I was just reminded that a year ago I was headed to Antarctica.
That’s… astonishing. In more ways than one.
It was a helluva trip and a helluva a marathon. Here’s an index of the posts from then. Be warned — I never did go back into the text and fix the thumbnails that are all wonky — but if you click on the photos, the large file sizes are oriented correctly.
In the 365 days since I left, the world has changed… and not all for the better. The environment is under attack in ways it hasn’t been in years, thanks to short-sighted politics that equate supposed shortcuts to financial gain (which are far from assured) and claim environmental protections are little more than a sham burden (they’re not).
Now more than ever we need to be protecting our world… for despite the allure of the stars and the promise of potential new worlds floating in the universe, the reality is that as of now and for the foreseeable future this is the only planet we have.
Not to get all soap box-y, but I think we all can agree that whether or not one buys into the notions of long term protection, it’s nicer to be able to breathe and see the world without smog, to drink water that doesn’t have a bunch of man-made crap floating in it, and to wander through forests that haven’t been logged into dust bowls.
But maybe that’s wishful thinking on my part.
Looking back on my time at the bottom of the world, it made be a better person and a firm believer that we are merely custodians for the future. Maybe then it’s worth reposting some of the things I scribbled down during that time, even if in some cases it goes into excruciatingly minute detail.
A year on… yowza.