Transcript:
Last December, Eric Gee, a student at the University of Hawaii, traveled from Honolulu to one of the harshest, most remote places on Earth: Antarctica.
Gee: “Nothing really prepares you for that first moment when you step onto the ice. It’s unreal. It’s like nothing ever that I’ve experienced before in my life.”
Gee was a fellow with the nonprofit Villars Institute on an expedition led by explorer Robert Swan that raised awareness about the need to protect Antarctica.
As the climate warms, many of Antarctica’s glaciers and ice shelves are melting. And increasing human activity threatens the continent’s fragile ecosystem.
While there, the team helped with research and broadcast live to classrooms to teach students about Antarctica.
Gee: “We spoke to 2 million young people from across the world.”
Gee says growing up, his mom told him to always leave a place better than he found it.
Gee: “And I feel like that’s kind of where my passion thrived for environmental sustainability. You know, we only have one Earth, and it’s our job to take care of it.”
And he hopes that talking about his time in Antarctica inspires others to build a more sustainable future.
Gee: “When you go there, you just kind of feel something different change inside of you, and I definitely felt that, and I still feel that today.”
Reporting credit: Ethan Freedman/ChavoBart Digital Media
