Spring Break
Antarctic trip highlights importance of 10 tons
Phoenix Mourning-Star
Issue date: 4/16/09 Section: Opinion
Ten tons is a lot of anything. To put it in perspective -- 10 tons of $1 bills is just over $9 million; an adult male Orca whale can weigh 10 tons.
Assuming a car produces one pound of C02 for every mile, and 2,000 pounds makes a ton, then we could drive 2,000 miles to make a ton of CO2. Which means 10 tons of CO2 would take us 20,000 miles (a very rough estimate from a Volkswagon). Or you can go from Denver to Buenos Aries, Argentina to the southern tip of South America and board a ship bound for Antarctica.
Ten tons is what it cost in carbon for each member of an Antarctic expedition team I was a part of to meet for 12 days and talk about climate change. Reality check, huh? Fifty environmentally-minded students and youth leaders from universities all over the world "spent" more than 500 tons combined to travel to Antarctica to talk about how we can decrease the potential human contributions to climate change and, more specifically, save Antarctica.
Our expedition is organized and led by 2041, an organization named after the year for review of the Environment Protocol of the Antarctic Treaty.
2041 (http://2041.com) is working to preserve the Antarctic continent against the need for mining of minerals and fossil fuels. As Earth Day approaches, "green" banners get pulled out of the garage and people dust off their debate team jackets to argue the evidence of human driven climate change, it's refreshing to find a group with an ambitious goal and yet a straight forward mission: make sure the Antarctica Treaty is renewed.
The organization brings its mission to the world through their E-Base -- the only base on Antarctica that runs completely on renewable energy.
EPAT -- originally signed by Norway, Russia, the United Kingdom, the U.S., South Africa, New Zealand, Australia, Chile, France, Argentina and Japan in 1961 -- was intended to keep Antarctica a non-military territory, promote international scientific cooperation and stipulated that the continent be utilized only for peaceful purposes.
Assuming a car produces one pound of C02 for every mile, and 2,000 pounds makes a ton, then we could drive 2,000 miles to make a ton of CO2. Which means 10 tons of CO2 would take us 20,000 miles (a very rough estimate from a Volkswagon). Or you can go from Denver to Buenos Aries, Argentina to the southern tip of South America and board a ship bound for Antarctica.
Ten tons is what it cost in carbon for each member of an Antarctic expedition team I was a part of to meet for 12 days and talk about climate change. Reality check, huh? Fifty environmentally-minded students and youth leaders from universities all over the world "spent" more than 500 tons combined to travel to Antarctica to talk about how we can decrease the potential human contributions to climate change and, more specifically, save Antarctica.
Our expedition is organized and led by 2041, an organization named after the year for review of the Environment Protocol of the Antarctic Treaty.
2041 (http://2041.com) is working to preserve the Antarctic continent against the need for mining of minerals and fossil fuels. As Earth Day approaches, "green" banners get pulled out of the garage and people dust off their debate team jackets to argue the evidence of human driven climate change, it's refreshing to find a group with an ambitious goal and yet a straight forward mission: make sure the Antarctica Treaty is renewed.
The organization brings its mission to the world through their E-Base -- the only base on Antarctica that runs completely on renewable energy.
EPAT -- originally signed by Norway, Russia, the United Kingdom, the U.S., South Africa, New Zealand, Australia, Chile, France, Argentina and Japan in 1961 -- was intended to keep Antarctica a non-military territory, promote international scientific cooperation and stipulated that the continent be utilized only for peaceful purposes.
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