Toronto Star - Of ice and men — Lessons from Antarctica

Students on Ice is a Canadian educational foundation that takes young people to the Arctic and Antarctic. Founded 10 years ago by Geoff Green, a former teacher and polar expedition leader, SOI’s mission is to teach about the importance of the polar regions and how they are connected to the rest of the planet…

Eric Galbraith teaches earth and planetary sciences at McGill University. He tells the students about the growth of human civilization over the last 10,000 years and how that development — less than the blink of an eye in geological time — occurred during a period of climate stability. By continuing to emit vast amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, we are threatening the environment that nurtured us, he says.

“The climate regime is an angry beast and we are poking it with sticks,” Galbraith says, quoting the renowned American earth scientist Wally Broecker.