One student’s connection to the Arctic
By Cassie Jones, Students on Ice trip participant
My name is Cassie Jones and I fulfilled a dream of a lifetime when I went to the Arctic last summer at the age of 16. I travelled with a team of leading Arctic experts in fields ranging from the sciences to the arts as well as with seventy students. We were on an educational expedition with the organization Students on Ice. We followed the path of the Vikings, measuring climate change along the way.
Cassie, at right, with other Students on Ice participants (c) Sara Falconer/WWF-Canada
Looking back I am amazed by the amount of things that can happen in one day. We were always seeking out the extraordinary and more than once it found us. I saw white-nosed dolphins whimsically flying by the side of the boat and a pod of Blue Whales (the largest mammals on earth). I climbed glaciers and mountains, heard icebergs cracking like thunder before plunging into the blue waters. I witnessed the effects of climate change when I saw icebergs melting and glaciers that have receded four kilometers in the past fifty years. I came in contact with the most welcoming indigenous people who embodied the spirit of the North: peaceful, harmonious and accepting. The community at the base camp in Labrador hunted and cooked for us over a bonfire. We sang, danced and shared cultures. I discovered that the spirit flows through the people and land. When I was invited to write this blog post, I decided to write about one memorable day that transformed my life, when I began to understand the impact of our actions and find meaning in this trip.
On this special day, we journeyed to a remote Northern island in Iceland, which has been visited by few Icelandic people. It is a rough and rugged terrain with steep mountain faces jutting out of the water. We made our way slowly but surely up a 450 meter high ridge. I was humbled by the large and powerful landscape, which, combined with the steep hike, left me breathless. I felt small in comparison to the scale of the millennium-old mountains. I was simultaneously humbled and inspired, filled with strength, and left feeling that I played a significant role in the future of this land. I could make it a good one. On the trip, students formed a MOC Arctic Council. Upon our return home we wrote a proposal sending it to the official council outlining our demands. We want the council to have youth representatives in order for our voices to be recognized on an international level. I know I have to help protect the poles because sometime in the future I want a sixteen-year old like myself to have the opportunity to come to a land so rich and untouched. I want that young person to feel the same freedom, and sense of peace and to find meaning in the beauty and complexity of the North. I wouldn’t want people to forget how to relate and bond with Nature because when that happens we will have severed our connection with ourselves. Humans are a part of Nature and Nature is a part of humans.
I knew right then and there, that the Arctic had touched me in unexpected ways. I aspire to be an environmentalist journalist. I know today that it has profoundly affected my life. Though I’m not yet able to predict the extent, I feel this experience and this day in Iceland will come back to haunt me as well as shape my path in the years to come. Only time will tell.
My heart hurts to know that I will be away from it, but to even imagine it not existing is unthinkable. These thoughts may sound like youthful idealism however, I challenge the most cynical person to visit the Arctic and engage with the people and land on a deep level and not to feel similarly inspired to ensure its survival.
