i traveled to “the end of the world” alongside climate leaders from over 36 countries, gathered to learn and connect over climate change mitigation.

to get there, we had to endure the 30-foot waves of the drake’s passage tossing us back and forth with formidable force. but as the ocean calmed, a glacier materialized out of the mist suddenly, jarring us out of our stupor.

the moment was one of pure wonder and elation – bundled up against the wind and snow, everyone sprinkled onto the deck to soak it in together. our first excursion took us out onto antarctic waters, stepping from the sturdy ship into little zodiac boats.

the enormity hit us then. the peace of the place is indescribable. the quiet, unfathomable. the awe and inspiration completely underestimated.

the following days, we experienced honest, raw interactions with the animals and landscapes of the antarctic.

the weather brought us harsh wind, soft snow, blizzarding and radiantly crisp blue skies, sometimes all within a matter of hours. in antarctica, the powerful notion of our planet as a living and breathing ecosystem came through with such strength.

but even immersed in the most untouched, pristine habitat on earth, it wasn’t long until the effects of climate change reached us. in early march, news had spread about a heatwave on the antarctic plateau. the concordia research station in east antarctica measured a temperature record high of -11.8 degrees celsius, 40 degrees above the month’s average. scientists reported they had never seen weather behavior like this in the history of antarctic weather recording. during our expedition, the typical antarctic snow turned to rain. rob shockingly revealed that in the dozens of times he had visited antarctica, this was the first rain he had witnessed.

witnessing climate change firsthand in a place so far away from the human-inhabited world hit me with massive impact. in the face of these monumental problems, it can feel like nothing you can do will make a difference. but as rob reminds us, believing we can’t make a difference or that someone else will instead is the greatest danger of all.

so, what can you do?

climate change is such a complex issue that it can be difficult to know where to begin and what can make the most impact. this is especially true since there are multiple related issues plaguing our environment at the same time, such as plastic pollution, excess waste and habitat destruction. i’ve found that it is easiest to start wherever you can find the greatest sense of fulfillment from your impact. easily implemented but effective changes help break through the barrier to habit change people so often face. when i returned from antarctica, i had more motivation than i’d ever had before. i felt where i could make the most immediate impact in my life was to move toward a less-waste lifestyle.

i swapped out my single-use bath and kitchen supplies for reusable alternatives. now whenever i order food or a drink to go, i bring my own containers or ask if they can serve me with washable dishes rather than plastic ones.

here are some other simple action steps you can take now:

• reduce your use of single-use plastics and swap them for reusable items
• reduce your carbon footprint: limit flights, carpool, bike-ride or walk, etc.
• join community environmental events, such as local clean-ups, climate action campaigns, community gardening events, etc.
• invest your money responsibly around environmental, social and governance (esg)
• make your voice heard by those in power and seek out leadership positions yourself

one of the most important things you can do is talk to others about climate change in your community. have conversations on what you’ve noticed about the climate, share sustainable news and practices that interest you and discuss what the best ways are for you personally to contribute to climate mitigation. this can be the most powerful step of all. conversation is a necessity in creating change in this world. you could talk with your professors and peers about how sustainability plays a role in your area of study and engage with politicians through discussion and voting. the most valuable contribution we can give comes from collaboration: the exchange of ideas big and small, working and creating, together. united, we can make all the difference in the world, for the world.

the impacts of human-caused climate change mean the continent’s most charismatic residents, the emperor penguins, were designated as a threatened species by the u.s. fish and wildlife service in october. the following day, new zealand prime minister jacinda ardern embarked on the five-hour journey south to visit antarctica and emphasize the importance of research and international cooperation amid the climate crisis. 

“antarctic research is urgently needed to understand past and future climates, how we are affecting antarctica, and how antarctica will affect us,” she said in a statement before her trip.

antarctica in crisis

endemic to antarctica, emperor penguins are not located within any country’s sovereign territory. however, their demise is a global problem, as is the preservation of the continent of antarctica. 

new zealand is a key collaborator for the u.s.’s antarctic endeavors. mcmurdo station, the largest u.s. research station on the ice, is located just three miles from new zealand’s scott base. operation deep freeze, u.s. military support missions, are flown out of christchurch, new zealand, during the summer season.

these close logistical relations were evidenced last month, when ardern flew from christchurch to mcmurdo sound on a u.s. air force plane.

the u.s. and new zealand are currently co-funding a study of antarctica’s largest emperor penguin colony. according to the new zealand’s national institute of water and atmospheric research, the ice-based team comprises one new zealander and three americans.

wild emperor penguins rely on sea ice to form breeding colonies, forage for food, and avoid predation. found only on antarctica, their survival is threatened by the extreme effects that human-caused climate change is having on the continent. 

researchers were alarmed in march this year, when temperatures on the antarctic plateau surged 70 degrees warmer than usual at that time of year. the continent’s ice mass is melting at an average rate of about 150 billion tons per year, according to nasa. 

research into the penguin colony is expected to shed light on the rate and extremity of climate change in the area, as well as the impacts on the birds themselves. the penguins’ feeding and habitat changes can be key indicators of the effects of climate change and state of the sea ice, new zealand’s institute said in a statement.

by designating them as “threatened” under the endangered species act, the u.s. fish and wildlife service has recognized that they are likely to become endangered in the near future. 

“this listing reflects the growing extinction crisis and highlights the importance of … efforts to conserve species before population declines become irreversible,” martha williams, director of the u.s. fish and wildlife service, said in a statement.

according to a 2021 report co-authored by experts from the u.s., new zealand and five other countries, the listing will make available a number of the act’s protective measures, even though emperor penguin colonies are not located in u.s. territory.

“esa listing would require all u.s. federal agencies to evaluate and ensure that their activities do not jeopardize the species or their habitat, which could include limiting greenhouse gas emissions for species endangered by climate change,” the report stated.

a remote place, a close connection 

international cooperation is key to understanding and protecting antarctic species as human actions continue to warm the planet. this is managed through the antarctic treaty system, which comprises 55 countries and promotes international cooperation. the u.s. and new zealand are just two of 29 countries with permanent research stations scattered across the continent.

last month’s visit makes ardern the third new zealand prime minister to visit antarctica in 15 years. ardern has a long-held fascination with the area. she is a self-professed super fan of 19th-century antarctic explorer, ernest shackleton, and has even considered getting a tattoo with his silhouette.

speaking from scott base, ardern echoed the strong connection between antarctica and the rest of the world. “it is easy to feel detached from this incredibly remote place where so few people ever have the privilege of coming,” she said. “but there is such a close connection, in so many different fields, between our daily lives and the research that is happening here.”

explorers — nearly all of them men — first sighted antarctica some 200 years ago in 1820 and put up barriers to deter any women who hoped to join them.

in 1914, famed british explorer ernest shackleton told three women his expedition has “no vacancies for the opposite sex,” in what was hardly an isolated incident of discrimination. it took a prolonged struggle, but today, women are a growing presence among the scientists and explorers in antarctica.

one place the evolution of this presence can be seen is at mcmurdo station, the main u.s. research station on the southern continent.

“when i first started going there, it was a military base, so it was highly male,” said brenda hall, a professor and researcher at the university of maine, whose first season in antarctica was in 1990.

mcmurdo was first established as a military outpost, though control was transferred to the national science foundation by 1998. the u.s. navy first allowed a woman biologist — mary alice mcwhinnie — on a research vessel in 1962, but didn’t allow women at the base until 1969. that year, a four-woman team was allowed to research in the mcmurdo dry valleys. since then, integration of women researchers in antarctica has been slow, but steady.

hall’s research, primarily on the paleoclimate clues of glacial history, takes her to many of the rockier parts of the continent, including across the whole length of the transantarctic mountains and to the antarctic peninsula. understanding antarctica’s past is an important factor in interpreting what might lie ahead as the earth’s climate heats up.

“the antarctic ice sheet is the major control on global sea level today, and in the future, most likely,” hall said.

in recent years, one of hall’s students accompanied her to antarctica. she is laura mattas, 23, who went during her junior and senior undergraduate years at the university of maine. mattas started as a field assistant and then became a research assistant, working with hall to use a technique that looks at the quartz on rocks to determine when they were deposited in the terrain—left ice free by a retreating glacier. the isotopes in the quartz act as a time machine that can show a history of glacial melt.

“we like to make maps because it’s a little bit more intuitive and easier to communicate to people who might not be really up to date with our studies,” mattas said.

for the vast majority of the time, hall and mattas remained isolated in the field, at a location that required a helicopter ride to reach. during the time they spent at mcmurdo, the gender ratio at the base was a stark contrast to when they were with their all-female field team.

“when i was on base, it’s very, very male dominated,” mattas said. “i wouldn’t say it was a problem. but i would say that the fact i was a woman did not go unnoticed by the copious amount of men who were, i would say, ‘lonely.’”

but even for someone as young as she was, mattas said she felt her position as a scientist was respected. still, there were times she felt “a little weird,” and in one instance was harassed by construction workers, she said. the majority of the population at mcmurdo aren’t scientists, but support staff, such as construction crews, administrators, pilots, and food service workers.

“all the women on base look out for women on base,” mattas said.

chris carr, another woman scientist who’s spent time at mcmurdo and a ph.d. candidate at the university of alaska fairbanks, echoed mattas’ sentiment that the mcmurdo base provided an uncomfortable environment with men making frequent advancements toward women. she felt this less while at her field locations.

“i haven’t personally had to deal with anything of that nature while i was in the field in antarctica. but you know that it’s there and you know the history of women who’ve been coming there and what they’ve had to deal with, and with being excluded,” carr said.

for carr’s ph.d., she’s studying a dramatic feature of taylor glacier in antarctica called blood falls, a frozen waterfall that’s fed by water from underneath the glacier that has a high brine content. when the iron-rich brine water hits the air outside the glacier, it essentially rusts, giving the falls a reddish sheen.

“for me personally, i’m really interested in what sorts of seismic signals these brine release events might generate, and so i’ve been using some different seismic detection methods to see if we can notice anything unusual at times that brine was coming out of the glacier,” carr said.

mattas and carr are part of a younger and much more diverse generation of polar scientists. according to the scientific committee on antarctic research, the association of polar early career scientists (apecs) had a membership that was 55% female in 2018.

carr is a board member of the usapecs, the united states branch of the organization. the group helps scientists early on in their careers studying the arctic or antarctic network and find resources.

usapecs is also taking steps with the intention of supporting underrepresented groups in polar research, including women but going beyond just women. later in an email statement, carr explained that the organization hosted a diversity and inclusion panel, is working to make its website more screen-reader friendly and is actively reaching out to indigenous researchers and policymakers for the website’s blog, owing to the fact that almost all arctic research is done on indigenous land.

marilyn raphael, chair of the antarctic sea ice processes and climate group (aspect), thinks a key to improving representation in the sciences is having scientists visible in the field who younger people can look to and see they look like them.

“women see other women doing science in this area, and they think they can do it too,” raphael said.

she explained that this applies not only to women, but all underrepresented groups. raphael, a black woman who is originally from trinidad and tobago, is currently a professor at the university of california los angeles. this position means she’s often one of those people visible to minority students looking to see themselves in the sciences.

raphael works to diversify the next generation of scientists through this role, as well as with her other work. she will sometimes reach out to apecs when in search of a junior scientist for a position and encourage people of underrepresented groups to apply.

while this diversity work is important to raphael, ultimately, she says she is a scientist, and generally doesn’t see the need to make a distinction about her race or gender.

“when you say ‘scientist’ it should mean everybody,” raphael said, referring to the fact that additional descriptors such as “woman” or “black” are often unnecessary.

when it comes to her antarctic work, she focuses on how sea ice and the atmosphere affect each other. raphael enjoys linking observations to find patterns, but her methods don’t necessarily take her all the way to the south pole.

“i don’t do the observations, satellites do the observations,” raphael said.

for some, getting more women to antarctica isn’t just the goal, but a step on the way.

homeward bound, an australian-based initiative, is designed to “heighten the influence and impact of women in making decisions that shape our planet,” according to the website. starting in 2016, the program has taken around 100 women in stemm (science, technology, engineering, math and medicine) every year on a voyage to antarctica, teaching them leadership skills along the way. the program focuses on a handful of core principles, called streams, such as ‘science’ or ‘visibility.’

though they were forced to move this year’s event online due to the ongoing pandemic, the ultimate goal of homeward bound remains to create a network of 1,000 women in ten years with strong leadership skills to diversify global leadership positions.

joanna young is a postdoctoral researcher at the university of alaska fairbanks. her studies focus on the glaciers in alaska and how their presence and accelerating melt affects the communities nearby. young has never researched in antarctica, but was a part of homeward bound’s first cohort of participants in 2016.

though young said it was a wonderful experience, she wished there had been more of a focus on systemic issues women face, rather than on individual transformation.

“i think there was a little bit of discord between what the, maybe, lead faculty members, who were leading the program were delivering versus what participants expected they might get out of the program,” young said.

in an email statement, homeward bound communications manager louise johnson explained that the organization believes building leadership and collaboration skills is needed to deal with the problems facing the planet.

“the program has changed in many ways since the first voyage, with intensive feedback from participants incorporated into every stream, including the addition of a ‘wellbeing’ stream that runs online and onboard,” johnson said.

additionally, in 2019 women from three of the homeward bound cohorts worked together to publish a research paper identifying barriers facing women in stemm. implicit biases, discouragement from studying stemm and lower salaries and retention rates for women relative to men in their fields are a few of the numerous obstacles they found hindering women on these career paths.

young thought that there were likely many reasons antarctica was chosen as homeward bound’s destination.

“i think that one was to just provide a really inspiring once-in-a-lifetime experience for a lot of the women on the ship, especially those who don’t work in polar sciences,” young said.

she also mentioned that because antarctica is a place where the effects of climate change can already be seen, so some of their learning was centered around that. and then, of course, there’s the ever-present antarctic glass (or perhaps ice) ceiling, with its cracks widening every day.

“sending a ship full of women to that place is kind of a way to subvert or challenge that notion of antarctica being a place where only men go,” young said.

i hadn’t heard of this possibility until recently. on my first night of a recent antarctic voyage, expedition leader robert gilmore gave us passengers a unique opportunity: as citizen scientists, we could participate in real, cutting edge research in fields such as marine biology and meteorology.

one of the projects gilmore mentioned specifically caught my attention: fjordphyto, based in the scripps institute of oceanography in san diego. allison lee, the project operations manager, is a second-year ph.d. candidate at scripps. the research team is investigating the impact of climate change-driven glacial melt on the influence of phytoplankton communities. phytoplankton are a key species in the antarctic, lee explains, as they are the main food source of krill, which feed nearly all antarctic megafauna (and  their prey) including whales, seals, and penguins. “globally diatoms are said to produce nearly 20% of earth’s oxygen!” she said with emphasis, implying that changing these communities can have spillover effects in regions beyond the antarctic. i was fascinated that something so microscopic foreshadowed big changes happening in the earth’s oceans.

lee and gilmore both belong to the polar citizen science collective (pcsc). gilmore explains that pcsc members work with polar scientists and tourism companies to create a productive and educational combination of data collection and citizen science participation. he furthers: “the pscs effectively design(s) programs that eliminate collector bias, while also streamlining the process so as not to infringe on the tourism’s regular operations schedule.” polar research is difficult and expensive to conduct, so the pcsc was formed when a group of polar guides, including gilmore, had the idea of helping scientists conducting research in the western antarctic peninsula (wap).

the program, which has been implemented on cruise ships like the one i traveled on, has seen success from both the scientists’ and tourists’ perspectives. “(we’ve shown) scientists that we can contribute directly to their investigations by taking accurate, detailed, and valuable data sets for them” gilmore explains, “(while) creating educated, motivated people that will be returning home with a message for their friends and family.” this is one of the greatest benefits of citizen science, as people re-discover that sense of wonder regarding the natural world that they might have lost over the years.

i asked lee about her fondest memory regarding citizen science, and she recalls a moment after collecting samples in a zodiac where a man came up to her and said: “i’m an entrepreneur and i’ve owned a lot of businesses. i came to antarctica feeling like it was the last place on earth i could search for inspiration in my life. doing this fjordphyto project i felt for the first time in my life that spark of childlike curiosity.”

gilmore has a similar experience as a polar guide, describing that his most impactful memory with the pcsc is seeing the “light-bulb moment” in a passenger: when they begin to become more engaged with a topic or issue, and start to ask more questions.

most of us don’t have enough background information to fully conduct our own experiments in meteorology, zoology, or geology — and that’s ok. what we all can do is do our best to preserve our sense of wonder and curiosity. we can always be open to learning about new experiences and information.

i’ve always been fascinated by the ability of the right presentation and narrative to capture someone’s attention: i’ve learned about phytoplankton in a few science classes, but before boarding this ship, i never thought twice about them. but after my experience learning about the fjordphyto project, i’ve done extensive research — and obviously felt compelled to share the story with others.

i asked gilmore how he manages to engage passengers without extensive background information on marine biology on topics like trophic levels and phytoplankton blooms.

he recommends an educator build their lesson or curriculum around painting a larger picture: “you don’t want to go too deep into the science… convey the information that is most important for them to go home with.” and that way, you focus on your audience understanding, which is the most important thing.

“treat them like you would your own family,” he said.

when we talk to our family members, we want them to understand and care about what we’re doing and why we’re doing it — not just give them a set of facts to memorize. this is where science education goes wrong, i think. we don’t teach to understand, and students don’t learn to understand either.

we can all learn from this experience — both scientists and ordinary citizens. plus, crowdsourcing data collection makes conducting projects easier and more affordable. lee mentions that citizen science is incredibly useful in many areas of data collection, including geographic scope and duration. additionally, involving the general public in projects is great for increasing scientific literacy, and providing more educated and involved populations overall.

for citizens, getting involved in science is as simple as observation. it’s never too late, and it doesn’t have to be boring or difficult.

“we all have a responsibility to understand and protect our last remaining wild places,” gilmore said. “and we all have the capability to make a difference.”