Transcription of this episode | Watch this on video | Buy us a coffee: Chris / Henry / Mario showThis episode is a joint production of Curiously Polar and Polar Geopolitics. Joining today are Klaus Dodds, Professor for Geopolitics and Executive Dean for the School of Life Sciences and Environment at Royal Holloway, and Eric Paglia, postdoctoral researcher in the SPHERE project at KTH Royal Institute of Technology and producer and program host of the podcast Polar Geopolitics. SCRAMBLE FOR THE...

Watch this on video | Buy us a coffee: Chris / Henry / Mario POLAR NEWSREEL: 01 Mapping the Ocean Floor: The Nippon Foundation-GEBCO Seabed 2030 Project was endorsed as part of the UN Ocean Decade. The project aims to map all the world’s oceans by the end of the decade. When it launched, only 6% of the seabed was mapped to a modern standard. On May 2, 2023, HSH Prince Albert II of Monaco announced that now 24.9% of the seabed is mapped, including some 19,000 newly discovered undersea...

Watch this on video | Buy us a coffee: Chris / Henry / Mario POLAR NEWSREEL 01 Life at the bottom of the Southern Ocean: The team of the icebreaker RRS Sir David Attenborough has been testing the new deep sea research capabilities in the 5.6 km (3.5 mi) deep and least explored parts of the Southern Ocean, the Hesperides Deep, unveiling incredible lifeforms at the bottom of the sea. | 02 New interactive Antarctic mapping tool: The Australian Antarctic Division developed the amazing interactive...

Watch this on video | Buy us a coffee: Chris / Henry / Mario It's that time of the year HAPPY HOLIDAYS EVERYONE!! And while we covered some festive topics and traditions in the past, let's loaok at what we are doing for Christmas ourselves. The Curiously Polar Holiday Book Club (CPHBC): Jean-Baptiste Charcot by Dominique Le Brun SIKU: Knowing Our Ice - Documenting Inuit Sea Ice Knowledge and Use by Igor Krupnik et al. Antarktikos Magazine - #1 Mapping Nature The Mapping of...

Watch this on video | Buy us a coffee: Chris / Henry / Mario Henry sent a message from a ship far far away. And that message had a discussion attached to it that he had with his colleague and legendary expedition leader Solan Jensen. They talked for half an hour about this and that, about the changes in the polar regions as a global issue, about excursions into the environment, about the climate and about the overall industry. Enjoy! This is an episode of the Curiously Polar...

Watch this on video | Buy us a coffee: Chris / Henry / Mario SENSATIONAL DISCOVERY OF INFAMOUS VASA SISTERSHIP IN SWEDEN Maritime archaeologists from Sweden’s Vrak - Museum of Wrecks have discovered the wreck of a 17th century warship. In collaboration with the Swedish Navy the archaeologists surveyed a strait at Vaxholm just outside Stockholm. While a large shipwreck was discovered there in 2021, the team could only identify the wreck in the spring of 2022 und reveal its details as very...

Watch this on video | Buy us a coffee: Chris / Henry / Mario THE TWO ARCTICS - THE ARCTIC CIRCLE ASSEMBLY 2022 The 9th Arctic Circle Assembly showcased a very divided Arctic Community, with Russian participants glaringly absent. It seems the circumpolar Arctic does not exist at the moment and the new chair of the Inuit Circumpolar Council (ICC), Sara Olsvig, reiterates that there can’t be a solution to this in the Arctic without the inclusion of indigenous people as they live across the...

Watch this on video | Buy us a coffee: Chris / Henry / Mario HENRY IS BACK FROM THE ICE BREAKER After finishing its first season in the Arctic, Henry just returned from the French-flagged ice breaker Le Commandant Charcot and talks about his experiences and adventures in East Greenland, at the North Pole and in the Northwest Passage. This is an episode of the Curiously Polar podcast with Chris Marquardt https://chrismarquardt.com/ Henry Páll Wulff: https://henrypall.com/ Mario Acquarone...

Watch this on video | Buy us a coffee: Chris / Henry / Mario // Satellite broadband for the Arctic Traditional, geostationary satellites are not at all optimal for use in polar areas/high latitude. A few operators are now building satellite networks in Non-Geostationary Orbit (NGSO) that promise better covaerage for polar areas and lighter equipment. Incidentally, this will also profit internet coverage for intercontinental flights routed through the same areas. LEO Constellations and...

Watch this on video | Buy us a coffee: Chris / Henry / Mario POLAR NEWSREEL: // A New Border The nearly 50-years-old infamous Whiskey War between Canada and Denmark/Greenland has come to an end with an agreement to divide Hans Island with the first land border between Canada and Denmark. // Proof of Life? Being a prime candidate for extraterrestrial life, [the most common surface feature on Jupiter’s moon Europa]([EarthSky | Do Europa’s odd ridges indicate...

Watch this on video | Buy us a coffee: Chris / Henry / Mario Henry returns to land and he and Chris discus the adventures on the ice breaker in the Antarctic. He describes the challenges of braving the elements in such remote and isolated locations. We learn about how this expedition was a bit different from what we usually expect. This is an episode of the Curiously Polar podcast with Chris Marquardt https://chrismarquardt.com/ Henry Páll Wulff: https://henrypall.com/ Mario Acquarone...

Watch this on video | Buy us a coffee: Chris / Henry / Mario POLAR NEWSREEL: Sanctions jeopardize the future of Arctic construction projects The sanctions imposed on Russia because of its invasion of Ukraine are impacting several large construction projects in the Arctic. The gravity-based structures (GBS), floating rigs, under assembly at the Novatek’s LNG Construction Center in Belokamenka outside Murmansk are among those hit by the lack of materials. A consequence of this might be a crisis...

Watch this on video | Buy us a coffee: Chris / Henry / Mario POLAR NEWSREEL: Plan for satellites giving better Arctic weather observations Weather satellites, like Meteosat, are in a geostationary orbit that limits the field of view of the sensors in the polar areas. A consortium of the European Space Agency (ESA) and OHB Sweden is working on a constellation of 16 weather satellites in polar orbit. These will relay homogeneous, high-quality, real-time data on temperature and humidity for the...

Watch this on video | Buy us a coffee: Chris / Henry / Mario POLAR NEWSREEL: North Pole research platform almost ready | Worrying sea ice concentration in Bering Sea | Easter celebrations in Ittoqqortoormiit MAIN TOPIC: Easter celebrations in Ittoqqortoormiit Being one of Greenland’s most remote villages with a population of only 345, Ittoqqortoormiit is not only the village most frequented by polar bears but also the chess stronghold of the country. After a two-year hiatus, the traditional...

Watch this on video | Buy us a coffee: Chris / Henry / Mario POLAR NEWSREEL: Hundreds of meltwater lakes hide deep beneath the expanse of Antarctica’s ice sheet. | Russia to invite non-Arctic states developing the Arctic | Meeting the Arctic: The Arctic Encounter Symposium 2022 Meeting the Arctic: The Arctic Encounter Symposium 2022 After a long pandemic, Arctic stakeholders had the chance to meet each other early April in Alaska to discuss several different topics. This is an episode of the...

Watch this on video | Buy us a coffee: Chris / Henry / Mario POLAR NEWSREEL: 01 Arctic Lightnings: A dramatic rise in lightnings last summer saw nearly double as many strikes as the previous nine years combined in the High Arctic which correlates with global temperature anomalies and can become an important climate crisis indicator. | 02 Scottish Arctic: Defining itself as the northernmost non-Arctic state and sharing similar rural and demographic features mean that Scottish and Arctic...

Watch this on video | Buy us a coffee: Chris / Henry / Mario POLAR NEWSREEL: Ten Pioneering Women of Antarctica and the Places Named for Them | Fossils in a Forgotten Ice Core Rewrite Greenland’s Icy Past | Beast of the Central Arctic | Seals help researchers collect data from under the ice | Obsessed by polar exploration? This is an episode of the Curiously Polar podcast with Chris Marquardt https://chrismarquardt.com/ Henry Páll Wulff: https://henrypall.com/ Mario Acquarone...

Watch this on video | Buy us a coffee: Chris / Henry / Mario POLAR NEWSREEL: 32000 year old plant revived Scientists in Vienna are seeking to sequence the genome of an ancient flowering plant (Silene stenophylla) believed to have been buried 32,000 years ago by an Ice Age squirrel near the banks of the Kolyma River, a top site for people looking for mammoth bones today. | Sudden halt in Ukraine's Antarctic expedition The RV Noosfera, formerly RRS James Clark Ross, is in Punta Arenas since...

Watch this on video | Buy us a coffee: Chris / Henry / Mario POLAR NEWSREEL: Heatwaves at both of Earth’s poles Extremes of 40C above normal. Antarctic and Arctic temperatures have shocked researchers. Antarctic areas reach 40C above normal at same time as north pole regions hit 30C above usual levels. | Lowest extent of Antarctic sea-ice since the start of satellite observations This February 24th the measure of extent of Antarctic sea-ice has reached a new low more than 7% lower than the...

Watch this on video | Buy us a coffee: Chris / Henry / Mario ENDURANCE FOUND!: The Endurance22 expedition has found Shackleton's ship! Probably the most amazing shipwreck discovery happened 3008m below the frozen Weddell Sea on the 100th anniversary of the Boss' burial at the cemetery in Grytviken, South Georgia. POLAR NEWSREEL: Arctic Council on hold The conflict in Ukraine has entrained a pause in the cooperation within the Arctic Council and its subsidiary bodies | New Icebreaker for...

Watch this on video | Buy us a coffee: Chris / Henry / Mario POLAR NEWSREEL: Women in Polar Research: How a 1969 Six-Women Scientific Expedition in Antarctica Reveals a Blatant Gender Gap The first women landed at the South Pole at the end of the 1960s and their story highlights some of the gender issues at the time but also how the gender gap is still present today | Getting Closer: The Ongoing Search for the Endurance The research icebreaker Agulhas II has reached the mission area in the...

Watch this on video | Buy us a coffee: Chris / Henry / Mario POLAR NEWSREEL: Stark Black and White Photos Capture Life in a Melting Arctic Icelandic photographer Ragnar Axelsson has documented the Arctic and its people for over 40 years. Black and white photos document the challenging life of humans and their sled dogs in various countries of the Arctic and its extreme environment. | Glacier retreat in Svalbard between 1928 and 2002 Historical photos of glaciers in Svalbard reenacted for a...

Watch this on video | Buy us a coffee: Chris / Henry / Mario POLAR NEWSREEL: Strategic maneuvers of the Russian fleet | Beavers moving north | Arctic sea ice projections | Nanoplastics detected obove both polar circles in Greenland and Antarctica | Vanishing king penguin colony | Penguins move further South | A68 iceberg freshening the Southern Ocean | Long distance hopping for Arctic hare This is an episode of the Curiously Polar podcast with Chris Marquardt...

Watch this on video | Buy us a coffee: Chris / Henry / Mario POLAR NEWSREEL: One of Svalbard's two internet cables is still broken from an unknown cause since January 7 and is a reminder of the vulnerability of digital infrastructure critical for research and the public in the North. | New research found that narwhals quickly react to anthropogenic noises by modifying their behavior, going silent and swimming close to shore. An increase of this type of disturbance can quickly lead to...