Bandra girl near Arctic cites effects of climate change
Bandra girl near Arctic cites effects of climate change
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With polar bears for company and ringed seals as part of the landscape, it's not surprising that Mumbai girl Faye Lewis can't sleep. Lewis is on board the Greenpeace ship, The Arctic Sunrise, stationed near the Petermann Glacier, one of Greenland's largest and most northerly glaciers near the Arctic.u00a0u00a0
The 29-year-old Bandra resident is part of a team of scientists and experts in ice logistics, intending to document the ongoing disintegration of the Petermann Glacier. Satellite images show that an expanse larger than New York's Manhattan island is ready to break off from the glacier. This three-month expedition, ending September, is to gather climate change data for the Copenhagen climate summit in December 2009.Lewis, who has been sailing for five years now, wrote in her first-hand account, "Petermann Glacier is stunning.
I feel like I'm on the moon or a desert, it's all so white. My duties include maintenance of the ship's hull, decks and superstructure, as well as mooring, cargo handling, watch keeping, and driving the Greenpeace rigid inflatable boats (RHIBs)."
She adds, "The sun never sets here. It's 24-hours daylight. It's hard to sleep because you don't know what you'd miss, a polar bear might come by, or ringed seals, or black guillemots (equivalent to penguins) flying by with their whirling wings and little red feet." As annual sea ice recedes and melts, polar bears are having an increasingly difficult time finding food, especially seals. They end up approaching villages in search of nourishment, presenting a danger to the locals and themselves.
"I hope that the ice becomes thick enough so polar bears continue roaming the icepack, and people can take their dog sleds out and fish again. As the ice has become so thin, some hunters are forced to let their sled dogs starve to death, since they can't provide them with the seals and fish they need to eat."
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