A brief introduction...

I’d like to introduce you to someone.

I say someone, maybe I mean something, but using the word ‘thing’ doesn’t feel right.

Receiving renewed attention today is the possibility to grant parts of nature a legal personhood. The river Ganges, Te Urewera mountain ranges in New Zealand and many more natural features of our planet have been granted legal entities in order to protect them. Brilliant, but can we not just protect them without having to legally bind them?

Thankfully, the particular natural entity this article is built around is rather out of reach from most people and harm. So far south in fact that only a handful of people have reached and summited its mighty peak.

Erebus and I.

You see that smoking big old volcano behind me? That’s Mount Erebus.

Not only does this shot look quite nice in monochrome but I feel it is quite fitting as this is how the first pictures taken of the worlds most southerly active volcano would have been taken.

First discovered by Sir Captain James Clarke Ross in 1841, Erebus stood exactly how she does today but perhaps sightly more active. The main character of the Ross sea, Mt Erebus and its neighbouring Mt Terror were and continue to be the great back drops of many expeditions in polar discovery.

Standing at 3, 794 meters Mt, Erebus is the tallest volcano in Antarctica and the most southerly active volcano in the world. Hidden within the Volcano are ice fumaroles, otherwise known as ice towers and caves carved out and created by the condensation of volcanic gases escaping from the volcano’s flanks over time. These are not only pretty cool if you’re into volcanology (like me) BUT they harbour unique environments for particular microbial communities and endemic bacteria!

Have I lost you yet?

Thank goodness for drones.

Its very rare today to sit with and witness the power of the natural world right in front of you. In both January and February I was lucky to be working beneath Mount Erebus, waking up to see how she was smoking each morning and what sort of clouds were forming around her that day. Katabatic winds are no joke!

The picture above is possibly the best selfie I will ever take, with the help of my amazing colleagues! On our last afternoon in the Ross Sea, Eastern Antarctica, we sat on the water looking up at Erebus. At one moment, we were silent and still and all looked up at Erebus. I could sense that we were all thinking the same thing ‘I’ll never experience this moment again’. A sense gratitude, awe and disbelief at what I was looking up at filled me. Antarctica really is something special.

A sunny day on the water, cruising the ice edge.

So, what should you ‘take home’ from this piece?

Well firstly, if you didn’t know already, nature can be granted a personhood and protection. So if we really want to protect somewhere special, just remember that. Just because ecosystems don’t verbally speak and cannot stand up for themselves, nature gives us enough signs that its alive and kicking. We just have to slow down in order to see it.

Secondly, take this article as a sign to be in awe of places more often. Perhaps then might we engage in more conservation based practices, preserve the natural world and in doing so help ourselves.

What do you think?

Thanks for being here,

Mattea