UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon spoke recently at Harvard, urging the U.S. to take the lead in reducing carbon emissions.  He said the U.S. and other UN nations have the means, but not the political will, to significantly reduce energy consumption.  I wholeheartedly agree.  Our world leaders must put the needs of the environment before their careers.

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According to an analysis of fishing surveys of the past 25 years, fish in the Bering Sea have been migrating farther north as sea ice recedes, leaving warmer water temperatures.  This is forcing American fishermen to fish closer and closer to Russia, setting up a potential conflict between the U.S. and Russia over fish stock.  However, it is not just fishermen who are feeling the effects of warming Alaskan water – seabirds and other animals that prey on the fish must also migrate north or risk losing a source of food.

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This BBC story highlights the risk of international dispute over Arctic territory and resources. As sea ice recedes and Arctic waters become increasingly navigable the Arctic has the potential to become a new hotspot for international conflict.

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I cannot agree more with the final paragraph of today¹s editorial in the New
York Times regarding the necessity of nations working together to protect
the Arctic. In my view the Arctic belongs to all of us. We will get
nowhere in our quest to preserve the Arctic unless we all work together.

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I would like to thank the two remaining members of the expedition team:

Fred Kalborg has been one of the photographers on the trip. He has shown incredible commitment, staying out on the zodiac for the whole day, in freezing conditions, to capture some fantastic images. And Julia Thomas has been the physio on the boat, and has been invaluable for both me and Robbie in easing our multitude of aches and pains each day.

I would also like to thank those critical members of the team who were not on the boat: Professor Tim Noakes, David Becker, Martin Jenkins, Jason Roberts, Daniel Terreblanche, Emily Lewis-Brown, Damien Forrest, Matt Carlson and his incredible team, Jorgen Amundsen, Olivier Muller, Patsy Rodenburg, Nic Marshall and Antoinette Malherbe, Margaret Brady, Peter Morrisey, Amy Benbow-Hebbert, Jude Hosie, Mark Landsberg and Marcus Brewster.

And finally all those who have called and emailed me with messages of support and encouragement.  The support from funders has been critical also. Thank you very much.

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We are back in Longyearbyen and in range of mobile reception. Everyone’s mobile phones and blackberries bleep and ping with an avalanche of messages and emails. We no longer feel so isolated from the outside world.

Call with the PM

We arrived back in Longyearbyen this morning, earlier than expected. We made good time over night, steaming over an ocean flat as a millpond. We are back by 10 this morning. The big event of the day is a call from Gordon Brown, who congratulates me on the achievements of our expedition.The call goes really well. The PM is engaged, interested, and very well briefed. I explain to him what I have seen, and how important I believe it to be that we get the British public to rally behind bold and courageous steps to combat climate change. He agrees to a meeting. I am impressed by him and delighted at the outcome of the call.

Now the real work

Although the expedition is over, in many ways the real work is still to come - my job now is to act as an ambassador for the Arctic, to convey to policy makers the changes that are taking place here. This starts immediately - I am going to Washington DC soon to speak to the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming. I spoke with Congressman Edward Markey (D-MA) and his team in May, and it was a wonderful conversation - one I look forward to continuing.  Smart people working hard to push these important environmental issues forward.

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This will be one of the last team member portraits for this expedition. I wanted to save the Captain till around this point, as he is a special man. The Captain is called Bjorne Kvernmo, and the MV ‘Havsel’ belongs to him. He has been a fantastic skipper. He has piloted the boat wonderfully - I will always remember the sight of him up in the crow’s nest, thirty feet above the forecastle, directing the boat through the thick ice floes, with the crow’s nest listing dramatically from right to left. And more than this, although he has been a great skipper, he has also been a great team member.  When Robbie and I were in the water paddling alongside the boat, the Captain would often come on deck and cheer and clap us along, doing a wonderful jig at the same time. He helped us with the kayaks, with the flags, with virtually every element of the expedition. Thank you Captain!

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I was so proud of the team and the crew yesterday - they worked together so well to assemble and erect all the flags. It took a long time, so it was close on 9pm by the time we had put them all up, had taken the photos, and then taken them down again and stowed them. I plan to use them on my next expedition. We had another fabulous dinner courtesy of Jostein and many of the team stayed up late, celebrating the many achievements of the trip. Everyone is beginning to realise that the end of the expedition is in sight and today, with Robbie and I not able to paddle any further north, we turn the boat around and start heading for Longyearbyen.

Success?

People often ask me ‘Has an expedition been successful? Did you achieve what you wanted to?’ On this trip I am delighted with many things - the fact that we got as far north as we did, further north than anyone has ever kayaked before; the press coverage we have received especially on ITV and CNN; the way the team has pulled together (and this despite the individual team members not knowing each other at all prior to the trip); Robbie; the flags. It’s a long list and there are many more than these few examples. But the reality is I will not fully realise what has been achieved here for many months to come. I have been invited to speak to Congress on the subject of climate change and security next month, on the back of the North Pole swim I did some fourteen months ago. So whilst I am thrilled with what has been achieved on this expedition, as I reflect on it as we head back to Longyearbyen, many of its achievements and consequences will only become clear in time to come.

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CNN reported today that the separation of the Markham Ice Shelf (a 4,500-year-old shelf the size of Manhattan) from Ellesmere Island is more disturbing evidence of what is happening to the Arctic. These losses that have reduced Arctic Ocean ice cover to its second-biggest retreat since satellite measurements began 30 years ago.

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