Drifting through the polar darkness, a team of scientists is documenting a rapidly changing Arctic. As sea ice retreats and oil tankers move in, a conversation with the UN chief reveals why the battle for climate science matters far beyond the North Pole.
Somewhere in the darkness of the Arctic Ocean, 12 people and a dog named Örkki are drifting right now across the frozen sea, with little say over where they are going.
Their home for the winter is Tara Polar Station, a 26-metre-long French research vessel that departed Norway in August with an unusual purpose: to become trapped in ice.
Locked into a floating sheet of sea ice above more than 2,500 metres of water, the station moves wherever the winds and currents carry it. There is no destination to steer towards, and in the middle of the polar night, no sunlight to mark the passing days.
The team is taking part in Tara Polaris I, the first of 10 planned expeditions in a 20-year international programme to study the transformation of the Arctic Ocean. What they are already witnessing has caught the attention of UN Secretary-General António Guterres.
UN News, From a ship frozen into Arctic ice, a warning to world leaders: Trust the science
