Lonnie Dupre and Eric Larsen training for their Arctic expedition

First ever unsupported summer crossing of the Arctic ocean commences to show first hand impact of global warming

CAPE ARTCHITESKY, Russia - Two polar explorers set off today from a remote region of Siberia on a historic trek to make the first ever unsupported summer crossing of the Arctic ocean. Lonnie Dupre and Eric Larsen will have to endure a four month, 1,240 miles (2000 km) trek of unpredictable sea ice and frigid open water. The two man team using skis and specially designed canoes left Cape Arctichesky, Siberia today and will travel across the North Pole before ending the expedition in Ellesmere Island, Canada.

Expedition leader Lonnie Dupre teamed up with Greenpeace to ensure that this summer crossing of the Arctic would have a strong global warming message. Visitors to Greenpeace's www.projectthinice.org will be able to follow their journey, see updates, and find out ways to take action against climate change. The team will be facing a raft of dangers on the trip; a melting polar ice cap, thick fog, areas of open seas littered with huge blocks of ice and areas of solid ice with thigh deep slush.

"The idea for this expedition came when I was circumnavigating Greenland and a map showed two glaciers that should have been there but no longer were. What should have been a solid ice pack had disappeared completely," said Lonnie Dupre, expedition leader. "I knew then that I wanted to embark on an expedition to show the world the dangers of global warming."

At the same time as the two man expedition are crossing the Arctic, Greenpeace will be in Greenland with the ship Arctic Sunrise, hosting scientists and investigating and documenting the effects of climate change in the region. The Arctic Sunrise, an ice class ship, will then head for Lincoln sea in Canada to meet the explorers at the finish of the expedition.

"Global warming is happening now, not in some distance future and 2005 will be a critical year for enforcing solutions," said Melanie Duchin, Greenpeace climate campaigner, who will be onboard the Arctic Sunrise in Greenland. "We hope that every mile these explorers travel will empower people around the world to take action against global warming."

Eric Larsen, expedition team member stated: "Our world is a fragile place, and it needs to be protected for all the average people-explorers, activists and everyone else still to come."

Note

Greenpeace will try to faciliate interviews from the ice for media. Requests must be made at least one week in advance and due to the nature of the expedition availability will be limited.

For more information please contact Greenpeace Press Office on 0207 865 8255

Stills and video of the expedition members in training available, please call Greenpeace Press Office on 0207 865 8255

The disappearing glaciers of Patagonia

Greenpeace today released new visual evidence of the impacts of climate change. Dramatic new photos of Patagonian glaciers taken by a research team on board the Greenpeace vessel Arctic Sunrise show the extent of glacier retreat this century, when compared to photos of the same glaciers taken from the same point in 1928.

Greenpeace campaigner Laura Yates, said: "Rising temperatures are causing glaciers to melt all over the world. In Patagonia, they are disappearing faster than anywhere else on Earth. There are many reasons for the speed of the retreat but climate change is the trigger for the process."

In recent years the melting of the glaciers in Patagonia has accelerated, which indicates human induced climate change. From 1995 through 2000 the rate of ice loss from the ice fields more than doubled, to an equivalent sea level rise of 0.1 mm (0.004 inches) per year. The sheer volume of melt water from glaciers is causing the sea levels to rise (1), increasing the risk of flooding in many of the world's coastal areas. It is also starting to cause problems for people who depend on the glaciers for their fresh water supply. This may cause enormous problems in the future given that a third of the world's population - 2 billion people - rely on rivers fed by Himalayan glaciers alone.

Greenpeace has been touring Patagonia and Chile for 4 weeks, investigating the extent to which the glaciers and ice-fields there are disappearing. The research team's findings confirm that a number of large glaciers, such as the San Quintin and Upsala glaciers, part of the Northern and Southern Patagonian ice-fields, have significantly thinned and have retreated several kilometres in recent years.

A recent study by the journal Nature (2) showed that climate change could drive a million of the world's species to extinction as soon as 2050. "Climate change is a global problem - not only do we risk losing the world's glaciers but we are already witnessing an increased frequency and severity of floods (3), droughts and storms, loss of coral reefs, rises in sea levels and a rapid spread of diseases such as malaria," added Yates.

Climate change is occurring because we use energy created by fossil fuels - oil, coal and gas. When these fuels are burned, they release carbon dioxide (CO2), a so called 'greenhouse gas' that causes the Earth to warm.

"Climate change poses a greater threat to the world than terrorism. Its time for our leaders to show leadership. The world is looking to European governments to take on the US and start ensuring significant global reductions in fossil fuel emissions. At the moment we are failing in our responsibility for future generations", concluded Yates. (4)

Renewable energy technologies and industries are poised on the brink of a revolution all they need is political support. World leaders are being invited for the first time to attend an international renewables conference, to be held in Bonn (June 1 to 4, 2004 ).

Greenpeace calls upon all world leaders to attend to this conference and to adopt firm commitments to provide a minimum to 20 % of our power from clean sources by 2020.

Notes to Editors
For more information contact the Greenpeace Press Office on 020 7865 8255
For photos call Greenpeace pictures on 020 7865 8294
Click here for a background briefing or contact the Press Office.

1.Contribution of the Patagonia Icefields of South America to Sea Level Rise by Eric Rignot, Andrés Rivera and Gino Casassa, Science 2003 October 17; 302: 434-437. (in Reports)

2.Extinction risk from climate change. Nature, January 2004.

3.The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)

Publication date: May 2000

Summary
Ancient forests are among the greatest living expressions of three billion years of evolution of life on earth. They contain as much as 90 per cent of the world's land-based species, literally millions of types of flora and fauna from owls to orchids, bears and beetles. Many of these species will not survive unless we protect large areas of the remaining ancient forests. Biologists generally agree that the rate of species extinction is now 100 to 1000 times as great as it was before the coming of humanity. Palaeontologists recognise six previous mass-extinction events during the past half-billion years. The last and most famous occurred 65 million years ago and ended the age of dinosaurs. Researchers of biodiversity agree that we are in the midst of the seventh mass extinction. Even if the current rate of habitat destruction were to continue in forest and coral reefs alone, half of the plant and animal species would be gone by the end of the 21st century.

Walrus group

A three week Greenpeace scientific expedition to the retreating Arctic ice pack, completed on July 31st,has uncovered new evidence that climate change appears to be impacting on the wildlife and ecology of the region, particularly walrus young.

The Greenpeace icebreaker Arctic Sunrise with an international crew and scientific research team from ten countries (UK, Netherlands, Denmark, Russia, NZ, Australia, US, Canada, Japan, and Spain) travelled along the edge of the polar ice pack in the Chukchi Sea between Alaska and Russia counting and ageing groups of walrus, and observing polar bears and black guillemots(birds dependent on arctic ice).

"Preliminary results indicate that the walrus population isn't doing so well," said Dr Brendan Kelly, from the University of Alaska and head of the research team. "Although we saw more calves than last year, the last several years have seen low juvenile survival rates, clearly indicating that this is a population in decline. We don't have enough data to say how rapid a decline it is, but the early signs of climate change such as the retreat of the sea ice and the changes in the food supply for these animals, do not bode well for the walrus."

Dr. Brendan Kelly headed the research team, which included Dr. Gennady Smirnov of Chukotka's Marine Mammal Research Group, senior researcher Lori Quakenbush of the University of Alaska, and Clarence Waghiyi from the Alaska Eskimo Walrus Commission. The main body of research was on the Pacific walrus, and the team of nine scientists surveyed nearly 5000 animals during the three week expedition, using unique methods developed by Dr. Kelly and his associates.

The melting of the polar pack is the most obvious impact of climate change in the western Arctic, which is warming at a rate 3-5 times faster than the rest of the globe. While the sea ice was heavy during the spring of 1999, July saw an extremely rapid melt-out of the ice in the Chukchi Sea, which retreated nearly 300 miles in some places during the three weeks of the expedition.

Walrus, polar bears, seals, seabirds and other uniquely Arctic animals are dependent on the sea ice for their survival and so are immediately affected by any change to the ice. The walrus is a mainstay of the diet for Alaska Native communities in the Bering and Chukchi seas.

The expedition witnessed an extremely rare event - an attack by a polar bear on an adult male walrus hauled out on the ice. Adult walruses are generally at least twice as large and heavy as polar bears, with extremely thick, tough skin, and are not considered common prey for the bears. The expedition also visited Herald Island, a major polar bear denning area. Polar bears are also under threat from the retreating sea ice and ecosystem changes which could threaten their food supply. "The signs of climate change are all around us," said Steve Sawyer, Greenpeace spokesperson aboard the Arctic Sunrise.

"Climate change is caused by humans burning fossil fuels. It's time to stop pumping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere and phase out the use of fossil fuels in favour of cleaner forms of energy such as solar and wind power."