First Chinese person to walk to South Pole says feat is to highlight climate crisis to next generation
- Wen Xu decides the best way to highlight climate change is by exploring affected places after falling through thin ice to a lake that should not have been there
Glaciologist and explorer Wen Xu became the first Chinese to reach the South Pole solo, unsupported and relying only on his muscle power, on January 10. For 58 days, Wen pulled a sledge across the ice and snow, but he had to abandon his original objective of crossing the entire Antarctic continent. His primary goal, however, was not to set polar records, but raise awareness of global warming among Chinese youth and collect valuable climate data from the remote interior.
Wen’s career as an educator and explorer started in May 2017 when he fell through glacial ice into a lake high on the Tibetan Plateau. Such a lake should not have formed in the first place, but, created by abnormally high temperatures, it delivered Wen a personal awakening to the dangers of global warming.
Wen, 32, and wife Hu Jiaojiao had recently become parents and decided it was their duty to tell people what global warming meant for their child’s generation. In 2018, the pair set up an NGO called Polar Hub, with the aim of raising awareness of climate change and its consequences. The best way to do so, they concluded, was for Wen to become an explorer and report from where climate change was the most rapid – the planet’s glaciers and ice caps.
Wen had ample qualifications – as a glaciologist with the Chinese Academy of Sciences he had already spent months on the Tibetan Plateau. A mountaineer, in 2008 he reached the summit of Mount Everest as part of a national scientific expedition.
Antarctic exploration is a costly business and having been unable to secure full sponsorship for their project, Wen and his wife paid a large part of the costs out of their own pockets.