3rd March, 2008
A beautiful morning brought fresh enthusiasm to the team after a night spent on the floor of the E-Base squashed in like sardines. After yesterday’s windy afternoon stalled our attempts to get the E-Home Weatherhaven tent built our first task was to get this completed before this evening’s predicted storms set in. Finishing this would also allow us to move most of the boxes out of the E-Base to give us a bit more room.
Success! By lunchtime the E-Base was ready and base camp was starting to take shape. The afternoon then consisted of moving equipment and provisions into the E-Home, building a stone wall to help protect it from the storms and collecting the remainder of our base, a few Mongolian Yurt tents, and preparing them for tomorrow.
We’ve now been living off basic food items (especially crackers and chocolate) for the past couple of days. Thank goodness for the fantastic fruit, yogurts and other fresh food that the crew from the Sergei Vavilov – the ship that brought us here - gave us as a leaving present. It’s amazing how good an apple tastes down here!
Tomorrow, if the winds die down, we hope to get a wind turbine up and running!
All in all, a good day of honest graft. Hopefully by the end of tomorrow we will be living in Antarctica powered by renewable energy!!
27th February, 2008
Following his success in removing 1500 tons of rubbish from Antarctica, Robert Swan stood atop a hill at the Bellingshausen Russian base on King George Island and looked down on the beach that had finally been cleared of debris. In that instant, he believed that an education station in Antarctica, where the world could see the beauty of this incredible continent, would inspire people around the world about climate change.
As part the E-Base Goes Live expedition mission, Robert Swan has vowed to reach out to the future generation to help raise awareness on the critical issue of climate change and the need to develop more renewable energy technologies.
In early March 2008, while living at the E-Base for two weeks on renewable wind, solar and solar thermal energy, Robert will offer an opportunity for a handful of schools from throughout the world to engage in a personal live video-chat with him in Antarctica. This is part of Robert’s promise to the leaders of tomorrow, as a means to inspire them with his story and his experiences and also listen to their thoughts on the state of global affairs, especially that of global warming and the environment.
Pupils from schools in the United Kingdom, the United States, Curacao, India and China, amongst others, will be given a chance to communicate with Rob about his experiences of living at the E-Base solely on renewable energy. By speaking to students around the globe from the world’s first education base in Antarctica, Robert will play a crucial role in promoting renewable energy, preservation and conservation for future generations.
27th February, 2008
In early March 2008, Robert Swan and a small support team are embarking on a pioneering Antarctic project ‘E-Base Goes Live’, where Robert will survive solely off renewable energy (solar, wind, thermal) at the newly launched E-Base in Bellingshausen on King George Island, 2041’s dedicated educational base in Antarctica.
Robert will share his daily experiences with the world through a cutting-edge interactive website, beaming back from the field via exciting daily video dispatches, photographs and live text and video chats.
Harnessing the communicative power of web technology, Robert and the 2041 team aim to bring the message of preserving Antarctica, promoting sustainable lifestyles and combating climate change to a wider audience, including corporations, schools and the greater public.
