{"id":348,"date":"2012-02-07T16:23:16","date_gmt":"2012-02-07T21:23:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/2012\/02\/07\/a-journey-to-the-poles\/"},"modified":"2022-11-08T13:37:48","modified_gmt":"2022-11-08T18:37:48","slug":"a-journey-to-the-poles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/a-journey-to-the-poles\/","title":{"rendered":"A journey to the poles"},"content":{"rendered":"

FEBRUARY 7, 2012
\nby Shannice Singletary \u201914, Contributing Writer<\/p>\n

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then Eric Larsen\u2019s presentation last Thursday on climate change spoke volumes.<\/p>\n

Larsen, a polar explorer, told his story through a series of images that, he said, illustrated the growing impact of climate change. Many of the photos were of snowy landscapes in the most remote and desolate corners of the earth.<\/p>\n

The presentation, \u201cInto the Heart of Cold,\u201d was part of the Davis Sustainability Speaker Series and was developed to raise awareness about global climate change.<\/p>\n

Larsen used his 365-day journey across snow and ice to entertain and enlighten an audience of about 75. His journey carried him to\u00a0both poles and across the\u00a0Arctic, then\u00a0ended at\u00a0Mount Everest —\u00a0all to make a point. And that point, he said, is that global warming is real.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reality is our climate is changing, and it\u2019s due to people,\u201d he said. \u201cI traveled to prove that climate change is real. We may not see the effects, but it\u2019s real, and global warming is human-caused.\u201d<\/p>\n

Larsen displayed images of himself leaping across ruptured and splitting ice, scaling glaciers, and swimming through half-frozen streams — all\u00a0testaments to a constantly shifting landscape. This outcome is mostly due to what Larsen said is the human emission of fossil fuels.<\/p>\n

Larsen and his team traveled more than 600 miles on foot, using skis and pulling modified canoes. The journey, funded through the Save the Poles Project, is chronicled on the Web<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Throughout his travels Larsen overcame self-doubt, fear and worry, and found\u00a0the strength to carry on when he felt like giving up.<\/p>\n

\u201cI call it day-40 syndrome,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen you\u2019re out there you start to think of what you don\u2019t have, and you get overwhelmed. Then I get into this Zen place and whatever happens, happens. The calmness gets you through the physical and mental crux.\u201d<\/p>\n

Larsen said he found\u00a0strength\u00a0through his teammates and the quote, \u201cNo one of us is as strong as all of us.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFor so much of this trip people told me I couldn\u2019t do it, that it was impossible,\u201d he said. \u201cI realized that the important part was the story [and]\u00a0my ability to show people what I was seeing:\u00a0climate change is because of us.\u201d<\/p>\n

He ended his speech with a heartfelt call to action and a reminder that despite the seemingly insurmountable odds, we can each overcome our\u00a0doubts and insecurities and make a change.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a big problem,\u201d he said, \u201ca faraway goal with many seemingly impossible parts. But I\u2019ve learned that it begins with one step. And that [one step] can be overwhelming, but when you do make it, it has the ability to make a dramatic change. We\u2019re all average people capable of wonderful things.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

FEBRUARY 7, 2012
\nby Shannice Singletary \u201914, Contributing Writer<\/p>\n

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then Eric Larsen\u2019s presentation last Thursday on climate change spoke volumes. Larsen, a polar explorer, told his story through a series of images that, he said, illustrates the growing impact of climate change.\u00a0 Many of the photos were of snowy landscapes in the most remote and desolate corners of the earth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":265,"featured_media":349,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,17,37,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-348","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academic-department-page","category-centers-and-institutes","category-earth-environmental-and-sustainability-sciences","category-shi-institute-for-sustainable-communities"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/265"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=348"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/349"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=348"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=348"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=348"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}