#34 | Sunniva Sorby: How a Polar Explorer Uses Citizen Science to Raise Climate Change Awareness
In 1993, Sunniva Sorby was part of the first all-women expedition team to ski across Antarctica to the South Pole. That history-making journey kicked off a thirty-year career of wilderness adventure that eventually transformed Sunniva into a citizen scientist conducting climate change research in the Antarctic and Arctic regions.
After making over 100 expedition trips to the Antarctic, most gathering data as a citizen scientist, Sunniva, along with Hilde Falun Strom, cofounded the non-profit Hearts in the Ice to raise awareness of personal responsibility, encourage involvement, and to help scientists monitor the impacts of climate change in polar regions.
“We do need people to understand that we are living in a way that's not sustainable. We are taking far more from each other and from everything than we really need. ” Sunniva Sorby
In this episode, Sunniva describes her nineteen-month “overwinter” in a remote trapper’s cabin in the Arctic she shared with Hearts in the Ice co-founder, Hilde. The two-person team co-existed with polar bears as large as their cabin and endured bitter cold months of total blackness as they conducted research for eight scientific research organizations who had large been constrained during the Covid pandemic. They also provided educational bi-weekly video updates to students, reaching over 100,000 of them using satellite internet.
The two polar explorers wrote a fascinating account of their experience in the book: Hearts in the Ice: The Adventures of the First Two Women to Overwinter Solo in Svalbard.
For their next project named “By the North, For the North, Hearts in the Ice will engage in multiple projects with the indigenous Inuit people of Cambridge Bay, Canada, located on the furthermost north region of Canada.
“We will expand our very successful platform of education, citizen science and community engagement, while elevating the wisdom and knowledge and voices of the indigenous people from the far north.”
LEARN MORE ABOUT HEARTS IN THE ICE
Hearts in the Ice Conducting Citizen Science Research
In this episode we discuss:
• Sunniva’s history-making expedition to the South Pole
• Lessons learned from being part of an expeditionary team
• How the outdoor world has been her teacher and guide.
• What it means to be a Citizen Scientist.
• 19-months of “overwintering” in a remote polar cabin
• The value of collaboration and community to make change.
• The real changes we need to make as humans to help resolve climate change and other crises.
• The internal and external challenges of isolation.
• Hearts in the Ice Upcoming Expedition in Cambridge Bay.
Follow Hearts in the Ice on Social Media:
✨Instagram : @heartsintheice
✨Facebook: Hearts in the Ice
✨Twitter: @heartsintheice
