Oh I believe in Yesterday.

Yesterday we went and flew on helicopters and it was really fun. It was like flying on a plane except you can see everything. When we landed it was on a “field” of lichen that was like walking on sponges. We also got to see a polar bear den. It had collapsed but it was still very fun and one of the best things I have done so far in my life. I think it was really fun to be able to do that and was very happy that the pilots took time out of their lives to fly us there and back. Today we woke the girls up with Robert and then we went to breakfast. After breakfast we cleaned and packed. Soon we will depart the tundra buggy lodge and head back to Churchill. I will miss everyone I have met they are all friends now. Hopefully we will all stay in touch. The main thing on my mind now is to get home re-adjust and start to change things. My plan when I get home is to found my schools environmental club and to also make my house as green as possible. Other than that I had an amazing time here and to any of the future ambassadors who read this you’re going to have the best time of your life so get ready. Well now its time to go. I’ll always remember this place and the friends and experiences I had here.

Oh I believe in Yesterday.

Yesterday we went and flew on helicopters and it was really fun. It was like flying on a plane except you can see everything. When we landed it was on a “field” of lichen that was like walking on sponges. We also got to see a polar bear den. It had collapsed but it was still very fun and one of the best things I have done so far in my life. I think it was really fun to be able to do that and was very happy that the pilots took time out of their lives to fly us there and back. Today we woke the girls up with Robert and then we went to breakfast. After breakfast we cleaned and packed. Soon we will depart the tundra buggy lodge and head back to Churchill. I will miss everyone I have met they are all friends now. Hopefully we will all stay in touch. The main thing on my mind now is to get home re-adjust and start to change things. My plan when I get home is to found my schools environmental club and to also make my house as green as possible. Other than that I had an amazing time here and to any of the future ambassadors who read this you’re going to have the best time of your life so get ready. Well now its time to go. I’ll always remember this place and the friends and experiences I had here.

So today was a busy day.

Today started early and we headed out on the Tundra Buggy and saw the mother and cubs again. After a while we stopped and practiced our answers for some question we had received for our videoconferences this afternoon and tomorrow. Everyone did great when we finally presented it. I think it is very important we answer questions for anyone who asks so that they can understand what is happening to our world and how we can help. Although we weren’t able to contact one of the schools the others and I who had questions to answer made a video on youtube for that class to see. After that we worked on our presentations we are doing to teach each other the important parts of the chapters of our book, Impacts of a Warming Arctic. As I am in the last group we have a lot to live up to.

After that we went out on the tundra buggy and got to walk around on the ground. For the last 3-4 days we have been in the Tundra Buggy Lodge so we were 10 to 12 feet off the ground so we haven’t walked on terra firma for a while so getting to walk around again was nice.

Now I am typing my blog and am thinking about what all I have learned so far and what I am going to do about it when I get home. One think I really want to do is to try to get my school district to switch away from Styrofoam plates in our cafeteria as I just see them thrown away every day. If we could switch to a different type of plate or ones that are recycled it would be great. Also I want to try and encourage for more people to recycle the paper we have at school we throw away so much it’s disgusting. Also when I return I want to found or join my school’s environmental club. It’s a lot easier to change things in a group then by yourself. These are just some of the things I can think of I want to do and plan to do as much as I can.

The Northern Lights and Kevin Burke

Last night I saw the northern lights for the first time and I have to say that they were amazing. Imagine a clear night sky with bright and shining stars, and then you see what almost seem to be colored wispy clouds hovering through the sky. When they get closer you can see that they shimmer like a curtain in the wind. Then it slowly changes color and becomes brighter at times. Now that you can slightly comprehend the beauty of these lights I will tell you the lengthy story about and leading up to seeing the northern lights. After we had finished our blogs we were given the questions we would answer for some schools during our videoconference. So me and four of the other ambassadors started to try to divide how the questions would be answered. As we looked over the questions we started trying to divide them between each person instead of dividing them between each group because one group ended up with too many questions. So we got into a huge debate/ brainstorm that other ambassadors joined. After maybe an hour and a half of discussion we finally figured out a way to properly divide them involving a number and code system. This was very draining but feeling accomplished we all went out and low and behold there were the northern lights flickering through the sky. As the call went out “Come see the northern lights” we all came outside and we all looked up at the awesome display of stars and lights. At first we were all pretty warm but it was freezing and the wind was horrible so we all packed together like penguins in March of the Penguins and together watched the lights and joked around. We stood outside for possibly an hour or more. Finally, we were all to cold and the lights had dimmed down and we headed inside for bed and we had a great ending to a great day. As I reflect on the other night one of the things I thought to myself was as I looked up at the spectacular display “Who needs television.” This is just one of mother natures limitless phenomenon that I have seen. If the climate continues to change we could lose these things. I think this is unacceptable and it is making me reconsider my ideas about the world.

Today we went on the Tundra Buggy again and saw the same mother and her two cubs from yesterday out on the tundra. They walked across water, which was really just shallow, but it looked awesome and I got a ton of pictures. I think it is very important, after seeing these majestic creatures, that everyone should try to save these bears and their climate; there is no reason not to. Later we heard from Kevin Burke who told us about how he got to be involved with driving the tundra buggies. He also told us about some of his other past adventures with polar bears and some of his arctic adventures when he drove on the ice roads. He was an awesome speaker and was an unbelievable storyteller whose stories I couldn’t get enough of. His stories inspired me to think a little more about what I am doing. Instead of sitting at home maybe I should be out living my life and actually contributing to saving the planet. I think with the skills and information I gain from this amazing trip I will be able to do this. So now as I type my blog and wait for it to get dark so I can see the northern lights again.

P.S. To my mother who wants me to contact her daily: Hi I’m fine and am having a lot of fun and I cant use email to contact you so I'll talk to you more when I get home.

Today, Saturday on the tundra

Today I was awakened by Robert Buckanan singing “what a beautiful morning, what a beautiful day” at seven am. This is later then I usually wake up because I usually have to wake up at six in the morning so can get to school at seven thirty. After I woke up we all met and ate breakfast. After breakfast we discussed what we wanted to do today. One of these things was to finally see a polar bear along with learning ways to communicate the knowledge that we will gain through this program and also to see the sun set. So after breakfast we left the lodge to see a mother polar bear and her cubs that had were reported seen nearby. After searching for a bit we found them and there was a mother and two cubs. We stealthily followed them in our giant all terrain vehicle for about two and a half hours and took tons of pictures and videos. Seeing the polar bears in the wild is so awesome and is nothing like seeing them at the zoo. Once we got back we had lunch and then we discussed how we should present some of the information from our Impacts of Global Warming book and each group was assigned to summarize and present to chapters each to the rest of the group. After that we heard a presentation from Lisa about how to be good presenters. This was a very good presentation and will help a lot when I get home and get to tell others about what I learned and what they can do to help. And now as I sit and wait for dinner feeling very hungry I am writing my blog for today.

P.S. Yesterday I was still thinking about the question posed to us (refer to yesterdays entry) I think even though those polar bears died the ends justify the means in that they died for a good cause and have helped save many many more bears.

Trip to the Tundra Buggy Lodge.

The trip to the Tundra Buggy Lodge was a long one. It started after we left Gypsy’s (a local restaurant with great food) and the local school/ community center in Churchill. From there we went to the bear jail. There we heard from Sean Bobier, who is in charge of capturing and scaring off polar bears that come into town, about how and why they capture polar bears and how it is for their safety and ours. After that we went and saw the abandoned lab of a scientist who proved that polar bears will die if they get oil on them and as a result of his testing three polar bears died. We were then posed the question about whether this was good or bad. This is still a dilemma that I am still thinking about. From there we left for the Tundra Buggy launch site. When we arrived we climbed onto a large platform (launch) and then boarded the Tundra Buggy to go to the lodge, which is a series of buggies connected together like a train except with giant tractor wheels. The drive to the lodge took around 2 hours. On our way the ride was very very bumpy and slow and though we did not see any polar bears, we did see ptarmigan, which are awesome birds. They have just started changing color for the winter. Not long after we arrived and unpacked then we wrote and posted our blogs and here I am.