This month a team of people, including 4 youth ambassadors, planted the Arctic Scroll on the seabed beneath the ice that sits at the top of the world. As local campaigners, we spent much of the last year telling people: ‘sign your name and Greenpeace will place it in a capsule at the North Pole’. I had said this to my friends, encouraging them to sign their names. They didn’t need much encouragement, but I think the reality of the Arctic Scroll project only really hit home when I relayed the news about its success. ‘You’re name is in that scroll, it’s been planted at the North Pole’ I said to a friend I had signed up, and then I realised that this meant my name was there too. It was not just a line or some kind of fantasy, it had become a reality. My name, along with nearly 3 million others, had been buried at the North Pole under a beautiful flag that claims the Arctic for the people of the world. Suddenly, I was quite moved.
To celebrate the achievement of that noble journey, we South Londoners decided to mark I ♡ the Arctic day in our own style, and with our own journey. In homage to the brave explorers of team Aurora, we would embark on our own dangerous expedition to the North. To the North of London, to be precise…
The risks were not quite the same, the aim not as noble, the participants less heroic and scenery less stunning – but all the same, on the 20th of April we dressed as Arctic explorers and marched North. Sled team West set off from Victoria station, taking in the sights of Buckingham Palace and Westminster as they marched, some holding flags or dressed as members of different nations to demonstrate the global nature of the campaign and of the global love for the Arctic. Sled team East left from London Bridge, polar bear in tow, walking past the Golden Hinde, The Globe and Tate Modern, shaking our fists at Shell’s HQ before finally crossing the river and making our way into the freezing North.
Rather typically, the Arctic-like spring the UK had been experiencing chose to end on that day, and we were marching, dressed in our thermals, in summer like heat. Despite that, we arrived in Trafalgar Square (pseudo North Pole) on good time and in good spirits, and were welcomed by the natives (North Londoners) – into a heart shape for a photo. Along the route we had stopped to get sign ups to the current phase of the Arctic campaign which aims to tell the few Arctic nations that all the people on planet Earth care about the fate of the Arctic, and we had got plenty.
So, there you are. Two very different journeys for one cause. To save one of our last wildernesses. A precious, unique environment that lives in the hearts and imaginations of millions, if not billions, of people – even if their nations are not connected to it by geography, and even if they will never see it in reality. I may never go there. Marching along the Southbank with ski goggles on might be the closest I ever get to an Arctic expedition – but like millions of other people across the world, I love the arctic – and we’re going to save it.
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