HAPI Guide Summer 2017 | Page 45

HEALTH mentally devastating extraction methods, such as fracking for natural gas, mountaintop removal to extract coal, offshore drilling for oil and tar sands for synthetic crude. All of these methods are extreme- ly disruptive and destructive to the environment. The past few years alone are rife with examples of massive spills and accidents causing environmen- tal damage of absolutely epic proportions. This is no overnight change, but first and foremost we can all be more efficient with our energy con- sumption in our homes, businesses and transpor- tation. Solar energy will likely play the largest role in this transition, but in the meantime we need to look at all aspects of how we use energy and use less while minimizing pollution. 3. Melting in the Arctic DiCaprio visits Baffin Island, situated in the Cana- dian Arctic, above the Arctic Circle. There, he inter- views National Geographic explorer-in-residence Enric Sala, Ph.D., and Jake Awa, a native Arctic guide and hunter. 45 | HAPI Guide Awa recalls that in earlier years, they always used to have solid, frozen ice. Today, it has a slushy con- sistency, with large puddles everywhere. Accord- ing to Sala, if the melting trend continues, by 2040 we will be able to sail across the North Pole. There will be no Arctic ice left. Even if the temperature were to stabilize at the levels we’ve seen in the past decade, Greenland will still vanish. In the past five years alone, one lower Greenland weather station has seen about 30 feet of ice melt, amounting to hundreds of cubic kilometers of ice.