President of Iceland Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson is currently on an expedition with scientists and environmentalists in the Antarctica at the invitation of Al Gore, former US vice-president. The expedition began on Sunday and will end on February 6.
Ólafur Ragnar and Gore in Iceland in 2008. Photo by Zoë Robert.
The goal is to study the rapid melt of the South Pole and discuss how to unite the world’s nations in taking reasonable actions to counteract climate change, Morgunblaðið reports.
Among other guests onboard the National Geographic Explorer are James Hansen, who heads the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, Yao Tangdong, China’s leading glaciologist, Christiana Figueres, Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, Canadian film director James Cameron and Ted Turner, the founder of CNN.
The Minister for the Environment of Bangladesh, Hasan Mahmud, whose country will be flooded by sea with continued melt of polar ice, will also join the expedition.
Click here to read about Al Gore’s visit to Iceland in 2008.
ESA
