Of (Not So) Distant Lands?

Roald Amundsen described Antarctica as 'like a fairytale', while Philip Pullman turned the Arctic into one, with his stories of armoured bears roaming a frozen north. Indeed, it is easy to romanticise the poles, lands of midnight sun or endless night, frozen deserts at the very edges of the Earth. Surely the number of past explorers who have tried - many failing - to reach these regions is testament to the intrigue they hold. Yet despite their distance from us, they are not beyond the reach of mankind, and despite their vastness and apparent invincibility, they are far from being immune to the actions of humanity. In fact, the polar regions are amongst the most rapidly changing on Earth, with the consequences of climate change already visible here. One example of this is the increase in summer ice melt observed on the Antarctic Peninsula (Abram et al., 2013). 

I have long been fascinated by the poles, and through this blog - started as part of my MSc in Climate Change - I hope to explore the impact that mankind is having on these regions, and examine the science behind it. This is a huge field of research, but over the coming weeks I aim to examine each of the main threats currently facing these high-latitude regions, including climate change, exploitation of resources, and pollution, specifically comparing and contrasting the ways in which they are effecting the Arctic and Antarctica. In relation to climate change, I will look at the changes which have already occurred, in addition to those predicted for the future.  

I welcome any comments you have, and look forward to sharing what I find with you. I will now leave you with a video taken from the documentary 'Chasing Ice', showing a calving event in the Ilulissat Glacier, Greenland...beautiful and scary, I shan't say any more. 

Oh, and for those of you who only navigated here to find cute pictures of polar bears, I promise there'll be some of those along the way too!