The UK Polar Network and Clean Planet Foundation have launched an Arctic and Antarctic Science Expedition.
Antony Jinman is supporting the Clean Planet Peninsula project
The polar explorer Antony Jinman - the 12th Briton to ski to the geographic North Pole and solo to the South Pole - is involved in the ambitious Clean Planet Peninsula project that aims to provide critical awareness of the environmental challenges faced by the polar regions and give early career polar researchers and scientists invaluable experience.
Recent studies have revealed that polar scientists feel that they lack the right knowledge to conduct safe expeditions to the regions and they only have limited opportunities to join established programmes on polar research ships and bases.
The Clean Planet Peninsula project tries to address these issues with cost-effective training in the UK and polar regions through a series of courses and remote fieldwork camps.
A key goal of the project is to underline the importance of understanding the problems that plastic pollution causes and the broader impact it has on both nature and humanity.
Rapidly melting ice caps, caused by increasing temperatures across the globe, have put worldwide coastal communities under threat. Microplastics have also been found in polar ice samples which highlights the issues caused by human-generated pollution.
The Clean Planet Peninsulas project is looking for PhD research students and early career polar researchers who have scientific studies that would benefit from participating in the planned trips.
Jinman said: "This is an exciting opportunity to help share knowledge and develop fieldwork skills for young polar scientists, so that they can enrich their own experience and further career opportunities."
The project will conduct its first polar training course in the UK in summer 2023 and it will be followed by further opportunities to train in real Arctic conditions in Scandinavia. Participants will then be given the chance to plan and conduct their own research and expeditions to Greenland and the Antarctic Peninsula.