North Pole Marathon Offers Forum for Climate Change Science Aboard Icebreaker

The North Pole marathon concluded on July 13 this year but the annual race on the world’s northernmost point is also a scientific expedition to battle climate change in the Arctic.

The North Pole Forum, a scientific initiative by the marathon organiser Runbuk, offered the runners an opportunity to learn more about the North Pole’s ice sheets, the challenges around the region’s preservation and development.

The Forum played out as a series of talks by global Arctic experts aboard the French icebreaker cruise ship Le Commandant Charcot that carried the runners both to and from the North Pole Marathon.

Veteran Arctic explorer Peter Damisch who leads the ship’s scientific expedition added that the French vessel has been gathering “precious” scientific data like water samples from both at the pole and along the voyage.

The Forum’s lineup went beyond scientists with speakers such as Jennifer Spence, the director of the Arctic Initiative program and an expert on governance and rights. Spence highlighted that the onus of collecting data and reducing climate change in the Arctic should be a shared global responsibility.

“Scientific cooperation is very important. And that means working across boundaries because the types of data that we need to understand what's happening and what the impacts are going to be, aren't things that one individual country can do on its own.”

With Russia claiming "almost 50%" of the Arctic Ocean coastline, Spence highlighted the need for Russia to expand its global cooperation with other Arctic countries to collectively combat climate change.

The environmental crisis in the Arctic also influences the insurance sector, Bolttech insurance services CEO Rob Schinek said during a talk at the Forum.

Schinek added that the insurance industry is trying to find solutions to climate change, be it the melting of polar ice caps in the North Pole or wildfires and hurricanes elsewhere.

“The big challenge for us is to continue to find new ways to give customers access to protection and new ways to make sure that the protection is actually going to be not at the cost of the insurance companies where they lose money so that others get protection. It's a balancing act.”

The North Pole currently grapples with rising temperatures with a 2025 World Meteorological Organisation report suggesting that the Arctic is warming three times faster than the global average rate.

(Reuters)