Chapter 3 — Journey to the End of the Earth

It is a non-fiction travel essay by Tishani Doshi about her voyage to Antarctica aboard the Russian research vessel Akademik Shokalskiy. She was part of Students on Ice, a programme that takes high school students to Antarctica. The essay explores Antarctica's geological history, its role in climate change research, and the importance of phytoplankton to the food chain.

The author is Tishani Doshi. She travelled as part of Students on Ice, a programme headed by Canadian Geoff Green that takes high school students to the ends of the world to provide inspiring educational opportunities and foster a new understanding of the planet.

Students on Ice is a programme run by Canadian Geoff Green that takes high school students to Antarctica. Green started it because he got tired of taking celebrities and retired, rich curiosity-seekers who could only 'give back in a limited way.' He wanted instead to offer the future generation of policy-makers a life-changing experience at an age when they are ready to absorb, learn, and most importantly, act.

Gondwana was a giant amalgamated southern supercontinent that existed 650 million years ago, centred roughly around present-day Antarctica. It thrived for 500 million years when the climate was much warmer and a huge variety of flora and fauna existed. Eventually, the landmass was forced to separate into the continents we know today, and visiting Antarctica now means being part of that geological history.

Antarctica holds half-million-year-old carbon records trapped in its layers of ice. Its ice-cores are a direct archive of the Earth's past climate. Because Antarctica has never sustained a human population, it remains relatively pristine. Scientists study it to assess the impact of rising carbon dioxide levels and to ask whether the West Antarctic ice sheet will melt entirely or whether the Gulf Stream will be disrupted.

Phytoplankton are described as 'those grasses of the sea that nourish and sustain the entire Southern Ocean's food chain.' These single-celled plants use photosynthesis — the sun's energy to assimilate carbon and synthesise organic compounds. Scientists warn that further depletion of the ozone layer will affect phytoplankton, which in turn will affect all marine animals and birds of the region and the global carbon cycle. The essay uses them as a metaphor: 'take care of the small things and the big things will fall into place.'

The essay states that human civilisations have existed for a paltry 12,000 years — 'barely a few seconds on the geological clock.' In that time, humans have etched dominance over Nature with villages, towns, and megacities. The unmitigated burning of fossil fuels has created a blanket of carbon dioxide around the world, slowly increasing average global temperatures.

The essay mentions Cordilleran folds alongside pre-Cambrian granite shields, ozone, carbon, evolution, and extinction as geological phenomena that visiting Antarctica helps one understand. They are part of the deep geological history embedded in the continent — evidence of the processes that shaped the Earth over millions of years.

Just short of the Antarctic Circle at 65.55 degrees south, the Akademik Shokalskiy wedged into a thick white stretch of ice between the peninsula and Tadpole Island. The Captain decided to turn back north, but before that, all 52 passengers were instructed to climb down the gangplank and walk on the ocean. Underneath their feet was a metre-thick ice pack, and beneath that, 180 metres of living, breathing salt water. Crabeater seals stretched on ice floes nearby. Doshi called it 'nothing short of a revelation: everything does indeed connect.'

Antarctica is the only place that has never sustained a human population and therefore remains relatively pristine. It stores 90 per cent of the Earth's total ice volumes and holds half-million-year-old carbon records in its ice-cores. Its simple ecosystem and lack of biodiversity mean that even small environmental changes have big repercussions, making it a perfect natural laboratory for studying the planet's past, present, and future.

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