ice

The record has already been broken – but it is about to be shattered.

This isn’t the kind of record you wish to remember and tell your grandchildren about. This is no tale of great sporting achievement like Usain Bolt smashing his way into the Olympic record books. No, this is something entirely more sombre.

Two of the scientists travelling with Greenpeace on the Arctic Sunrise are Dr Julienne Stroeve, a research scientist at the US National Snow and Ice Data Centre (NSIDC), and Nick Toberg, an ice scientist at Cambridge University. I asked them what research they would be able to do on the ice, and for some insight into why Arctic sea ice is so important, and what impact the melting would have on our climate.

I’m aboard the Greenpeace ship, the Arctic Sunrise, just out of Tromsø in northern Norway, to  journey far north, to the edge of the Arctic sea ice.