Making friends at the North Pole
Posted: Wednesday, November 07, 2007 4:26 PM
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On Assignment
By Kerry Sanders, NBC News Correspondent - enroute to the North Pole
DAY 5*
6:28 p.m. 88 degrees, 15 minutes North. 54 degrees, 00 minutes east.
I think I’m snow blind. I just saw what looks like a two-masted sailboat on the horizon. Double take. Triple take.
As it turns out, my eyes are not deceiving me. The crew onboard the Yamal has also spotted the ship. The radio room on the Yamal tries to contact the sailing vessel several times, but no one answers. A sailor on watch sees a dog through his binoculars. The decision is made: launch the chopper to the ship to see if anyone is onboard. Maybe someone needs help.
As we circle and then land: one, two, soon 10 people are outside the ship waving their arms.
The hike across the snow from our landing zone is through pools of deep water sitting on the surface of the ice. It’s raining, it’s windy, and since we rushed off so quickly, I’m unprepared. The boots I’m wearing would be useful on hard pack ice, or snow, but not water.
By the time we reached the crew, my feet were soaking wet, but they’re all smiles, shocked to find we’ve just landed and made our way over.
It turns out this is the research vessel Tara. The ship’s multinational crew is collecting date on global warming. They’ve been here for two months, and will stay through for another three months, or longer if they can.
What's with the rain?
They’re recording temperatures, sounding sonar on the ice to see how thick it is, monitoring the rainfall and snow fall (today it’s raining, and it’s miserable.)
I asked one of the scientists on board from France if he thought the rain was a sign of global warming? He said he’s not sure, but that rain this early in the summer is unusual.
We are with the crew for about 30 minutes when the captain on the Russian ice breaker Yamal radioed it was time to leave. Ice experts on the Yamal feared a shift in the ice pressure could block our continued passage north. As we sloshed back to the landing zone to get on the chopper, one of the two women crew members from Tara whispered in my ear and said, "Tell everyone we’re ok."
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| Dmitry Solovyov/NBC News |
| Kerry Sanders with a group of researchers and their dog near the North Pole. |
I’m left in awe of their work. These are pioneers doing what satellites cannot. Gathering data, at surface level, to try to answer the growing questions we have about what impact our SUV’s and coal burning power plants are having on the melting polar cap
*Editor’s note – Kerry Sanders set off on his trip to the North Pole on June 26, 2007 – so hence the references to summer weather. Kerry’s stories from the North Pole are airing on the Today Show and NBC’s Nightly News with Brian Williams as part of NBC’s Green Week.
