Arriving in Fairbanks!
I have begun my PolarTREC adventure! I arrived at my hotel in Fairbanks, Alaska last night after traveling for sixteen hours. Fairbanks is a city just about 198 miles south of the Arctic Circle. It was -20 Celsius (-4 Fahrenheit) when I arrived, and there were about two feet of snow on the ground.
This plane hangs over the baggage carousel in the Fairbanks Airport.
After grabbing a few hours of shut-eye, I began my day with the PolarTREC team. There are fifteen teachers here, each of us ready to learn all we can about arctic and antarctic science, working in extreme ecosystems, and climate change. Each of us is going to a different place in Alaska, Russia, Greenland, Chile, Antarctica, or a ship stationed in an ocean near one of those places. Very few people in the world ever go to places so close to the North or South Pole, so we feel very fortunate to have been selected! Each of us has different skills and different experiences that we will bring to our research expeditions. But first, we will get to know one another and all of our many responsibilities here in Alaska.
Second Avenue Fairbanks with snow.
So why am I here, you ask? Why do I want to spend a month of my summer vacation in a tent instead of in my own comfy house? My first answer is that I want to see the world, every bit of it that I can! I want to camp on the tundra, see musk oxen up close (but not too close!), and experience a glacier. These are my selfish reasons. More importantly, I want to do my part to learn about how our planet works and what we, the human race, need to do to keep it healthy. I worry all the time about society's unsustainable waste of natural resources and its careless attitude about this beautiful and diverse planet. Hopefully, my research can be used to help people make good decisions about how they interact with it!