CDM Club Member from Peking University

Reached the South Pole and Witnessed Climate Change

During March 13th and March 26th, Luo Rui, a member of CDM Club, Peking University, took part in “The Sixth Session of Inspire Antarctica Expedition-Leadership on the edge, (IAE6)---the trip to the South Pole ”organized by Robert Swan, a British adventurer, and 2041 Organization. Now he returned to Beijing.

2008 Antarctica Expedition Team consisted of 63 members from 25 countries .The adventurer Robert Swan who firstly arrived at the North and South Poles on foot in the world founded “Inspire Antarctica Expedition-Leadership on the edge, IAE6”. Since 2003 this organization has selected annually a group of excellent business leaders and young people around the globe to go to the South Pole .Those people could get the first-hand materials on climate change and human’s influence towards Antarctic ecosystems through their own experience. Robert Swan together with the other six members had led in a normal life totally depended on the renewable energy in E-Base set up on King George Island for two weeks before the team arrived there . This is the uniqueness of the 2008 IAE. Robert tried to use his own experience in the extreme circumstances of the South Pole to inspire people to choose the low-carbon life style .The station, as the first one, which totally uses the renewable energy, will be realized to run 365 days a year in 2009.

After returning to Beijing, Luo Rui was invited by Asia Society and Credit Suisse to share his experience of the trip to South Pole with Robert Swan in Hong Kong. Since the next year, Robert Swan and 2041 will select a group of young students globally to join in the Students Inspire Antarctica Expedition-Leadership on the edge. Luo Rui and CDM Club will help the selective work in China (including Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan)

The reason why the organization founded by Robert Swan was named 2041 is that in 1992 it made a pledge of 50-year blueprint to bring up the future young leaders in the business and environmental protection areas in “World Summit on Sustainable Development” in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The organization hopes that they would play a positive role in protecting the South Pole and the earth by their own action in their own fields. From 2008 forth, Robert started another program ---- the trip for new energy. The trip started from American west coastal city Seattle in April 2008 and along the way by giving speeches in famous universities and business institutions; in 2009 he will go to Europe and Russia and reach China in 2011.

Ps: a brief introduction of CDM Club: It was started in 2006 by 10 graduates from School of Environment, Peking University (now School of City and Environment and School of Environmental Sciences and Engineering). The club was to provide a platform for mutual study and exchange with the outside for students who care about climate changes. Now the 57 members of CDM Club come from undergraduates from upper-grades and graduate students from various schools. In April 2007, three members of the Club participated in Tallberg Forum in Switzerland and in December 2007, two members went to Bali Indonesia to take part in UNFCCC climate change conference. The Club’s interests cover policies for climate change, energy-saving technology and carbon market trade and so on. Meanwhile, the club is carrying out an accounting program by listing greenhouse gas emissions from green campus whose aim is to seek campus’s potential way of energy saving and emissions reduction and to provide powerful data support for building energy-saving campus through the way of investigating energy consumption and interviewing professors and students. 

All copyrights reserved; No reproduction without permission!