The Polar Plunge, December 8

https://newslit.org/

Before you go on, an article in the May 8 & May 22 issue of Science News ran with a cover "Awash in Deception:  How science can help us avoid being duped by misinformation."  In the lead article titled: "The Battle Against Fake News," Alexandra Witze presents five suggestions on how to debunk bad information.  They come from the News Literacy Project (see the above link).

How to Debunk:

1.  Arm yourself with media literacy skills, at sites such as the News Literacy Project (newslit.org), to better understand how to spot hoax videos and stories.

2.  Don't stigmatize people for holding inaccurate beliefs.  Show empathy and respect, or you're more likely to alienate your audience than successfully share accurate information.

3.  Translate complicated but true ideas into simple messages that are easy to grasp.  Videos, graphics and other visual aids can help.

4.  When possible, once you provide a factual alternative to the misinformation, explain the underlying fallacies (such as cherry- picking information, a common tactic of climate change deniers.

5.  Mobilize when you see misinformation being shared on social media as soon as possible. If you see something, say something.

"Misinformation is any information that is incorrect, whether due to error or fake news.  

"Disinformation is deliberately intended to deceive."

"Propaganda is disinformation with a political agenda."

Sander van der Linden
Social Psychologist
University of Cambridge

Source:  Science News/May 8, 2021 & May 22, 2021

(Tomorrow evening we begin our trip back to Ushuaia, Argentina across the Drake Passage)

Polar Latitudes’ primary responsibility for nearly three weeks now has been to keep all passengers and crew of the Seaventure well fed, warm and dry.  So why I ask you would they then encourage you, or at least offer you the opportunity, to get dunked in the frigid Southern Ocean?

Enter the Polar Plunge into the lexicon of polar explorers, adventurers and visitors.  It qualifies as one of those experiences that serve as a right of passage of sorts or maybe a baptism of sorts.  It certainly isn’t for everybody, but everybody certainly thought about whether or not this is something that they were going to do.  Have you assessed the risks and the benefits before attempting something unknown?

Mountaineer and Climate Change Activist Conrad Anker knows about risk assessment.  Conrad is a very skilled climber, one of the best of his generation, perhaps ever.  Yet as technically skilled as Conrad is, he thinks rationally to consider whether or not it’s worth it to reach the summit.  In the documentary film, Meru, Conrad faced this decision when he was within 150 feet of summiting this peak.  He and his climbing partners turned around knowing that they were not prepared to spend another night on the mountain.  If they had had attained the summit, there is a good possibility that they would have died on the mountain.  They simply didn’t have enough food to stay out another night.

So, the polar plunge is a lesson in risk assessment.  For me, I considered my general health, the condition of my heart, my experiences jumping into extremely cold water and my desire to continue to conquer a lifelong fear of the water.  I decided to do it.  In fact, I was the first one to do it.  Some made the decision not to do it and that is perfectly ok.  Each person needs to do their own personal risk assessment on challenges like this.

Why does Polar Latitudes offer this opportunity?  After getting to know more about their staff and the staff of the tour organizers at Wilderness Travel, I think that this is an intentional way of offering their clients a chance to learn and grow. 

The Polar Plunge was at the end of this wonderful, snowy, cold, “science” day, 

We started the day loading into the now familiar zodiac craft and departing for a landing at the head of Neko Harbor.  I had made a pact with myself that I was going to participate in as many Citizen Science activities as I could squeeze in and today’s opportunity was yet another chance to further the cause of science.

Today’s project was a phytoplankton project in support of two doctoral projects.  We gathered a small sampling of water complete with water microorganisms were living in it and then ended their little lives…with a purpose.  That purpose was to record how much biomass that this sampling of water had in it at that moment in time.

Then we gathered a larger quantity of seawater by dragging a net attached to a plastic bottle and later separated it from the ice with a small hand pump.  I don’t remember exactly how that was going to be handled or used.  But it was done with a purpose.

And then came the cool part.  We lowered a wifi connected device that measures water temperature, salt content and chlorophyll to a depth of 70 meters and brought it slowly back up.  It gathered the data and instantaneously sent it to an app on an ipad and bingo, you have 1100 data points!  All very cool and it will help researchers assess the health of the phytoplankton population in the Antarctic.

We also measured the clarity of the water using a black and white dish shaped device called a Secchi disk.  You lower it into the water until you can no longer see it.  Ours disappeared at 9.7 meters.

When we finished our Citizen Science activities, we wound through the ice and climbed a designated path around a Gentoo penguin colony.  During the Citizen Science and the hike through the snow in a gently falling snow, you could hear loud cracks as ice was calving off of the glacier above the harbor.  I never saw where the ice was ending up, but it didn’t appear to make it to the harbor where it could cause tsunamis in the bay.  My thoughts quickly went to climate change and how it was affecting Antarctic glaciers.

It was a magical day in a magical place.  Enjoy this photo taken last night at around 2300.