National Geographic Traveller - UK (2020-07 & 2020-08)

OF ALL MY POLAR EXPEDITIONS, THE

ONE THAT HAD THE MOST PROFOUND

EFFECT ON MY WORLD VIEW WAS MY

2018 TRIP TO THE ARCTIC. There isn’t a

‘hypothetical impact’ of climate change

— this is something that’s happening

now. It’s our history. Skiing to the North

Pole won’t be possible in about five years’

time. The first time someone crossed

the surface ocean to stand on the pole,

having got there on two feet, was in 1969.

In the space of a little over 50 years, we’ll

have gone from the first to the last.

MY REASON FOR WANTING TO KEEP

RETURNING TO THE POLES IS TO COLLECT

DATA. I’ll go back to the Arctic with

another team of women in 2022; we’ll

be among the last humans to get out on

high-latitude ocean sea ice. The world

relies heavily on computer models to

predict future scenarios, and those are

only as good as the data we can collect.

HUMANS ARE VULNERABLE TO THE

FORCES OF NATURE. When you’re out

there standing on the ice, it brings home

how inconsequential we are. I don’t

just mean the power of sea ice or ocean

currents but, say, the magnetic fields

that cause Aurora Borealis and Australis.

When you witness that one sunrise a year

in Antarctica, or when you’re in Siberia

and it’s -60C and you see materials like

rubber become as pliable as clay, you

realise most humans have a very limited

vision of our existence.

WE’RE A TINY SPECK IN THE UNIVERSE,

BUT WE PUNCH ABOVE OUR WEIGHT.

Humans achieve incredible things and

it gives me hope for our planet. I believe

we’ll help ourselves through science and

human spirit. We’re clever enough, and

we should be smart enough.

SOMETIMES IT’S ALL ABOUT WONDER,

NOT SCIENCE. I’m well versed in the

science of the Northern Lights, but

when you’re beneath them, it’s hard

to believe they’re anything other than

magic. All those folktales you hear

about them being created by a celestial

fox brushing the sky with its tail, or the

souls of the dead playing football with

the skull of a walrus — out there, under

the endless sky, these make so much

more sense than particles coming down

a magnetic field.

Felicity Aston MBE is a polar explorer. She’ll

be concluding her Royal Geographical

Society speaking tour, Polar Exposure:

The Women’s Euro-Arabian North Pole

Expedition, in November and December

2020. felicityaston.co.uk

“ The vanishing of the

world’s sea ice? It’s a

story that still needs to

be told.”

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Emperor penguins at Snow

Hill Island, Antarctica

IMAGE: GETTY

THIS MUCH I KNOW

FELICITY ASTON

POLAR REGIONS

80 nationalgeographic.co.uk/travel

THE POWER OF PLACE