next ice age? Maybe Just take your time and enjoy cold!
2009 - 2011 (c) ColdUnited.comThe project is powered by AskYakutia.com & eYakutia.com
