Mission to set webcam on a fragile world
A Hong Kong woman is embarking on a voyage to Antarctica next month to help bring part of the South Pole to the city - and educate children about protecting the environment.
Ciara Shannon, a sustainable-development expert, will brave the sub-zero climate to help set up satellite cameras that will beam back live images of wildlife - including penguins, seals and whales - and the Antarctic wilderness.
Ms Shannon, one of the participants from 50 countries in Inspire Antartica Expedition 4, will help complete 'E-Base'. It will be Antarctica's first education station, located at the Russian Antarctic Expedition's Bellingshausen Base off the northern tip of the Antarctic Peninsula. Built of recycled materials, the station will broadcast live feeds from cameras at various locations on the frozen continent.
'The website is called 2041 because in the 1960s a treaty was signed prohibiting drilling and mining until 2041,' said Hong Kong-born Ms Shannon.
'Antarctica is the most beautiful place on the planet and we need to protect it. We hope to inspire children through the videos.'
The 35-year-old, whose family runs a chain of English-language centres, said that after returning from the $219,741 trip - which includes a donation towards equipment needed by the station - she aims to educate students about the perils facing the Antarctic.
'Antarctica is so far away and the global warming effect on Hong Kong seems so far-fetched,' she said. 'But the polar ice caps are melting. If the water level rises by just seven inches [18cm], West Kowloon would be flooded. This will definitely happen in our children's lifetime.'
The ice sheet that covers Antarctica contains 70 per cent of Earth's fresh water. If it melted fully, the level of the world's oceans would rise by approximately 70 metres.
Last year, scientists said carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere were increasing at a faster rate than they had expected - meaning rapid temperature rises could also come that much more quickly.
