Pax Arctica Initiative
What is the Pax Arctica Initiative?
The Pax Arctica Initiative was created to promote awareness of the threats facing the Arctic regions, to convey a global message of peace and to support the introduction of new ecological regulations for the Arctic region. Luc Hardy is the leader of the Initiative, he is and adventurer, author, and member of the Explorers Club. Graduated from Centrale Paris, he is president of Sagax, a US-based investment and management advisory firm.
Luc Hardy is also the author of two books reporting facts and photos from his extreme expeditions.
Click on the chosen image to preview/buy the book
THE EXPEDITIONS
Pax Arctica 2011
Pax Arctica North Pole 2011
Luc Hardy has led several expeditions in the Arctic and polar regions, which gave us impressions of an unknown world. This year again an expedition is planned in partnership with Green Cross International, Pax Arctica - North Pole Expedition 2011. Luc Hardy, Guillaume Cuvelier, Jeff Wieland, Christophe and Alexandre Laurent and their guide Francois Bernard (Ben) will be the witnesses of the newest changes in that region, from the Arctic Circle to the actual North Pole.
Planning:
Day 1 to 3:
- Longyearbeen to Barneo
- Preparation of the sledges
Day 4 to 10:
- Beginning of the raid to the North Pole
- Each participant pulls his pulka (a 100lbs sledge) with his own and collective equipment
Objective:
* Meet our local partners
Soon: Other information about the objectives.
Meeting with Scientists:
Jamie Morison - Principal Oceanographer and Affiliate Professor, Oceanography - University of Washington
Member of the Polar Science Center
Dr. Morison's main focus centers on the study of environmental change in the Arctic. He heads the project office for the multi-government agencies' Study of Environmental Arctic Change program (SEARCH). In addition, he has spent the last three springs in the vicinity of the North Pole directing hydrographic analysis of ocean conditions for the North Pole Environmental Observatory program. Another aspect of his research has used autonomous underwater vehicles to study turbulent vertical velocity and fluxes of heat and salt in the Arctic Ocean. He also served as U. W. Representative to the Arctic Research Consortium of the United States, 1995-97; member ASA/NSF Antarctic Research Vessel Oversight Committee, 1995-98; member ARCUS Logistics Working Group, 1997-98; member NSF-Office of Polar Program Advisory Committee, 1997-99; member Polar Research Board of the National Academy of Scientists, 1997-2000.
In 2000, Jamie Morison and the team of researchers intalled webcams on instruments settled at the North Pole. Since that date, the webcams send images but with the onset of winter snow, ice and darkness, the solar-powered North Pole web cams are no longer transmitting images. Deployment of new web cams is planned for Spring 2011.
Here are some highlights of the year 2010 at the North Pole.
Pax Arctica 2009
Pax Arctica Himalayas 2009
Objective:
In partnership with Green Cross International,Pax Arctica is once again bringing a team of Young Ambassadors to witness changes in global climate. This summer our team is heading to Nepal to witness changes in lakes and glaciers in the Hinku region, just south of Mt. Everest. The expedition is made in collaboration with IRD—LTHE (L'Institut de recherche pour le développement (IRD) - Laboratoire de Glaciologie et Géophysique de l'Environnement (LGGE-Grenoble) and Department of Hydrology and Meteorology (DHM) - Kathmandu University –Nepal.
The objectives of this field trip are:
• Meet our local partner, the Department of Hydrology and Meteorology (DHM –Kathmandu)
• Contribute field data to the following larger IRD-DHM ongoing project:
- Monitoring of glacier for mass balance, energy balance and hydrology
- Monitoring a glacier on a long-term basis has mainly three goals in the Himalayas: I. to study the evolution of glaciers and the climate change in remote and high-altitude places of the Himalayas, II. to study the water resources available from glaciers and their future changes and III. to assess the glacial hazards linked to present glacier shrinkage.
• Making an inventory of potential dangerous proglacial lakes (GLOFs – Glacial Lakes Outburst Floods) in the Hinku region.
• Help define strategies to conduct glaciological research in partnership in Nepal.
In Hinku valley we will observe Sabai Tsho lake (above Tangnag): the lake incurred an outburst on Sept. 1, 1998, which destroyed part of Tangnag, and the down valley until Khote and downstream
.
What Will We Do?
•Estimate altitude of snow line in region
–GPS + photos
•To study the glacier mass balance, a network of ablation stakes has been installed in 2007 and 2008 using a drill machine. Stakes are 8-10m long (4 or 5 2-m bamboo pieces linked with a metallic wire).
•Measure emergence of stakes on glaciers:
–year of stakes installation
–measure height of snow on top of ice
–measure emerged portion of stakes
–GPS localization of stakes
Mera Glacier:
Map of the glacier showing ablation stakes (red) and accumulation stakes (blue)
ande
Ablation stakes on Mera glacier
Climate Change – Himalayans Glaciers:
• Himalayan glaciers feed into seven of Asia's greatest rivers, the Ganges, Indus, Brahmaputra, Salween, Mekong, Yangtze and Huange He. They supply water to about 40 per cent of the world’s population
• The glaciers of the Himalayas store more ice than anywhere on Earth except for the polar regions and Alaska
• Himalayan glaciers are receding 10-15 m per year on average - the rate is accelerating as global warming increases
• Glaciers in the Himalayas are receding faster than in any other part of the world and, if the present rate continues, the likelihood of them disappearing by the year 2035 and perhaps sooner is very high if the Earth keeps getting warmer at the current rate
• The rapid melting of Himalayan glaciers will first increase the volume of water in rivers causing, widespread flooding
• But in a few decades this situation will change and the water levels in rivers will decline, meaning massive economic and environmental problems for people in western China, Nepal and Northern India
• This will eventually result in water shortages for hundreds of millions of people who rely on glacier-dependent rivers in China, India and Nepal
• As the glaciers recede, lakes on the Tibetan Plateau are rising steadily, and experts foresee floods, landslides and mudflows from mountain lakes overrunning their banks.
Source: WWF, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
Science:
The group of environmental advocates and children that Pax Arctica is leading:
- will interact with European and Nepalese scientists
- with the goal of exploring the region and contributing field data
- to help with the assessment of the conditions of glaciers and lake in the Himalayas region
Patrick Wagnon and Yves Arnaud: Glaciologists, energy balance on glaciers
Pierre Chevallier: Hydrologist
IRD- LTHE (L'Institut de recherche pour le développement (IRD) - Laboratoire de Glaciologie et Géophysique de l'Environnement (LGGE-Grenoble)
A scientific program conducted in collaboration with the DHM in Kathmandu (Department of Hydrology and Meteorology) lead by
Dr. Om Baratchraya and Dr. Rijan Bhakta Kayastha
Department of Hydrology and Meteorology (DHM)
Kathmandu University - Dhulikhel, Kavre
http://www.ku.edu.np/env/Brief_CV-Rijan.doc
Scientific References:
• The world glaciers observatory, coordinated by Patrick Wagnon:
http://www-lgge.ujf-grenoble.fr/ServiceObs/index.htm
• for a similar study conducted in India:
Wagnon, P ., R. Kumar, Y. Arnaud, A. Linda, P. Sharma, C. Vincent, J.
Pottakal, E. Berthier, A. Ramanathan, S.I; Hasnain & P. Chevallier,
Four years of mass balance of Chhota Shigri glacier (Himachal Pradesh,
India), a new benchmark glacier in western Himalaya, J. Glaciolology.,
2007
• for an article in LA RECHERCHE (juillet 2008):
Wagnon, Chevallier, Arnaud, la goutte d’eau perdue des glaciers himalayens
Pax Arctica 2008
Pax Arctica Greenland 2008
July 2008
Pax Arctica is a three year strategic initiative designed to alert public opinion of critical environmental issues that endanger the Artic region. Sagax Expeditions, in association with Green Cross, is organizing a 3-year program of theme-centered expeditions involving young people in the arctic and in the sub-arctic regions. The first modular mission took place in the Nunavut state of Canada from the South to the extreme North of the region
Pax Arctica's destinations:
- Iqualuit
- The Soper River
- Resolute Bay
- Cunningham Inlet
- Beechey Island
- Otto Fjord
- Ward Hunt Island
- Eureka
- Radstock Bay
Goals:
The main objective has been to bring nine children to the Arctic to participate in data gathering for scientific projects linked to five 5 broad themes: climate, mineral resources including oil, transportation, culture and biodiversity. We will be traveling through the Northwest passage, the magnetic North pole region and within various pockets of Inuit communities.
Just as in 1990 when Captain Cousteau traveled to Antarctica with six children to claim the land of ice for future generations. Today we will prove once again that young people can join together and commit themselves to the peace and the protection of the Arctic for the future. The Pax Arctica Initiative will convey a political, philosophical and ethical message for the regulation of the potential exploitation of mineral resources in the Arctic. Our goal is to protect the safety of its exceptional and fragile environment and help guarantee its viability as a home to local populations.
Expedition Route :
