Sebastian Copeland's next expedition with Green Cross is taking place the first three weeks in July. Here is their current schedule.

This expedition is taking place in the Antartic area of Canada

Week of July 7: Baffin (Iqualuit, Kimmirut, Pond Inlet).
July 11-12-13: Resolute Bay
July 13-27: Eureka, Tanquary Fjord, Otto Fjord, A, Ward Hunt Island, Mt Barbeau.

This program is a 3 year program that involves children. The schedule listed above is the first leg of the their mission and includes six children from the United States, Germany and other countries. We can expect to see good things from this, and Mr. Copeland's publication will be out later this year.

The expedition is being led by Mr. Copeland and Luc Hardy.

Will post more in a few days.

Libra, thank you so much for this news.

I'm looking forward to seeing more wonderful pictures and news from Sebastian. I'm especially interested in this project with children being involved. Children are so important to the future of the planet, they are the environmentalists of future.

Looking forward to reading more updates.

:thankyou:

Jesse,
This is a long program - three years, but well worth the work it will take. As soon as I know what countries the children are from, I'll post the details, but not their names, ages or personal details, but I recall one is from the States and another from Germany.

He had a book signing and they were suppose to leave on the 23rd, but my fingers are crossed that all parties set sail for that Monday.

Thanks Libra, that would be brilliant. :thumb:

Five lucky children will be going on the first leg of this 3 year mission.

Italy, boy, 9 year's old.
Germany, girl 9 year's old.
Franch, boy, 14 year's old
Kenya, boy, 15 year's old
United States, girl, 16 year's old.

They all share two specific things in common. They are outdoor adventurers and are passionate about the environment. If we can instill that in our children this young, the world will be in good hands.




"If posting elsewhere, please credit Click Orlando!"
"

Wow, how amazing and fortunate for this children to part of this program!

This is just wonderful Libra. With each child from a different country, and a wide range of ages the message will most certainly be global.

Thanks so much for the update.

I agree... these are absolutly wonderful news... :D
Lucky kids... I remember I've been totally into pirates-travellors-stories in that age... which 9-year-old isn't an adventurer?!? :bigwink:

They will have such a great time and as Jesse I cannot wait to see more of those brilliant Copeland-photographies... :clap:

well, now all I can say is that I wish them all the most fun and always:
"wind in your sails"
:P

Thanks Jesse and Jocy,

I am keen to see what they uncover this time. This trip is in the Arctic area of Canada, and not to go off on a tangent here, but I am hoping too that Bast will bring awareness to the cruel and inhumane way that Harp Seals are slaughtered each year. We have been fighting that fight for many years, and one day it has to stop.

This mission will be a long undertaking of three years so I am looking forward to their next trip, and hope the children involved on the first leg are part of the second and third. It will be interesting to see how they evolve, learn and grow with the information that they gather. They are an inspiration and so is Bast for the work he does.

Expedition Pax Arctica – Summer 2008

In the summer of 2008, a group of young adults and children from all over the world will travel around the Canadian Arctic Archipelago and join teams of scientists.

Their objective: to testify to the on-going transformations of the Canadian Arctic and its consequences on Climate Change and world geopolitics.

PAX ARCTICA 2008
Green Cross, Luc Hardy and the photographer Sebastian Copeland just launched the Pax Arctica initiative, a 3-year program of theme-centered expeditions.
The first one, in July 2008, will give the opportunity to children, from age 9 to 16, to discover the fragile ecosystem of the North Pole.

The team will travel through the Canadian Arctic Archipelago for 5 weeks: Ellesmere Island, Cornwallis Island (Resolute Bay), and Baffin Island, where they will meet Inuit communities.

They will reach two symbolic places of the Canadian Arctic: the northernmost point of Canada, Ward Hunt Island, and the highest peak of Nunavut, Mount Barbeau, on Ellesmere Island. All along the itinerary, the team will join climatologists, geologists, biologists and explorers.


The objectives
As was done for Antarctica, successive expeditions will endeavor to impart an educational message by involving young people. The idea is to prove that young people, symbols of future generations, want to commit themselves to peace and to the protection of the Arctic and of its resources.

Besides, the expeditions will convey a political, scientific, philosophical and ethical
message: It is the responsibility of our generation to help regulate the potential exploitation of mineral resources in the Arctic in order to protect its exceptional and fragile environment for the sake of local populations and future generations.

The team
3 team leaders: Luc Hardy, Bertrand Charrier and Sebastian Copeland
• Luc Hardy is the president of Sagax, company of investment. Member of the Explorers Club who has already led expeditions in Antarctica and the Arctic, he is the author of several books, most recently Greenland Impressions.
• Sebastian Copeland, Professional photographer, is a board member of Global Green USA (the US affiliate of Green Cross International). He led a coalition of personalities and politicians including Salma Hayek and Jake Gyllenhaal to the Arctic town of Iqaluit, (Baffin Island, Canada). In 2006 and 2007, he conducted two separate trips to the Antarctic Peninsula to document global warming. He is named Professional Photographer of the Year in the US for his book Antarctica: The Global Warning.
• Bertrand Charrier is the administrator of Green Cross France. In 1987, he was side by side with Captain Cousteau in an international campaign to protect Antarctica. They brought a youth group there to sensitize the world to the importance of protecting the white continent for Future Generations.
Yves Paccalet, President of Green Cross France, is a philosopher, a writer, a journalist, a biologist, a botanist and a screenwriter. He met Jacques-Yves Cousteau in 1972 and signed with him more than 20 books. He traveled many times to Antarctic and to the Arctic and testified of the impact of global warming on these fragile ecosystems.

Children: between 6 and 7 children, aged from 9 to 17.
Flaam, Ainhoa, by their age and origins (they come from Germany, France, United Stats, Italy, Kenya and the Actic), the children symbolize a global concern regarding the fate of the Arctic.

Program and itinerary
The Canadian Arctic Archipelago is in the northern extremity of the North America. Covering about 1,424,500 km² (550,003 sq mi), this group of 36,563 islands comprises much of the territory of Northern Canada – most of Nunavut and part of Northwest Territories. The various islands are separated from each other and the continental mainland by a series of waterways collectively known as the Northwestern Passages.

• First part: 6 to 10 July: Baffin (Iqualuit, Pond Inlet).
The team will stay a few days on Baffin Island, the largest island in Canada and the fifth largest island in the world, with an area of 507,451 km² (195,928 sq mi). It has a population of 11,000, including 95% of Inuit. The team will use this first step to interact with the Inuit community, discover their lifestyle and habits and understand the impact of global warming and industrial development on their environment.

The expedition will start in Iqaluit, south of Baffin Island. Then for three days, the team will paddle the Soper River that runs through Kitannilik Park, on paddle raft and kayaks, to finally meet a group of Inuit in Pond Inlet, at the top of Bafin Island.

• Second part: 11-12-13 July: Resolute Bay.
Resolute Bay is located on the southern side of Cornwallis Island, in the Canadian territory of Nunavut.
On July 12, the Louis S. Saint-Laurent, the Canadian guard coast boat, will make a stop at Resolute.
For one day, the boat will open its doors to all, and give the team the opportunity to discover the icebreaker, meet scientists and follow their work.

• Third part: 13-27 July : Ellesmere Island: Eureka, Tanquary Fjord, Otto Fjord, Cape Columbia, Ward Hunt Island, Mt Barbeau, etc...
The third and last part of the expedition will bring our team on Ellesmere Island. Lying within the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, it is considered part of the Queen Elizabeth Islands, with Cape Columbia being the most northerly point of land in Canada. It comprises an area of 196,235 square kilometers (75,767 sq mi). The Pax Arctica team will make a few stops on different emblematic places: fjords, mountains, scientific bases.

The team will travel across Ellesmere Island to reach two symbolic places: Mount Barbeau, the highest peak in Nunavut (2616m) and Ward Hunt, the northernmost point of Canada.
The largest ice shelf in the Arctic, Ward Hunt is 443 square kilometers in size, and has been in place for approximately 3,000 years as part of a continuous ice shelf. In April 2000, satellite images revealed that a large crack in the ice had begun to form, and in 2003, it was announced that the ice sheet had split completely in two, releasing a huge pool of fresh water in the Northern Hemisphere.
Children will be on this symbolic place, to testify for future generations.

This report was provided by a member of Global Green. Please credit Click Orlando if posting elsewhere.

Amazing, thanks for sharing!!

Thank you so much for this fascinating report and itinerary Libra and also to the anonymous Global Green member. :friends:

I remember that happening and reading about it in the news. What so many people don't realize is that when we talk of the ice caps melting, we are not talking about an event that will happen hundreds of years in the future, its not a futuristic fantasy story, its starting to happen right now.

The sad thing is that while people are going about in their day to day life with their heads in the sand, there are some serious changes being made in the Arctic that will ultimately impact all of us to our detriment.

It is quite feasible that the east coast of the US at one point will be under water in about 20 years. Major cities of the US along that seacoast and down around where Florida is will have problems, and whether we realize it or not, storms that are dangerous by nature (excuse the pun) anyway, are getting more violent.

Update on New Expedition.

The participants for the first leg of the new expedition to the Canadian Arctic will meet for dinner tommorrow evening in Ottawa. The participants will head out the next morning.

Thanks to a member of Global Green for the latest information. As to whether Orlando Bloom will be attending, the member was mum on that.

If posting elsewhere please credit Click Orlando.

Thanks for the latest update Libra.

I have my fingers crossed that Orlando will go. :pray:

Sebastian Copeland led a toast with a table decorated with flags representing those participating on the expedition.

Because of the bad weather, they were diverted from the Arctic Circle to Iqualuit. The temperature is only 7 degrees C.



If posting elsewhere, please credit Click Orlando

Its wonderful to hear the expedition is underway, not so good about the weather though. :(

Thanks for the update Libra. :thumb:

I wish I had more news to update, but the Team is still based in Iqualuit and will go to Kimmirut for the first step of the Expedition. They have had bad weather, not uncommon in the Arctic where anything unexpected can and does happen, but I'll be happy to keep posting what our contact has to say as it comes along. Alot of it is technical and I don't know if everyone wants to hear it. If you guys do, I'll be happy to post but don't want to bore anyone either.

There is a rumor, unfounded and unlikely, that Orlando will join up in August, but I seriously doubt it.

Thanks for the update again Libra. :friends:

I think just the regular updates will be fine and just skip the technical details, unless there is something really interesting!

:thankyou:

Not sure if everybody has seen this already, but Luc Hardy is keeping a blog on the Artica.
Just check out the Blog here!

:thankyou: mejia.

I haven't seen this blog, thanks for pointing us in its direction. :friends:

The pictures are just wonderful and its a fascinating account of the trip. I'll be keeping a sharp eye on this blog.

:thankyou:

There is a fascinating new entry on 'Pax Arctica's Blog'

CLICK HERE to read about 'Green Cross children team FIRST to walk to breaking ice shelf!'

Luc Hardy has updated his blog with a video of the massive chunk of ice that has broken off the Arctic ice shelf around Ward Hunt Island.

CLICK HERE to watch.

Check out the latest update on Pax Arctica's Blog. The wind was so strong that Sebastian just couldn't fall down! :lol: