Climate Change

It is so important to find something you are passionate about and get involved. There is no explorer who hasn’t seen the effects of climate change, yet global agreement on solutions has been difficult as economies strive to balance economic growth against the threat of climate change. Climate change knows no borders.

That is why I have been supporting various initiatives since 2015 and why I am supporting the Global Atmospheric Plastic Survey (GAPS) in 2025, the first of its kind to leverage explorers to lend a hand to measure global atmospheric microplastics before it is too late.

GAPS

COP 26

2021: COP 26/CMP 16/CMA 3, Glasgow, United Kingdom

COP 26 was originally scheduled to take place in November 2020, in Glasgow, but was postponed to early November 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Among other things, this conference led to the development of the Accelerating to Zero coalition to accelerate the phase-out of fossil fuel vehicles.

COP 21

25zero was a mountaineering project designed to track equatorial glacial melt and raise of the impacts of climate change, led by explorer Tim Jarvis AM. The project presented live footage from the peaks of three mountain glaciers to the 37,000 delegates at the COP21 summit in 2015 in Paris, France, as a way of showcasing the impact of global warming on vulnerable and remote areas.

The 25zero climbing team has varied over time depending on the expedition, although the original 2014 team comprised:

Tim Jarvis
Ed Wardle
Heidi Sand
Vanessa O’Brien
Khoo Swee Chiow
Barry ‘Baz’ Gray

Global Climate Vital Signs

Screenshot 2020-04-12 at 15.54.48

Source: University of East Anglia School of Environmental Sciences

NASA

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About Vanessa O’Brien

Vanessa O’Brien is a British female mountaineer and an American female mountaineer (as a result of her dual nationality), explorer, aquanaut, astronaut, author, and public speaker.

Vanessa has an incredible six Guinness World Records: First x 2, Fastest, Deepest, Farthest and Oldest. Vanessa is the first woman to reach extremes on land, sea, and air (the Explorers' Extreme Trifecta) following her mission on Blue Origin's NS-22 to 107km. Vanessa was the first woman to reach earth’s highest (Mt. Everest 8,848m) and lowest points (Challenger Deep 10,925m), the fastest woman to climb the Seven Summits in 295 days, and the first person to reach nearest to and farthest from the earth's core (Challenger Deep and the summit of Chimborazo.) Vanessa is the first woman to complete the Four Poles Challenge, going the farthest north * south * east * west from the top of Everest to the bottom of Challenger Deep to skiing the last degree to the geographic North and South Poles. She holds the record for the oldest woman to summit K2, the second tallest peak, at 52 years old.

Vanessa became the first American or British woman to successfully summit K2, receiving Explorer of the Year by the Scientific Exploration Society (SES) in 2018. She is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and an Honorary Advisory Board member of the SES.

Vanessa summitted the highest peak on every continent, receiving a Guinness World Record for the fastest time a woman first achieved this goal (295 days.) Vanessa has skied the last 111 km to the north and south poles completing the Explorers Grand Slam in 11 months, the first woman to do so in under a year, and the 8th woman in the world. Vanessa ran the Boston Marathon in 2017, helping to raise money for the American Red Cross, has been shot testing bulletproof vests with a .38 long revolver at point blank range, and rode 200 mph with Mario Andretti at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

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