IPY-460 - Cape Farewell, science, education and culture of climate change

In September-October 2007 Cape Farewell is planning two expeditions in the High Arctic. The first expedition is part of Cape Farewell's Education Programme for 2007-2009. Setting off on September 16th a youth team of 12 from schools throughout England and the USA/Canada, accompanied by scientists, teachers, artists and media crew sail aboard the Noorderlicht from Longyearbyen to the science station at Ny Alesund to participate in a week long scientific survey and artistic creation, both exploring how climate change has effected the Northern Arctic and communicating this information live through media broadcasts to schools in the UK and USA. The youth team will be recreating Prince Albert of Monaco's experiments in the Arctic from 1906 and updating his documentation. They will also be studying glacial surge and melt, ice records of CO2, biodiversity and the human impact on climate change. Cape Farewell will work with schools prior to the voyage and select the youth team through this participatory process. Following the expedition, cross-curricular resources will be developed for use in schools nationwide in the UK, US and Canada. The second expedition from September 23rd will see a core team of ocean scientists from the National Oceanography Centre and USA, artists and filmmakers set sail aboard the Noorderlicht to traverse the North Atlantic on the 79.5 parallel. Real data of temperature and salinity will be recorded and fed into the RAPID investigation. The crew then will attempt to land on the Eastern coast of Greenland before sailing south on this now ice-free coast to the Fjord of Scorsby Sund. This journey south will be at the edge of the capabilities of a sailing vessel and the arts, media and science crew will have the opportunity to explore uncharted territories and assess the changes caused by climate change. Art works will be inspired, oceanography experiments conducted and all filmed for media release. This will be an expedition of communication allowing a worldwide audience live contact with the crew and involving them in the crew's real time physical experience of climate change. Cape Farewell has an established track record of innovation, education and communication from the Arctic and this expedition will be the most ambitious and far reaching yet undertaken. It will have a real international focus, involving scientists, artists, and audience worldwide on what is a global issue, climate change. Surrounding these expeditions Cape Farewell has a full programme of art and cultural events planned, all of which are linked to and involve the scientific community. Cape Farewell is at the heart of a network named Tipping Point which so far has run two very successful two day conferences bringing some of the UK''s best artists and climate scientists together to discuss ways of approaching and tackling climate change. Further conferences are planned and an expanded programme is under discussion. Representatives from abroad have also attended the Tipping Point conferences, eg. Prof. John Schellnhuber, and it is the ambition of Tipping Point to involve greater numbers of international artists and scientists in future conferences, possibly holding these overseas, e.g. in the States (Yale as a potential venue) and China. The next Tipping Point conference will be held at the South Bank Centre London (SBC) in Spring 2007. Cape Farewell has been invited to work from the South Bank Centre in 2007 and into 2008 and 09. Located on the South Bank, Cape Farewell will be presenting a series of art events at the SBC in 2007, including the launch of our youth expedition team along the Thames River in September. Cape Farewell will also be presenting art events at the Eden Project Cornwall at the time of the expeditions and in 2007 and 08 Cape Farewell, in partnership with the British Council will be touring already existing artworks internationally, to North and South America, Asia and Europe. Cape Farewell is also developing an arts collaboration with the Exploratorium in San Francisco. This programme of activity means that around the two expeditions is much that will support and strengthen the international reach of Cape Farewell's proposed IPY project maximising exposure and heightening awareness of the art/science initiative in the Arctic and its focus on climate change.