Sergio Rossi - A Journey in Antarctica: Exploring the Future of the White Continent

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Why are we going to Antarctica? That was the topic of conversation in the cabin of Wolf Arntz, expedition manager of the Polarstern on its 2000 cruise. There were about ten of us gathered on the best scientific icebreaker on the planet, and after an intense day, we had come to that topic because this monster can burn 1,400,000 in diesel during the two-month voyage beyond where anyone goes: the remote confines of Atka Bay, the Larsen area, or Austasen, the icebergs resting place. At the beginning the campaigns were designed to make a rigorous study of the natural resources (fishing, mining, etc.) offered by the white continent, said Arntz, but soon the scientists realized that there was something else there, the opportunity to study a pristine place undisturbed by the hand of man, and fascinating. We each reflected on this point while sipping our Rioja or Priorat.

There are certainly various levels of interest in coming here, said Tom Brey, Arntzs then right-hand man and second-in-command for science. Both men worked at Alfred Wegener Institute, Germanys polar research center, generously endowed with monetary and human capital for polar research. The first level is political, Brey continued. Its important to be here; thats why Germany (which has not openly declared territorial interests like Britain or Argentina) has a research institute, an unrivalled icebreaker ship and a base like Neumayer, an engineering prodigy. But then there started to be other levels of interest, like the fact that this is a unique place where you can study the evolution of species, oceanatmosphere interaction, climate change or the atmospheric chemistry of ozone like nowhere else.

The conversation became lively, and I was aware that the aim far exceeded a whim among scientists to travel to the Antipodes and spend a few days watching penguins. Antarctica is an open book that has not yet received any human impact, stressed my then boss, Josep Maria Gili from the Institute of Marine Sciences of Spains Institute of Marine Sciences (CSIC): The history of the planet is written in its waters and we have to take advantage of it.

When in my thirties I was told that I was going to voyage aboard the Polarstern, none of these ideas crossed my mind. I was simply to have an adventure on which only a few privileged people had the honor to be invited, and I was going to do so on the best polar oceanographic vessel in the world. However, after three expeditions (in 2000, in 2003/04, and in 2011), I felt the need to explain many things to those who have not been and will never go there. I am not an expert on Antarctica (going on three expeditions does not give you that honor; some have worked for more than thirty years on this subject alone), but above all I needed to reply to the skeptics who see the white continent only as a remote place to which privileged people travel to explore the remote corners of the planet.

Science is everybodys heritage, Gili once told me; you owe it to those who pay you. Not all scientists are clear on this, but I am one of those who regard the option of a scientific career as something that is offered by society and, as such, its outcomes should be integrated into it as much as possible. We are neither Dirac nor Marie Curie, and Darwins trajectory can never again be emulated because a solitary, self-absorbed, brilliant scientist isolated from society can no longer be supported. We are obliged to explain what we do, since our work is of little value if we do not transmit it, if we do not externalize it at a level of understanding appropriate to a supermarket manager, a busy cab driver, or a lawyer who is enthusiastic about nature.

There is something more. In these critical times when things are changing so fast, it is a matter of great urgency to explain concepts in a clear, concise, entertaining, and rigorous way. We need to convey to people that we are at a crossroads, also what is happening now and what will happen next. If the location is as remote as Antarctica, we have to make an even greater effort to get that message across to as many people as possible.