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'Antarctica Unfrozen' by Harry Seagar '11
Tuesday, 26 March 2019
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Eco warrior and University of Canterbury student Harry Seagar '11 headed to Antarctica this summer after being awarded a Blake Antarctic Ambassadorship by the Sir Peter Blake Trust and Antarctica New Zealand. The Sir Peter Blake Trust has been providing opportunities for young New Zealanders to work on projects around New Zealand and throughout the Southwest Pacific. Since 2007, Ambassadors have worked on environmental and heritage restoration projects, helping to advance the country's understanding of some of the questions society is facing. With hundreds of young people applying each year for an Ambassador position, a shortlist of candidates are interviewed before one is selected to take on a project. As a Commerce student majoring in Strategy and Entrepreneurship, Harry is not your typical ambassador for Antarctica. "Every other ambassador who has gone seems to have been a marine biologist, ecologist, or something similar." Harry is passionate about photography, social change, and caring for the environment, which is what won over the panel at his interview. "The panel asked me what I would do if I were chosen; that was stressful to try to answer! However, I had a few ideas - for me it was all about outreach via digital media." With the expedition planned for February 2019, Harry had plenty of time to plan and form some ideas about the types of things he wanted to capture, keeping a notebook from the day he was accepted as an ambassador: "the moment it started getting serious." As the only Antarctic Ambassador for 2018 - "this trip was a 'one-man band'" - Harry met a number of different people, each one with their own unique story. His project for the two-week voyage was a podcast of all the different experiences, facets and culture of living and working in Antarctica - how the place runs, what it is like living in darkness for four months of the year. He found it fascinating how the bases operate. "It is like running a small town, that's why there are so many different people and skill sets there. The winter is about keeping the bases running and not letting Antarctica eat it alive, so to speak." For example, cleaners needed at least five years of commercial cleaning experience before they can work at Scott Base! Being in such a harsh and vast landscape, Harry naturally went through a range of emotions, which is where his notebook came in very handy. "It included every tiny detail of the trip, not just the day-to-day, but how I was feeling: I feel very bad today. I am overwhelmed today. You are in a constant dream state. Due to the lack of changing light, it felt like one long day, not two weeks. I maximised my time while I was there and my body naturally because of the lack of darkness did not want to sleep. However, this meant I had a flat but constant level of energy which I could work with." One of the most important things that Harry realised about this trip was just how much there was to learn about Antarctica, especially around the future. "We are barely scratching at the surface of what needs to be done - there are much larger conversations that need to be had, seeing as it's such a complex issue; there is so much uncertainty." "For me, it's about realising we are playing with a system that is so much bigger than ourselves. In order to make law changes around global warming and climate change, the Government needs solid numbers and figures. However, when it comes to climate change, there are massive gaps, which is the point of the research in Antarctica, to try and fill in those gaps." The podcast is just one way Harry wants to get his message across about Antarctica. "You also have to have a secondary medium - like social media. This is where all the photographs and video I took become very important; it will go a long way when it comes to marketing." The trip to Antarctica was the ultimate highlight - Harry confirmed that 'it was the dream' but in that environment, naturally there were other highlights. "I saw a pod of killer whales, I saw Minke whales, I saw some penguins just hanging out on the ice; it was pretty spectacular. Oh - and the seals! I think they have so much character - they appear to not have a care in the world!" Now that he has "completed the dream", Harry has also launched his podcast, which went live earlier this week. In the simplest terms, his goal is to get people thinking about Antarctica, with the bigger goal of getting people engaged and wanting to know more. He is also thinking about a follow-up tour at various New Zealand high schools to get students thinking about how they can play their part. "Seeing as podcasts are a different medium, I want people to be able to listen to them however they can, either through an app, through Spotify, or whatever people have." When we asked him for one sentence to sum up this amazing adventure, Harry put it very succinctly: "Antarctica will always leave you with more questions than answers. That is one of the main takeaways from this place - how cool is that! It is the underlying theme: it inspires curiosity, and I want to see more young people getting into the habit of asking questions and being curious, and training their mind to keep thinking about the next question." You can now download Harry's podcast through Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Anchor and Google Podcasts.  Harry working on his podcast on the ice in Antarctica |