Around the world in a thousand cities the lights went out.  Sydney Opera House, the Eiffel Tower and the Beijing Olympic Stadium were among the iconic landmarks that joined WWF’s Earth Hour, to raise awareness of the environmental impact of global warming.  Pen Hadow led the countdown, watched by a billion people worldwide, to a global switch off at 2030 GMT on Saturday.

It was daylight for Pen, Martin and Ann who are working eight hours and forty minutes behind GMT to maximise the use of light in the far, far north.  But they were with us in spirit and later in their day, turned off their torches an hour early before crawling into their sleeping bags.

Less than 48 hours later, the UK Environment Agency published its Strategy Report into water supplies over the next 50 years, projecting that water is likely to be at a premium in many areas of the UK as a result of climate change.

It’s the knowledge that global warming will ultimately affect us all that has motivated the Ice Team to undertake such a demanding challenge to collect data for the scientific community.  The Arctic environment they know appears to be changing rapidly and capturing information for scientists seeking to understand what is going on there is all the inspiration they need.  

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In environmental terms, the Arctic is a barometer for what’s happening elsewhere in the world.  The experiments being carried out by the Ice Team have been commissioned by scientists who are experts in the field. 

“We’ve known for some years that the arctic ice cap is thinning”, explains Michael Gorman, Emeritus Associate at the Scott Polar Research Institute at the University of Cambridge.  “But it was generally accepted that ice would remain in the region all year round for at least a century.  In recent years, however, scientists like me have reviewed that estimate.  We believe the arctic summer ice could disappear in a matter of years”

Gorman, who designed the specialist equipment employed by the Ice Team, says the implications of the arctic ice disappearing in summer are huge.

“In some ways, it could be seen as a positive,” he says.  “It will open a shipping channel across the top of the earth.  But imagine how that could also lead to exploitation in an area known to be oil rich, that has previously been inaccessible”.