Today is World Awareness Penguin Day.

Gentoo Penguins near the Gerlach Strait, Antarctica Peninsula 2006.

Sebastian was on air for the WQNA 88.3FM Flyover Zone hour with Hugh Moore and friends, on April 20th, discussing systemic changes in the polar regions and polar travel. You can find a recording of the show here.

Michael Kurcfeld profiled Sebastian for the latest LA Review of Books (March 2014). The interview was conducted during Sebastian’s solo Antarctica: A Million Faces Of Ice at the Munich Bernheimer Gallery last year. The profile also features a filmed segment which can be seen here.

“Following in the footsteps of Herbert Ponting and Frank Hurley, Sebastian Copeland ventures into the blinding white expanses of both poles, often for weeks at a time, to seek out the wild sculpted beauty of places no human has seen before.” Michael Kurcfeld — LA Review of Books

Big New For Whales in the Southern Seas

Following the International Court of Justice’s ruling, Japan has officially cancelled all plans to hunt whales in the Southern Ocean in 2014. This will be the first year since 1904 that no whales will be hunted in Antarctic waters.

Sebastian Speaks At The Iris Night Lecture Series

As part of the National Geographic lecture series, Sebastian was invited to speak at the prestigious Annenberg Space for Photography on February 20, 2014. From Pole to Pole: The Longest Journey recounts being attacked by polar bears; reaching both poles on foot; photographing in sub-zero temperatures; and what the loss of  ice means in the context of a warming planet. The lecture sold out but was filmed and can be streamed here.

Check out this interactive map showing coastal erosion from melting ice, potentially displacing up to 80% of the world’s population. This is not a science fiction plot. It represents the ocean rise from melting ice, sitting above land, slowly re-drawing our world map. On average, 100 feet of coastal ground is lost to each foot of ocean rise.

One small victory at a time. Oil giant Total has warned against Arctic exploitation citing the natural conditions and high risk for a disasters like Deep Horizon. Shell still in the game.

On October 22, Sebastian appeared on a TV panel for Participant Media’s Take Part Live w/Kevin Hand, Planetary Scientist with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab, to discuss climate change at the poles.

For some (odd?) reason, Take Part  will not release the full segment. They did however allow this clip. Enjoy!
http://video.takepart.com/previews/18CHzrzf-hZng8bxh

On October 22nd, Sebastian hosted and moderated the European hour for Al Gore’s 24 Hours of Climate Reality, focusing on the cost of carbon in Europe. The hour examined the 500 year flood in Germany in the spring of 2013, the adaptation programs of the Netherlands to rising sea levels, and the 2010 wildfires in Russia that sparked the Arab Spring.

The hour featured short documentaries on rising infrastructural cost from climate related events in Europe and around the globe; it featured a panel on the rising cost of carbon with Dr. Rosina Bierbaum (University of Michigan), Maggie Fox (President & CEO of Climate Reality), Marta Szigeti Bonifert (Environment Committee of the Hungarian Business Leaders Forum), and Cors Beekman (Room for the River, Netherlands) with Sebastian moderating; the hour closed with an address by Vice President Al Gore. You can watch it here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDiOc51LLMYCost of Carbon: Europe