The experience of the author was amazing, alluring and mind- boggling. He was amazed to see the white stretch of sea under the blue horizon. It was a little bit odd to see a place without any human markers, but it was also thrilling to know that we were in a place which has the history of the mankind embedded deep into the layers of the ice. It was a great experience to walk on the frozen sea. To know that we were walking on a metre thick snow layers, under which there is a one hundred and eighty metre deep sea. It was an awe-striking experience. The experience was like walking on a ping-pong ball. It was great to see crabeaters and seals around. In the periphery, crabeater seals were stretching and sunning themselves on the floes much like stray dogs sitting under the shade of a banyan tree. The sight of collapsing ice–shields, breaking of ice-bergs and melting of ice was an eye-opener. It made the author and his team aware of the dangers the future times are having in their folds.

A Visit to the End of the World

Antarctica: 10th May 2008 By Priyanka Mittal

It will remain an awe-inspiring event in my life to have a visit to Antarctica in the company of 25 students. The programme was sponsored by M.D. University. The journey began from Chennai by crossing nine time zones, six check points, three bodies of water and at least as many eco-spheres. It was a 100 hours journey. When we reached there the atmosphere was the coldest, driest and windiest. It was a long day of 24 hours. It was learnt that 650 million years ago, there existed a giant southern supercontinent called Gondwana. For 500 million years Gondwana flourished and the landmass was forced to separate into continents. Our country is the part and parcel of this continent. The place was devoid of human markers-no trees, bill-boards and buildings. There were microscopic insects like widges, mites and mighty whales. The ice bergs were as big as countries like Belgium. Antarctica is a perfect place to know how little changes in the environment can have big consequence. Before turning back we wedged into a thick white stretch of frozen ice. It was stark whiteness that seemed to spread out forever. Under our feet was a metre thick ice pack and before that was 180 feet metres of salt water with sea-life. It was a rare-experience.

Six hundred and fifty million years ago there was no life except a giant southern super-continent named Gondwana. Things were quite different and the climate was much warmer. It had a variety of flora and fauna. Gondwana thrived for 500 million years. Finally it broke into separate countries as they exist today. It was the time when dinosaurs were wiped out and the mammals got under way. Thus Gondwana centred around roughly the present day Antarctica.

In case we visit Antarctica, we can realise where we have come from and where we could possibly be leading. It is to understand the significance of Cardilleran folds and pre-Cambrian granite shields, ozone and carbon, evolution and extinction. Thus, geological phenomena help us to know about the history of mankind. Due to geological changes, India pushed northward and formed the Himalayas. South America drifted off to join North America. The melting of polar ice caps can tell us where possibly we are heading to.

Tips: -

M. Imp.

Human civilisations have been around for a paltry 12,000 years. People have dominated over nature and thereby villages, towns, cities and mega-cities have cropped up. The resources are limited but our human population has increased rapidly. So we are battling with other species for the limited resources. Hence a great depletion of resources is underway. Further the burning of fossil fuels and pollution have created a blanket of carbon-dioxide around the world. Thus, our tenacy on this earth is shortening day by day.

There is a long controversy over the environmental changes. The global temperature is increasing. The ice-caps and the glaciers are melting. There is every likelihood of overflooding in the ocean. On the earth and in between the nature, we are bent upon decaying the ecological balance through deforestation. Many species of forest have become extinct. Thus there is a great danger of human survival. Our future is quite bleak and the scientists are warning us about all these dangers and changes in the environment. If this goes on at a rapid speed, the day is not far when the nature will swallow the human beings.

“Students on Ice” is a very fine programme headed by a Canadian young man named Geoff Green. It is an educational expedition on the Antarctica. In the beginning, he used to involve the celebrities and the retired rich people to take them to the Antarctica and make them aware of the dangers which our future generations are likely to face. It was to show them how the human beings are involved in despoiling the nature but he noticed a great lack of interest as well as response.

Then he took a firm decision of taking the high school students there since these are the future policy-makers to his programme. He named it “Students on Ice”. He took the students to Antarctica to see, understand and examine what is happening due to global warming. There they can see the glaciers retreating and the ice-shelves collapsing. They will not remain untouched on seeing what is happening before their eyes. They will be able to realise the real truth of the grave situation. They will definitely act to save the earth.