Here are a few pics from the Aerosmith gig in Hyde Park at the weekend, where we were spreading the word on climate change… 

EarthFireIce made its first public appearance at the weekend, at the Hyde Park Calling gig in London. Three stages featuring bands such as Aerosmith, Peter Gabriel and Crowded House attracted nearly as much attention as our groovy new octagonal tent. Around 75,000 people attended over the weekend - and we reckon that most of them squeezed into our tent during the torrential rain! We sold t-shirts, tattooed people (OK, air tattoos - we didn’t draw blood!), and generally spread the word about taking personal action against climate change. Thanks to everyone who visited us - and a special thank you to our fantastic team of committed EFI-ers… Sean, Ed, Bee, Trev, Chie, Andy, Ilona, Sue, Robbie, Josh, Irma, and Andy. More pics to appear over the next few days…

Yesterday, EarthFireIce made an interesting purchase. We’re teaming up with several summer festivals in the UK you see, to spread the word about individual action on climate change (naturally), and while we’re doing several off-site things such as website link ups, bluetoothing tips to festival goers and the like, we are also having a physical presence at the festivals…in the form of this newly acquired ‘tent’. Now this is seriously the daddy of all tents. It’s mega. It’s big. And we can host our own whole party in there if we choose. Anyway this purchase has triggered frantic scrambling over at EarthFireIce HQ to ensure we have all that we need to pull it off and actually get people to come on over and in. But if you anyone has suggestions for what we should do to entertain the masses at Hyde Park Calling in ten days times, drop me a line. Should we screen climate change videos? Should we make it a giant chill out area? Should we have lots of laptops where people can sign up? Should we paint our bodies green and dance around making strange sounds? I’m sure we’re misssing the killer thing still, so if you have any thoughts, let us know!

As far as I can see, the latest G8 meeting was a complete failure in terms of getting George Bush to take action on global warming. Despite saying that he would seriously consider proposals to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases, there’s no commitment to actually do anything. Even more worryingly, he says he won’t do anything unless China does it too. 

How Bush can compare the developed economy of America, where under 5% of the world’s population spew out a quarter of the planet’s greenhouse gas emissions, with that of China, is bizarre, to say the least.

Bush points to the fact that China will soon overtake the USA as the world’s biggest emitter of greenhouse gases. But, duh, that’s hardly surprising George - it’s the world’s biggest country, with a population over four times larger than yours. A fifth of the world’s population live there!

Sure, all countries need to take action to reduce emisions - and that includes developing economies such as that of China. But China’s per capita CO2 emissions are currently less than a third of those in industrialised nations. China’s view is that it’s the developed economies that should take the lead on emissions reductions.

Action from individuals - both to reduce their own emissions and to put pressure on governments to stop this petty squabbling and get on with saving the planet - is now more important than ever.

Some findings from a poll being conducted by the UK Environment Agency in the run up to World Environment day (which is tomorrow!!):

41% of people surveyed in the UK say they are doing something to tackle climate change.

The remaining 59% of people not taking any action against climate change consists of:

- 37% who say they are not doing anything, and

- 21% who say they don’t know what to do…

Even in a country where global warming is so prevalent in the national press there is clearly still a long way to go to really unleash the power of individuals to make a difference. Again we say get on the EarthFireIce Map and pledge to make a difference. Its free. Its easy and it counts…

The Earthfireice campaign rumbles on…and gathers pace once more. We spent an incredibly wet, windy, cold and very fun (seriously!) day doing interviews for our upcoming documentary with ordinary people on the street, ourselves (it wasn’t pretty - according to Ed i looked like the wild man of borneo with my long hair in total disarray thanks to the gales), and with Saleemul Huq, Group Head for Climate Change at the IIED.org here in London. What a fantastic, interesting guy. Apart from the fact that he was willing to sacrifice part of his bank holiday to come and talk to us (in the rain by the Southbank - cold!!), he just made such lucid succinct points about the whole climate change area. In particular, individuals , governments or business….who should act? His answer: two ways to look at it - either you say the US and China are the biggest emmiters by far, they have to take action, an argument which has some merit; or you can look at it as a collective responsibility issue…every single person on this planet has a carbon footprint, large or small…and so every person has a responsibility for reducing their own footprint in their own way….and if everyone does a bit to reduce, that will bring down china and the US’ naturally anyway. Amen to that.

Here is a video of the north pole marathon:

Onwards and upwards, EarthFireIce have passed their first milestone, 1,000 pledges of individual action against climate change. A very long way to go still in our quest to get a million pledges, the hard work is just starting, but pleasing nonetheless. So thank you all those who have pledged so far! Please help spread the word, tell your friends and family and neighbour’s dog, and so forth. We signed all our charity papers this evening, which if we hadnt all been on the point of passing out with exhaustion would have been quite exciting - i think. Lots and lots of great ideas and plans for what we will do next, and some big things in the pipeline in terms of marketig activities, which is very exciting. As for now though…well sleep beckons. Good night, and sweet dreams.

Our 48 hours at the pole will live with me till I die. I am going to dull my grandchildren into submission with tales of the 2 days that I spent on the frozen drifting temporary ice mass that is the north pole. From the 2.5 hour flight in a soviet plane designed specifically to land on the arctic ice to the first steps on the frozen ocean at the pole, from the marathon itself to the perpetual battle to fight off the coruscating cold, from the helicopter ride to the actual geographic north pole in an old Russian M-8 to the burly bearded vodka-fuelled Russians who ran Camp Barneo as it is known, it was a surreal, unforgettable experience, laden with incredible images.

I write this on the plane home. I am exhausted, content yet still trying to get to grips with exactly what I saw and experienced. I am not sure how much has really sunk in. After 48 hours at the pole, I was very glad to be leaving that harsh landscape – the cold and the lack of sleep were simply too much and made it increasingly harder to appreciate where we were at. One thing is for sure, hot showers and heated bathroom floors that we had in Spitsbergen felt like manner from heaven. It is a relief not to have to worry about the cold, to have continuous feeling in my feet.

Yet, without wanting to get all preachy, if we as a human race let this wondrous breathtaking natural phenomenon disappear in the next 50 years, it will be a travesty, an unforgiveable act of negligence for which we all have to take responsibility.
Some Photos:
Just landed at the Pole
The True Geographic Pole
The View at the Geographic Pole

It may seem strange after all my moaning about the cold but peer pressure does strange things to you. So it was that yesterday, after a day out on the snow mobiles, Phil (another of the English guys doing the marathon) and I went swimming in the arctic sea completely naked. Outside temperature at the time? about -20C. Probably not the wisest thing I have ever done. Having been exceedingly gung ho about this earlier in the week, various talk about the heart stopping from the shock and the need to know where the town hospital was severely stressing me out. But once Phil went in I had no choice. It was brief, it wasn’t pretty and it sure was the coldest and one of the most excruciating things I have ever done (my hair froze the moment I stepped out) , but I survived. BIG thank you to Katie, Susan, Jon, Nick and Nick who redressed me in a manner befitting a formula one pit stop team (believe me I was paralysed by the cold and unable to do anything for about 3 minutes from the shock – without them I would be in hospital now recoverig from hypothermia). Hopefully the video clip we got of it will persuade a few more people to pledge….i hope……pleeeeease…..after all, if it wasn’t for global warming, that sea would have been ice and such buffoonary would not have been possible!
Before
After

Exhausted…haven’t slept in 48 hours. Endless daylight wreaks havoc with the sleeping patterns as does extreme cold! Well a short one then… Sean and I survived the marathon. An absolute mission - we have no idea what our exact times were - but we made it. What a relief to put on clean clothes and have a shower. Time to sleep and relax now. Full story tomorrow!

I guess i have to see the beauty of it; after running the sahara in 42C, it feels only right that we have just been for our last pre marathon warm-up (ha!) jog at the blamy temperature of -40C. To say it was bitterly cold and painful would be a little bit of an understatement. The wind just rips into your face and penetrates the endless thermal layers. I guess it is good motviation to keep on moving and running…if you stop for a moment, it becomes very painful! I am scared though. Running with snow shoes (bizarre metal tennis racket like things which your trainers slip into), the cold, the wind all made running 2 kms or so very tiring….how on earth i’m going to manage a whole marathon sometime tomorrow evening or saturday morning is beyond me. Wing and a prayer i guess. After 3 months of not drinking i think the greatest motivation will be that lovely polar beer and vodka waiting for me at the end, as served up by bearded russian scientists at the pole. Splendid!

The barometer has swung from dread and fear to excitement and awe. It has also gone from +15C 24 hours ago in London to -20C with wind chill. Nice. We have now arrived in the arctic circle on the island of Spitsbergen, somewhere half way between the north pole itself and northern tip of Norway. It’s a stunningly beautiful place, mountains, glaciers, frozen sea and snow fields all colliding and merging into a white world where polar bears outnumber the local population - do not venture outside the town without a gun! We have a restful (hopefully!) 24 hours of testing snow shoes and clothing, doing a bit of filming and generally carbo-loading and sleeping as much as possible. Amidst all this, a sobering conversation though with a WWF guy - all that water and sea we saw as we approached? Until 5 years ago, that was permanently frozen. Enough said.

A revealing articles in today’s independent, that basically most people still are not willing to make any changes to their life, or think that individuals cant make a difference - all the more motivation for us to help spread the word to a few more people. yes, people, each one of us can make a difference without making a huge change to our life! So get pledging…and spread the word…

Packing for the North Pole is a nightmare. Seriously i have no idea what to take…bar just putting all my warmest clothes in a case and hoping for the best….i mean all these dilemmas…what do i want to have photographed on top of the world? what if it’s just -10C instead of -30C? Should i take a silly costume? Wanted to go for another brisk walk tonight, but chaos rules supreme, what with finishing stuff for work, emailing people, website-ing and the like. Looking forward to getting on that plane tomorrow and leaving the warm lands behind.