The father I don't remember. The land he couldn't forget. I traveled to the Antarctic with ClimateForce 2041 to explore my father's legacy, raise awareness of the Antarctic's role in climate science, explore how global powers came together to protect the Antarctic for all and see what the climate movement can learn from the Antarctic Treaty. The trip is organized by Robert Swan, OBE, the first man to walk to both the North and South Poles.
Looking to history to understand our future
It was 1958, and the world was on the brink of nuclear war. It was the biggest threat humanity had faced, yet in the Antarctic, the technical and scientific community put politics aside to explore the planet. My father was one of the Australians who sailed south for the International Geophysical Year, laying the groundwork for the Antarctic Treaty and rising above differences to advance all mankind's interests. In the shadow of the Cold War, they shared meals with Russian expeditioners, measured the icecap’s depth, and put their name on the map.
Today climate change threatens the planet at a scale we haven't faced before. I want to retrace my father's voyage to the Antarctic, using the 1958/59 Mawson team's work as a baseline to explore how the region is affected by climate change, how science in the Antarctic contributes to our understanding of climate issues, and, most importantly, how we can revive the spirit of the Antarctic Treaty to bring the world together.
The singular issue of our time is climate change. We have broken the planet, and we are approaching a time where fixing it may not be an option.
Today climate change threatens the planet at a scale we haven't faced before. I want to retrace my father's voyage to the Antarctic, using the 1958/59 Mawson team's work as a baseline to explore how the region is affected by climate change, how science in the Antarctic contributes to our understanding of climate issues, and, most importantly, how we can revive the spirit of the Antarctic Treaty to bring the world together.
The singular issue of our time is climate change. We have broken the planet, and we are approaching a time where fixing it may not be an option.
But mankind has worked together to achieve massive goals before. For more than 60 years, we have cooperated globally to protect the Antarctic from exploitation, despite its likely wealth of mineral resources. After the depression, massive jobs programs righted the crippled economy. After World War II, the Marshall Plan invested in rebuilding countries from massive war damage that the victors had inflicted only years before, knowing their economic strength would pay dividends in global security. In a matter of a couple of decades, the world worked together to ban CFCs that had created a hole in the ozone layer.
Diving deeply into my father's journals and papers from his Antarctic expedition, I am seeking to use one man's story as a lens for a story about the role the early years of Antarctic research played in understanding our planet, and the global cooperation that underpinned the Antarctic Treaty. |
Mawson 1958-59
When a group of young men (and a few sled dogs) boarded the Thala Dan in Melbourne on a sunny day in 1958, they were headed to a continent that few had seen, much less explored. They weren't the first: Australia's Mawson Station had been opened in 1954 and to this day is the longest continuously operating base south of the Antarctic circle. They were, however, headed on an adventure without a lot of knowledge about the reality of what they were about to undertake. Unlike the well-orchestrated expeditions of today, their scope was so broad that the officer in charge (OIC) and the head of the Australian Antarctic program (Philip Law, a legend in the Australian Antarctic circles) gave projects a green light only after arriving and getting the lay of the land, or ice, as the case may be.
My father Graham Knuckey (center) overwintered for the 1958/59 season as a surveyor measuring the depth of the icecap and undertaking a 400-mile dog sledge expedition in the Antarctic. I didn't get to know him as he passed away when I was four, but being raised among pictures and stories of his adventures inspired my own curiosity about the world.
Read excerpts of his journals at Antarctic Journal.
My father Graham Knuckey (center) overwintered for the 1958/59 season as a surveyor measuring the depth of the icecap and undertaking a 400-mile dog sledge expedition in the Antarctic. I didn't get to know him as he passed away when I was four, but being raised among pictures and stories of his adventures inspired my own curiosity about the world.
Read excerpts of his journals at Antarctic Journal.