“About two o’clock the mist cleared away and we beheld, stretched out in every direction, vast and irregular plains of ice, which seemed to have no end. Some of my comrades groaned, and my own mind began to grow watchful with anxious thoughts, when a strange sight suddenly attracted our attention, and diverted our solicitude from our situation.

We perceived a low carriage fixed on a sledge and drawn by dogs, pass on towards the North, at a distance of half a mile: a being which had a shape of a man, but apparently of gigantic stature, sat in the sledge and guided the dogs. We watched the rapid progress of the traveler with our telescopes, until he was lost among the distant inequalities of the ice.”

The above passage is not taken from Fridtjof Nanson’s book Farthest North or any other book of arctic exploration. Fact is it is from Frankenstein by Mary Shelly first published in 1818. Many are not aware that in the tale of Frankenstein, that in the end, the creature created by Dr. Victor Frankenstein ventures to the North Pole to escape man and ultimately parish.

Frankenstein was written at a time when the world was amid a turmoil of change and progress. Many feel the novel reflected the fear of the scientific revolution as it began to fuel the industrial revolution. A shift was taking place moving from largely a agricultural and commercial society to one energized by industry.

The face of Europe was changing as the creation of large factories brought people to the cities. A working class developed under the ownership of wealthy owners often set at providing little pay and harsh working environments. The situation gave life to unions and guilds as workers fought to balance the scales.

In the novel, Dr. Frankenstein is driven by an obsession and ambition for knowledge. He believes he can conquer nature and tries to create life. The paradox is that what he created was done to help society but it turns out to be the undoing of society and himself. He discovers he cannot conquer nature and loses everything he loved. In the end he goes in to the arctic to destroy that which he created. He has his catharsis moment as he tells the arctic ship captain just before his death “seek happiness in tranquility, avoid ambition”.

Turn the page now to the year 2011: the world again is caught in rapid changes and turmoil. We find ourselves today having to confront the effects of many years of industry, a creature created by man.

The consensus of the scientific community is that Global Warming is a real and present danger to our planets well being. The burning of fossil fuels and deforestation has contributed to increasing the concentrations of greenhouse gases. Elevated global temperatures and the melting of the polar ice caps may seem on the surface to be of concern only to polar bears but one would be naive and uninformed as to the depth of the crisis at hand.

Unfortunately global warming is not only an environmental issue but as well a political and economic matter.

I personally find it unfortunate that the USA has declined to sign the Kyoto Protocal which would limit a nation’s emission of greenhouse gases.

It’s sad that one doesn’t comply with the protocol because one fears serious ham to ones economy. Something is innately wrong when ones economy is based on a source which ultimately brings about harm to not only the planet but to oneself. Progress is not progress if it brings to one his or her ultimate demise.

Perhaps we could learn and take a page out of Frankenstein!!

On board 50 Years of Victory, we continue to progress south toward Franz Joesph Land. As we do so, the ice pack is thinning and we begin to make more bird sightings. We again see polar bear foot prints on the ice. The days are filled with educational lectures, fine dining, pristine beauty, and new found friendships. The arctic is a beautiful place…may it be so for our children and those whom follow.

 Cheers,

 Giovanni Savaglio  

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