The Arts Station

Four Expeditions on Ice in a Changing Polar Climate

A talk by: Fernie Explorer Bernice Notenboom - Arctic warming and its indigenous peoples

Polar explorer and Fernie resident Bernice Notenboom is touring British Columbia to talk about climate change in polar regions and how it’s affecting the indigenous people who live there. In 2007, Bernice skied to the North, the South and the Cold (Siberian) poles, making her the first person to have skied to all the poles in one year. She traversed the Greenlandic Icecap in early 2008, skiing more than 2,000 kilometres and spending 150 days on ice in severe temperatures. In Greenland , she stayed with scientists and visited remote Inuit communities.

Notenboom’s objective is to increase awareness about climate change around polar latitudes. She focuses on the poles, she says, “because they are the on the frontlines of climate change: what we see now in the polar latitudes, we can expect the same trend in 25 years in the more moderate latitudes.” Notenboom maintains a blog with photos and updates of her journeys: www.arcticalert.com.

This author, journalist, and global explorer is partnering with Wildsight and other local non-profit organizations to deliver her inspiring and educational lectures in the East Kootenay. It’s an opportunity for residents to learn more about the local environmental initiatives that are tackling climate change. It’s also a chance to learn about where Notenboom—an extreme explorer if ever there was one—has traveled and what she has experienced in the past few years.

All lectures are admission by donation.