The jury of the 2013 Arctic Award awarded Sebastian a gold medal on behalf of the Photographic Society of America (PSA). The Arctic Award specializes in Polar photography. This is Sebastian’s second win: in 2012, the FIAP (Federation International de l’Art Photographic) had awarded him a medal for the same competition. The winning image below depicts a storm on the Greenland ice cap, with winds reaching 80 miles per hour, during Sebastian and Eric’s record setting south to north crossing on skis and kites.

Sebastian speaks in Venice for Herbalife EMEA about goal setting, health, conviction and perseverance! Merry Christmas everyone!

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.

As of November, Sebastian’s North Pole adventure film, Into The Cold–A Journey of the Soul, can be seen on demand on Netflix. The film chronicles Sebastian and partner Keith Heger’s centennial reach of the North Pole to commemorate Admiral Peary and team’s 1909 mission. The film premiered at the 2010 Tribeca Film Festival and went on to win multiple awards internationally. The Hollywood Reporter called it one of the five Must-See-Films of the festival. It has been released internationally since.

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

The Gagosian Gallery in Berverly Hills teamed up with Sebastian for a special showing of his polar images to benefit the environmental non-profit the NRDC. The gallery show highlighted the threatened polar environment while 100% of the sales went to the NRDC for their advocacy campaigns on climate change.

Joel Reynolds, Western director of the NRDC, gave a short talk about the organization’s work, and Sebastian, a long time board member of the NGO Global Green USA  shared his experiences shooting in the polar regions, and their significance to the health of the planet.

A special limited NRDC edition of 3 was created for this occasion. The image below sold out of its edition. It remains available for private sale in two different sizes.

September 19, 2013 Munich, Germany. The Bernheimer Gallery in Munich unveils Platinum, the gallery’s new exhibit focusing on platinum prints from masters old and new. Exhibited are works by Herb Ritts, Horst P. Horst, Irvin Penn, Mark Seliger and Sebastian Copeland’s Greenland and Antarctica platinum prints. The show opens September 20th 2013 and runs through October 31st at Brienner Strasse 7, 80333 in Munich, Germany Displayed below: Sastrugi One, S72˚37 E010˚37, Antarctica 2011  Platinum Print Edition 1/6

Sebastian participated in a televised panel on climate change called 24 Hours of Climate Reality. The panel examined climate transformations taking place in the Arctic and their global consequences. Vice president Al Gore, Dr.Stephen Pekar, adventurer Doug Stoup and other joined the panel. You can view the segment here:

http://climaterealityproject.org/24hours2012/live-broadcast/hour-05-the-arctic/

400. That is the symbolic milestone of concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere in parts per million. It is increasing at the rate of 2.5 PPM per year and seems to accelerate. Not in at least one million years has the planet seen such high concentration of carbon dioxide and other heat trapping gases in the atmosphere.
If you wonder what it means, this is the most direct threat to humanity and most living species that have thrived on this planet for the last 65 million years.
We cannot grow in perpetuity in a finite environment. It is time to have less and do more, and do more intelligently with what we have at our disposal.

Read more here: http://www.cnn.com/2013/05/10/us/climate-change/index.html