Extreme Adventure: An Epic Journey to the North Pole

By Vida Amor de Paz

This book and the associated movie started with my 2007 visit to the Maya forest. From there I took off to the North Pole. This extreme journey was necessary to test my hypothesis that climatic changes that led to the decline of many ancient Maya cities have much in common with the climatic changes we face today. To support this theory, I interviewed geographers, archeologists, anthropologists, as well as many equally renowned scientists. Humbly, I have written these lines, wishing to share my research. Through this book, I expect my readers to sense my heartfelt beliefs. This is really my voice! The book is not just focusing on reality or adventure but on hope as well. Even if everything looks gloomy and we find ourselves in the darkest spot, we can be sure that the sunrays are still there, even if a cloud is momentarily covering them. This is what I learned from my guide, Mary Baker Eddy, and her teachings have helped me discern the right panorama. We know that problems begin in our minds, and once the mind is corrected, the true light appears in our lives.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Trafford Publishing
• Release date: Sep 11, 2015
• ISBN: 9781490757209

Vida Amor de Paz

Soy guatemalteca y vivo en lo que llamamos La Cuna de la Civilización Maya. En estas páginas cuento sobre mi travesía como ambientalista y expedicionaria. Espero que a través de mi relato los lectores puedan comprender que si vivimos en esta pequeña isla que llamamos Planeta Tierra y disfrutamos de los recursos naturales que la madre naturaleza nos brinda, todos debiéramos llamarnos ambientalistas. Si comprendiéramos esto, nos dedicaríamos a cuidar nuestro planeta y no seguiríamos destruyéndola.

Book preview

EXTREME ADVENTURE

An Epic Journey to the North Pole

Vida Amor de Paz

Foreword by Dr. John Kermond,

Former UCAR Visiting Scientist at

the NOAA Office of Global Programs

©

Copyright 2015 Vida Amor de Paz.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written prior permission of the author.

Foreword by Dr. John Kermond, Former UCAR

Visiting Scientist at the NOAA Office of Global Programs

ISBN:   978-1-4907-5719-3 (sc)

               978-1-4907-5720-9 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2015910637

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Our mission is to efficiently provide the world’s finest, most comprehensive book publishing service, enabling every author to experience success. To find out how to publish your book, your way, and have it available worldwide, visit us online at www.trafford.com

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Trafford rev. 09/11/2015

12092.png www.trafford.com

North America & international

toll-free: 1 888 232 4444 (USA & Canada)

fax: [phone]

CONTENTS

Foreword

Acknowledgment

Introduction

Chapter 1   The Explorers’ Inspiration

Chapter 2   Invitation to the North Pole

Chapter 3   Fund-Raising to Get to the Arctic

Chapter 4   Climate Change, Global Warming, and Political Agendas

Chapter 5   The Arctic and Greenland Are Melting

Chapter 6   How Does the Mayan Downfall Match Today’s Climate Change?

Chapter 7   The Journey and Adventure

Chapter 8   The Crew and Their Instruments

Chapter 9   Challenges and Threats of the Journey

Chapter 10   Who Owns the North Pole?

Chapter 11   The Now

Appendix

Letters

Bibliography

Vida Amor de Paz

EXTREME ADVENTURE

An Epic Journey to the North Pole

Reality About Climate Change

22322.png

All rights reserved

Paz Editores

Directora Editorial: Licda. Mónica Hernández

Paz Editores es miembro de la Gremial de Editores de Guatemala.

Av. Petapa 22–29 zona 12, Centro Comercial del Sur, Local 5, Ciudad de Guatemala

Telefax: (502) 24760050 ventas 24769863/24769545

e-mail: [e-mail]/[e-mail]

[e-mail]

www.tropicalrainforest.org

Manuscript Editor: Lic. Mario Antonio Sandoval

Proofreader: Marina Rivera del Aguila

Copy and Technical Editors: Marina Rivera del Aguila and Adriana Gobbato

Translator: Adriana Gobbato

Cover Design: Alejandro Chacón

First edition: Guatemala, June 2013

No part of this publication may be reproduced, by any printing means in an identical or modified form in English or any language for public or private use other than for fair use as brief quotations embodied in articles, without prior permission of the publisher.

To all the living beings on Planet Earth, with the desire that we learn to coexist in harmony with nature, especially to my children Lucía, María, Cristina and Andrés.

"I found this remarkable, adventurous lady

to go to places where few dare to go.

Whether it’s on a Russian trawler or a dog sled

headed towards the North Pole, or saving the environment

and animals by going to where the challenges are

no weather, terrain or environment seems

to slow down this very determined lady.

Vida, carry on. You are an environmental hero."

—John Paul DeJoria,

Chairman of John Paul Mitchell Systems & Patron Tequila

Foreword

Fearless. Relentless. Courageous. Passionate. Brave. Committed. These are all worthy and deserved attributes of this author, Vida de Paz.

After experiencing the High Arctic for the first time on board the Soviet icebreaker Kapitan Dranitsyn, I casually suggested to Vida that she should try to get involved with the next year cruise (under the auspices of the University of Alaska in a research program named NABOS Nansen and Amundsen Basins Observational System ). Little did I know that Vida had already formulated a thesis that linked the natural-resource excesses of the Mayan civilization with those of the more present generation, especially in regard to the burning of fossil fuels and the concomitant increase in heat (also known as global warming) around the planet. Nowhere else on earth was this being better exemplified than in the Arctic—with thinning ice, smaller areal ice extent, and rapidly increasing sea temperatures that continues to this day!

With two weeks to go before the large Soviet nuclear-powered icebreaker Yamal was scheduled to depart, the charter-leasing fees were raised by many thousands of dollars above the previously agreed daily rate. This extra money was simply not available. A smaller conventional-powered icebreaker was substituted, which could barely accommodate the NABOS research and technical crew. Therefore, no journalists, no photographers, and no Vida!

Her disappointment was obvious over the telephone.

One window of opportunity, though, was available, and it was a long shot. On my cruise, we broke ice for the French schooner Tara. This vessel was attached (at 83° north) to an ice floe in replication of the much-fabled Arctic Circle drift of the Norwegian vessel Fram while, at the same time, taking scientific measurements as part of a European experiment named DAMOCLES. Tara was scheduled to be in the ice for over two years. There was a crew change scheduled, and Vida agreed (without any guarantees) to travel to where a small plane would depart to take the new crew and supplies to the Tara. Weather conditions caused many days of delay. Runway conditions (the runway was virtually shaped out by hand on the ice floe) were not ideal. Finally, all systems were go, and Vida and her cameraman found themselves strapped into the plane alongside crew replacements, an extra five-hundred-gallon fuel tank, and lots of supplies. After several days hosted on board Tara, the same plane returned and took them safely back to terra firma. Vida is quite possibly the only journalist and environmentalist from all of Central America to have accomplished such a feat.

I was able to later share in the telling of this adventure as Vida, Tara skipper Grant Redvers (a New Zealander, who was on the Tara for the entire expedition), and myself toured Central America to bring home the message of climate change. It is again with much pleasure that I provide this foreword and encourage you to read carefully and absorb what is contained in the book.

Having traveled from Guatemala to the frozen top of the world, an expedition to Antarctica will complete Vida’s journey. She has aspirations to do this. Based on the attributes above, this southern journey will be made.

Dr. John Kermond,

Retired UCAR visiting scientist

Estero, Florida

July 2012

image02_page%202.tif

Acknowledgments

My gratefulness goes to the now-retired UCAR visiting scientist at the NOAA Office of Global Programs Dr. John Kermond who has been my guide and mentor and to whom I owe much of what I know about climate change, updating me to this day with current information. I cannot miss mentioning my cameraman, Steve Freer, who was so brave and never complained under the hardships we endured on the ice. He did his work excellently. At the same time, I thank the noted laureate cinematographer in Europe and Latin America Adrian Cowell, may he rest in peace, who motivated me from the start with the first ideas on how to do the documentary. He was supposed to have traveled with us in the atomic icebreaker of the previous expedition that was canceled. His professionalism and wisdom were enormous key contributions as the project was taking off, but unfortunately, we lost