David Thoreson talks Arctic climate change

In 2007, only 13 years after his first trip through the Northwest Passage, David Thoreson said he was stunned to see little to no ice along the water route, a sharp departure from the rough pack-ice that prevented him from passing through the Passage on his original attempt in 1994.

“We were absolutely shocked,” he said at a lecture onMonday.

An explorer, photographer and sailor from Iowa, Thoreson began sailing on glacial lakes that were the product of natural climate change in Iowa. Sailing and photography became the vehicles by which he could explore the world, and he began sailing on the seas with his mentor Roger Swanson on the boat ‘Cloud Nine.’

The notion of climate change first struck Thoreson when he discovered the lake in his hometown had not frozen over the winter. At that moment, he decided to make his second attempt to travel through the Northwest Passage, hundreds of miles of sea along the coast of Greenland and westward along Canada.

While the crew became the first American team to successfully sail all 6,694 miles of Amundsen’s route through the Northwest Passage, the trip proved a hollow victory. There were almost no obstacles because the route had so little ice — a sure sign of global warming in such a short period. Thoreson said he discovered that nearly 80 percent of ice in the polar ice caps had been lost in the last 20 to 25 years due to environmental issues.

“It was an unbelievably profound, life-changing experience for me in 2007," he said, citing the crossing as what compelled him to fight against climate change.

Moreover, as a photographer, he said he was frustrated by dark masses in his ice photographs. Increased aerosols distributed across the globe melted layers of ice that exposed dark carbon from a previous ice age, he said. This created a positive feedback loop, as dark ice absorbs more heat and melts faster, which ultimately exposes more dark ice and expedites the melting of Arctic ice, according to Thoreson.

For his first active attempt at raising awareness about climate change, Thoreson embarked on an Around the Americas Expedition, a 28,000 mile sailing voyage under Captain Mark Schrader of the Ocean Watch. The crew aimed to bring attention to issues in the seas and oceans surrounding North and South America, he said.

Thoreson's journeys at sea began with a 1991 trip to Antarctica by way of Cape Horn, one of the roughest bodies of water, where he encountered many icebergs.

Soon after began Thoreson's first hopes to travel through the Northwest Passage, he said. On the 1994 voyage, the last stop for provisions was Baffin Bay in Greenland, before they headed west through Lancaster Sound across Canada. Unfortunately, he said, his expedition was icebound for about two weeks and could not continue the next 300-mile stretch. Afraid that any delay would leave their ship frozen in the ice-pack, the team returned home at the end of August.

Thoreson said oil and gas exploration continues to be a contentious point in climate change. Native people’s cultures, caribou and bowhead whales’ migratory routes and the homes of many species are threatened by oil exploration. Thoreson noted that in recent news, Shell’s oil exploratory wells in Arctic have come up dry, and they will begin dismantling.

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“Migratory routes, for now, are safe,” he noted.

Thoreson was the first American to sail the Northwest Passage in both directions, but with his 2007 journey, he noted that the Golden Age of Exploration had ended. A new era of the study of climate change is beginning, he added.

He concluded on an optimistic note, confident that scientists, students and civilians working together could address problems presented by climate change.

“I didn’t sail out looking for climate change, it found me,” he said.

Thoreson spoke to a full McCormick Hall 101 at 7:30 p.m. After the lecture, attendees were encouraged to sign a postcard to legislators to sponsor the Stop Arctic Ocean Drilling Act. The event was sponsored by Forbes College, the Princeton Sailing Club, SURGE and the Alaska Wilderness League.