Science and art set to combine for arctic trip

Science and art has come together in an expedition to monitor the sensitive and rapidly changing Arctic environment.

Satellite image of Jakobshavn Glacier: The coloured lines show the retreat since 1850

As well as a scientific team, the expedition - to Disko Bay on the west coast of Greenland - will include an artistic team who will endeavour to translate the effects and impacts of climate change into a human story.
Member of the scientific team, Dr Carol Cotterill - a marine geoscientist - said: “This will be an important preliminary investigation of this area for the British Geological Society, as we hope that the data collected during this expedition will help to guide and underpin an ongoing Arctic Geoscience programme.”

The scientific team also includes oceanographers Simon Boxall from the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton, and Emily Venables from the Scottish Association for Marine Science. They will map ocean currents and investigate the submarine landscape to gain further insight into past climates, changes in sea level and the speed in which these changes can occur.
Dr Boxall said: “Greenland and the Arctic are a pivotal point on the Earth when it comes to monitoring the progress of climate change. It is these regions that the impact will be, and is being, felt.”
This will be the first time such measurements have been possible in this Arctic region due to ice cover, but with the recent reduction in sea ice levels the scientists hope to get a first glimpse of the ocean circulation conditions at the head of Baffin Bay. The research ship will also travel across the front of the fast-moving Jakobshavn Glacier, one the largest glaciers in the world. The glacier loses 20 million tons of ice a day, often in the form of huge icebergs.
The scientists will be joined by musicians, comedians, artists, poets and architects including Jarvis Cocker, KT Tunstall, Martha Wainwright, Marcus Brigstocke, Lemn Sissay and film director Peter Gilbert who will document the journey for TV.
The aim of the expedition is to inspire the team to respond to climate change in a creative cultural manner. It will be possible to follow the team's adventures via their blogs and diaries at and on the BGS website.