SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Dene songwriter and spoken-word artist Kiera Kolson is set to navigate open waters and drifting ice as she treks to the North Pole to raise awareness about Arctic climate change.
Yellowknife entrepreneur Edward Dithurbide is opening Jerrie's Delivery Services for business today. - Thandiwe Vela/NNSL photo
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Kolson will be joined by 16 other participants, including American actor Ezra Miller, who also support the cause.
"It's a very strong statement. There are people from every direction of the circle and the world coming together," said Kolson, who is an Arctic outreach campaigner with Greenpeace.
"We can't deny that climate change is here. We're seeing it on a regular basis in the North and we need to be able to work together for a healthier future."
The team is set to meet in Norway on April 1 for training. On April 5 they will set out on cross-country skis from Barneo, seasonal Russian ice camp near the 89th parallel. Kolson said she expects the journey will take four to 10 days.
Upon reaching the North Pole, the team will plant an Eco-friendly time capsule, which contains statements about what's going on in this generation, glass slides etched with the signatures of everybody who signed Greenpeace's petition to save the Arctic, and a flag designed during the organization's Flag for the Future contest.
The time capsule is expected to resurface in 50 years, Kolson said.
"Hopefully the world will still be in a good state and somebody will see this effort that people put in," said Kolson.
The Arctic is currently facing threats from climate change, resource development industries and industrial fishing fleets, according to Greenpeace.
Over the last 30 years, as much as three-quarters of floating sea ice cover has been lost at the top of the world due to humanity's use of fossil fuel energy, the organization states on its savethearctic.org website.
Meanwhile, energy companies are considering ways to tap into oil deposits in the area, creating a potential for major oil spills in the fragile Arctic environment, Kolson said.
For these reasons, Kolson and the rest of the team are advocating for the protection of the area around the North Pole.
Kolson said she wants the area to be a global sanctuary, adding it's in everybody's best interest to protect the top of the planet.
"What happens in the Arctic does affect people in the far south. Our representative from Seychelles, which is an area in Madagascar, was saying that now they're getting heavy hurricane seasons because of the way climate change is shifting," she said. "His island is starting to wash away. So it's really interesting when we look at this concern from a global perspective of how it's basically a butterfly effect."
Kolson and the team have been training for their journey for the past couple months. In February they met in Norway to practise survival skills and do some ski training. Since then, Kolson has been getting in shape by exercising her core and walking around town. She has also been preparing mentally by going onto the ice road to simulate the remoteness of the North Pole in her mind.
"It's going to be challenging not only physically but also within the mental capacity," she said. "It's going to be pushing people outside their comfort zones ... We're just going to take our time and do this thing together."
