An urgent message from the Arctic

Published in 2006

On 1 July 2006, American explorer Lonnie Dupre reached the North Pole in summer – an historic first.

Just weeks later, the explorer – who won a Rolex Award in 2004 – began a national and international lecture tour to bring the effects of global warming in the Arctic to a wider audience. His lectures have already taken him to New York and many other cities across six American states, as well as to Canada, Costa Rica and Denmark.

At every lecture, before an audience of specialists, activists and the general public, with a wide range of ages among the listeners, Lonnie Dupre describes the two summer expeditions he made with co-explorer Eric Larsen to the North Pole, in 2005 and 2006. The aim of the first expedition was to cross the Arctic Ocean, but it had to be cut short after 24 days because the ice was melting early – a clear sign of global warming.

For the second expedition, the two men set off from northern Canada, reaching the Pole after covering 769km in 62 days. A book and a film, Last Cold Summer, about the expedition, are currently in preparation.

But what Dupre mostly highlights in his lectures is his concern about the future of the Arctic: “I feel I have to explain to as wide an audience as possible how important global warming is. We have to act – we can’t wait another minute.”

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