BENGALURU: Abhinandan Kohli has just returned from a 14-day International Antarctic Expedition 2016 conducted by 2041 Foundation. The two experiences, for him, that stand out from the trip involve a rookery of curious penguins and a broken glacier.
On what he calls “a sustainable trip”, Ahinandan met “inquisitive penguins who were trying to understand what we were doing on their land. They would peck on our legs and stare at us. The site was quite moving.” He also remembers seeing a big glacier that had fallen apart. “Ice was floating all over the sea. That moment was quite shocking since that’s when we realised that we have to find ways to save our environment quickly,” says the petrophysicist at Shell.
After seeing the destruction caused by carbon emission first hand, Abhinandan has decided to start contributing towards a healthy environment by bringing about changes in his lifestyle. “I realised that processing 1 kg of chicken or mutton or any other non-vegetarian food requires five times more the resources (water and land) than what is required for 1 kg of agricultural produce. So I have reduced consumption of non-vegetarian food. Secondly, I have started using a bicycle to travel to avoid carbon emission through vehicles. Next one would be to follow three Rs — reduce, reuse, recycle,” he says.
During the selection process, Abhinandan was asked to explain why an employee at an oil and gas company would want to be part of a climate-change expedition. But he convinced them by explaining that oil and gas are important for living. “In fact, these companies can help them in research and fund some of the major projects,” he explains.
The expedition gave him some good and bad memories. “Bad one would be being sea sick when the ship which rose up to five metres, riding a wave,” he says. “I would end up puking everything that I would eat. Good memory would be my first step on the continent since it was my dream to be there.”
The team also got an opportunity to have a polar plunge — swimming in the ice cold water. “The temperature there was around -2 degree Celsius. It felt like 1,000 needles being pierced into us,” says Abhinandan. So what made him participate in an expedition like this? He says that it was the search for like-minded people that drove him to participate in the expedition. By like-minded, he means someone who is working towards improving the climate condition. At the windiest, driest, southernmost continent — Antarctica — he got to meet 139 people from 30 countries from various professions — farmers, teachers, environmentalists, and researchers from universities across the world, including one from NASA. “Everyone there had one thing in mind — search for ways to save the environment from harmful effects of carbon emission,” he says.
The foundation derives its name from the moratorium that bans drilling or mining in Antarctica called the Environmental Protocol, established in 1991. This document can be reviewed after the 50-year anniversary in 2041.
As the year 2041 quickly approaches, Robert Swan, founder of the organisation, aims to ensure that the young people of today make informed and sustainable decisions for tomorrow. Robert Swan is the first person to have walked to both the North and South Poles.
The team was also given an opportunity to hold a presentation. One of the best presentations at the expedition, he recalls, was on the garbage crisis by Tahir Naqvi from India. “It also gave us solutions to manage waste at personal level —by dividing it into plastic, organic and paper,” he says.
He aspires to go on more such expeditions. “I have covered the southernmost region of the world. I plan to go to northernmost next,” he says.