Sky News: The adventurer Sir David Hempleman-Adams has called on politicians to stop stalling and keep their promises to slow climate change. It was after he witnessed the impact of global warming during an expedition to the Arctic. The journey, via the north-east and north-west passages, traditionally takes three years to complete but his team managed it in just four months and one day.
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He has completed more than thirty arctic expeditions, and has just been knighted by the queen, but adventurer David Hempleman-Adams has today spoken out about the impact of global warming. Something he says that he has witnessed first-hand.
Sir David Hempleman-Adams: There will be just pure ocean at the North Pole in a few years time. I actually believe that. I have seen that change. I think it will be that radically different. And it is only then, I think, that politicians, once we get continuous flooding and continuous storms, and we are spending billions of pounds on repairs, that politicians will actually wake up.
Sky News: Last year David completed a four month expedition around the Arctic on this yacht, a journey that would traditionally take around three years. But, as these drone pictures show, there has been a significant loss of ice.
Sir David Hempleman-Adams: The north-west passage, we did that in literally fourteen days, and we were a sailing boat. If we had a speed boat we could probably to it in a few days. We didn’t see any ice what so ever, I mean, we didn’t even find enough ice for a gin and tonic. It was very, very scary.
Sky News: The impact of global warming had in recent years been very well documented, with the British government playing its part to try to reduce greenhouse gases. But Britain can’t work alone. There are now concerns about president elect Donald Trump’s views on the subject.
Donald Trump: “We are going to cancel the Paris Climate Agreement, and stop all payments of US tax dollars to UN global warming programs”.
Sky News: He has even chosen Scott Prewitt to head the Environmental Protection Agency, who criticised President Obama’s climate change policies.
Tom Burke: I think that Mr Trump is going to discover that he is no longer on a reality TV show. He is going to run head on into the reality of climate change, and he is going to have to accommodate the facts and not the other way around. There is no doubt that he is very sceptical, and that he has appointed a very sceptical cabinet, but they are still going to actually have to deal with the problem.
Sky News: Ice has declined by more than 30% over the last 25 years, and there are now concerns about the impact that is having on animals like the polar bear. Sir David’s warning is that action must be taken now, before we all start witnessing greater flooding and famine around the world.