My Story with Antarctica- King George Island

King George Island

8/3/2012

(Day Eight)

It was a busy morning. Three people presented about Climate Change, Carbon Pricing, Offsetting and Foot printing. The presentations were informative and exciting. Then one of the educators showed us a video about his school exhibition about climate change and the Antarctic. It was good to see how kids were excited to participate and how they really made it attractive.

After lunch we landed in King George Island. We visited the E-Base and saw some countries bases in the Antarctic. It was unfortunate to see what people are trying to do in such wonderful and pure place. I always thought of the Antarctic as a No Man Land. Seeing these many bases, trucks, roads, equipment and all the manmade stuff was really frustrating and disappointing.

It was cold and little sun shine was crossing between the clouds. The E-Base is located in a very windy place so that the wind power generators perform better. It is fully running with green and safe energy and the main purpose of building it is to promote for sustainable energy. The success of having such a green place in the Antarctic under its massive weather conditions and less sun light is to pass a true message to the world that it is not impossible and not too late to start using green energy resources.

We climbed up the hill and got to see the E-Base from inside. It is simple, clean, and warm with no furniture and few equipment. There were also some new energy tools tested by some of the participants outside the base.

Then we hiked for some few kilometers. We saw the contrast between what the natural beauty and the ugliness and evilness of manmade and civilization in the middle of a neutral place. The serene scene from the rocky mountain top towards the virgin coast where we found elephant seals lying in groups was unbelievable. Between now and then, they look towards us and probably call each other with their elephant’s voice.

The weather became colder and the wind started getting stronger. We took another path heading back to the boats. Such amazing and spectacular views surrounding us. It is really dry in here and look like a desert as back home. Few and small plants grew here and there. I felt annoyed and upset from the bases we saw on our way back. People seem to be living here as if it is their own land. They seem to be experimenting on everything with their huge tools and equipment. They even left their garbage in some places for long time and never bother about taking it away.