Though polar explorer Will Steger came to Mankato dogless, he’s immersed in perhaps the most dogged quest in his life — holding global warming at bay. The 63-year- old Steger has said he is dedicating the rest of his life to raising public awareness, and he brought his road show to Minnesota State University on Saturday.
A few hundred people turned out in Bresnan Arena to hear the St. Paul resident, who actually serves as a warmup act of sorts for the hard science.
That’s delivered by J. Drake Hamilton of Fresh Energy, a St. Paul- based nonprofit organization working on clean energy alternatives.
Steger opened with a slideshow narration of his storied dogsled expeditions, with first-hand accounts of the polar warming he said he’s been warning about since his high school teaching days in the late 1960s.
“Once you start losing some of the ice, it creates a domino effect,” he said.
Hamilton presented a buffet of graphs, charts and calls to action.
“Can we avoid creating a planet we won’t recognize? The answer is yes,” she said.
Hamilton said trimming emissions from coal-powered electric plants is of paramount importance, but individuals can do their parts as well by buying locally produced food, eating less meat, using powersaving appliances, and hosts of other actions to cut energy consumption.
“And the clock is ticking. We have to do this in the next 20 years. We don’t have until 2050.”
She said she’s encouraged that the pendulum seems to be swinging toward more enlightened global stewardships.
“It’s interesting that 27 CEOs of major U.S. companies are now saying the same things we’re saying,” she said. Hamilton said carbon dioxide emissions from the burning of fossil fuels can last up to a century in the atmosphere, and affect climate change accordingly.
She said at the current emissions rate, Minnesota could experience Kansas-like summers by 2095, with more than 40 days of 90-plus temperatures.
Steger’s next expedition is slated for late December, when he plans to explore a portion of the Antarctic by kayak, on foot, and by sailboat.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty has said he might join Steger next spring for a trip to the Arctic if his schedule permits.
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