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Arctic
Environmental Survey Photography
in the Arctic
As head of Photography and Videography, Martin Hartley is
one of the world's leading expedition photographers and has
worked in some of the most challenging places on earth. He
has 10 expeditions to the Arctic and the Antarctic under his
belt. He is a regular contributor to National Geographic and
has held three exhibitions of his work in recent years. He
is a regular winner of the Travel Photographer of the Year
competition.
Martin has been receiving treatment at Putney Chiropractic
over the last six months in the lead up to Martins latest
big challenge. We are doing our part to help the expedition
to help the world by ensuring Martin is physically capable
of making the trek to the North Pole feeling strong.
The aim of the expedition is to measure the thickness of the
Polar ice cap and assess how it has been affected by global
warming. Good luck Martin.
Vanco Arctic Survey Expedition
Martin will join Britain's most famous arctic explorer Pen
Hadow. It is hoped that this major scientific survey of Arctic
ice cap thickness will be a wake up call for world leaders
on the real speed of global climate change.
Pen Hadow’s Vanco Arctic Survey will capture the most detailed
and accurate data ever recorded of its thickness and enable
scientists to predict more precisely than ever before when
the North Pole ice cap will cease to be a yearround global
feature.
Their conclusions will assist governments throughout the world
to prepare for the consequences of its meltdown. “The only
way to accurately gauge the current thickness of the polar
ice cap is to physically go out there and measure it on the
surface to supply crucial data that can’t be recorded by submarine
or satellite,“ Pen Hadow says. “Our endeavour is a partnership
between explorers and scientists and will be a major contribution
to really understanding what is happening to the North Pole
ice cap.”
Current predictions for the melting of the ice cap vary wildly,
from 100, to just 16, years from now. The ice cap is receding
by over 300,000 square kilometres every year (an area the
size of Poland, Italy, the Philippines or the United Kingdom
and greater than the size of California) because of global
warming. It is also feared to be thinning rapidly.
The disappearance of the permanent ice cap will cause accelerated
climate change, rising sea levels, and even geo-political
conflicts over resources which will affect almost every region
of the world.
Setting out February, 2008, the Vanco Arctic Survey team -
comprising Hadow, leading polar explorer Ann Daniels, and
specialist Arctic photographer Martin Hartley - will undertake
a 120 day, 2000km crossing of the ice cap in temperatures
as low as minus 50ºC. The survey team will depart from Point
Barrow, Alaska, pulling ‘sledgeboats’, and on occasions even
swimming across stretches of open water, reaching the North
Geographic Pole in June.
“By measuring this third – thickness - dimension along the
2,000 kilometre transect, we hope to provide oceanographers
and climatologists with the data they need to better predict
when, in the summer months, the Arctic will be totally free
of ice.”
Respond and adapt
Reflecting on the importance of the survey Pen Hadow said:
“It is a sad thought that for all the children born on the
day we start our journey, there may be no permanent ice cap
at the North Pole by the time they become adults.” “If we
discover the North Pole ice cap really is melting as fast
as some experts fear, this survey will provide a decisive
wake-up call for political leaders everywhere to take the
urgent steps needed to prepare us all for the global consequences
of North Pole ice cap meltdown,” claimed Hadow.
“All these phenomena will happen,” said Hadow, “so it is critical
that we know when, so that we can start to respond and adapt
appropriately.”
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