EYES ON ICE

Although the polar regions are critical to our health and well-being and indispensable in balancing the Earth’s systems and climate, when it comes to the poles, people’s knowledge is very limited.

When we think of the polar regions, we tend to think of them as vast, remote, and pristine. And yet, despite their remoteness, both our history and our future are tightly linked to the cryosphere.

The poles are home to extraordinary biodiversity, with new species and new genes being constantly discovered. Polar regions are the home of and provide food and livelihoods for hundreds of thousands of people, and they regulate our climate. From Reykjavik to Fiji, our lives are fundamentally and intimately connected to the poles.

Through the newly launched 3-year project called EYES ON ICE Alex Bellini and his team will give polar issues a voice for a greater protection of polar regions and thanks to important collaborations with scientific partners, they are committed to taking a leading role in some of the challenges related to understanding and protecting polar ecosystems.

The initiative is structured with a three-year program and will focus on three areas: Alaska, Greenland and the Arctic Ocean. It starts in 2024 with a bike trip across Alaska, continues in 2025 with a crossing of Greenland and ends, in 2026, with an attempted crossing of the Arctic Ocean to the North Pole.

Through these three expeditions we want to continue on the path begun years ago with the 10 rivers 1 ocean project, which combines the empiricism of exploration with the strength of testimony that becomes dissemination.