Winter Baffin Island 2009 Showing on BBC

It is with great pleasure to announce that my first expedition this year, Winter Baffin 2009 is to be shown on BBC 1 Inside Out on Monday the 7th December at 19.30. It will also be available to view on BBC i player for a limited time after the 7th. Here is a sneak peak for what will be shown.

I am very excited and very proud to have this opportunity to try and show what life is like on a arctic expedition and the changes which have been taking place on Baffin Island. I left the UK on the 21st February arriving in Iqaluit, Baffin Island a few days later, armed with my camcorder and expedition kit. Baffin Island was to be my home for the next 6 weeks, completing a training expedition, living within a Inuit community and filming my solo expedition.

Baffin Island is a very special place to me and one I have been visiting for 3 years. Over a year ago now, I received an alarming email from Inuit friends on Baffin Island explaining that the Auyuittuq National Park (“The Land that Never Melts”), had been devastated by large scale flooding caused by record high temperatures. The photograph below, is one that I received and taken by a park ranger from the air.

This promoted me to return in 2009 and complete a two part project, for my school outreach work. Using technology so that schools could follow my expeditions and ask questions directly to my satellite phone, of which I could then answer with photographs and blog. I would travel through the Auyuittiq National Park during the winter and the summer to document the changes taking place and to live with the Inuit people and help highlight the concerns they have for the future.

For this project to have taken place I would like to thank the following people.

All the staff at Parks Canada
The Royal Geographic Society
The Winston Churchill Memorial Trust
Lizzie Toms (Independent film maker) and the BBC
Josephine and Louise (my summer team mates)

Lastly and by no means least, all the Inuit people of Baffin Island especially Billy Arnaquq and his family from Qikiqtarjuaq. Billy is an outfitter and can organize trips from Qikiqtarjuaq, his email address is billy_arnaquq@qiniq.com

This project has greatly increased my understanding of the natural world and our place within it. One thing is sure, this will not be my last visit to Baffin Island. I am determined to continue developing my outreach work, raising awareness for the changes taking place in the arctic and the concerns of the Inuit.

I am now in my final stages getting ready to return to Baffin Island in early February 2010 before setting off on my scientific expedition to the North Pole. I can’t wait to get back out on expedition, the arctic is truly a beautiful place.

“Dear Antony,

I have learnt through a colleague of your work on education and climate change through expeditions. May I take this opportunity to congratulate you on your innovative approach to education and to encourage you in your aim to inspire and educate children globally about climate change.

I wish you well. Warmly and with a smile,
Vernor Muñoz”

Special Rapporteur on the Right to Education
Human Rights Council
United Nations

Posted 04 December 2009