About Us (29)
A formidable voice calling for understanding and the preservation of the Arctic, and the Earth, Will Steger is best known for his legendary polar explorations. He has traveled tens of thousands of miles by kayak and dogsled for more than 45 years, leading teams on some of the most significant polar expeditions in history, earning him the Lifetime Achievement award from National Geographic Adventure Magazine in 2007. Will led the first confirmed dogsled journey to the North Pole without re-supply in 1986, the 1,600-mile south-north traverse of Greenland (the longest unsupported dogsled expedition in history) in 1988, and led the first dogsled traverse of Antarctica (the historic seven month, 3,741-mile International Trans-Antarctica Expedition) in 1989–90. Will has continued his commitment to education and exploration through the Will Steger Foundation. Recent expeditions have included a dynamic online component and have taken Will and his expedition teams to Ellesmere Island and Baffin Island in Canada's High Arctic. From the front lines of global warming, Will Steger is inspiring, educating and empowering people around the world to take action on global warming solutions.
- Will Steger's Expert Biography - Read the full bio here
(PDF 5.1 MB)
Will Steger is a recognized authority for the Polar Regions, including their environmental issues, and is an eyewitness to the effects of global warming. He has spent more than 45 years traveling through the Arctic regions, advocating for the Earth’s preservation and advising about permanent solutions to our climate crisis. Steger is a witness to the diverse and harmful effects of global warming to indigenous cultures, wildlife habitat and Arctic topography.
- Will Steger's Letter of Concern - Read the full letter here (PDF 52 KB)
"Global warming is a reality. It threatens both our society and life as we know it on earth. The overwhelming consensus of the scientific community for the past decade has been that the planetary warming we are now experiencing, and the resulting climate change, is largely a human induced phenomenon. This was reconfirmed with overwhelming consensus in 2007 with the release of the fourth report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Global warming is brought on mainly by the release of carbon dioxide through the burning of fossil fuels, which blankets our atmosphere raising the earthʼs surface temperature."
- Will Steger Homestead, Ely MN - Read more about the Steger homestead here
Located in the Northwoods of Ely, Minnesota close to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, Will Steger’s Homestead has been the base camp for several historic expeditions and is now an integral part of the Will Steger Foundation’s programming.
- Will Steger Expedition Journals - www.willsteger.com
Will Steger's Expedition Journals that showcase his years of exploration.
No Northwoods winter visit or work day is complete without the wonderfully stimulating experience of a 180º sauna and a corresponding dip in the frigid ice hole. Taking a sauna is an integral part of the routine at the Will Steger Homestead. It caps a hearty work day, cleans and relaxes the body, and boosts camaraderie. The sauna at the Homestead is a handcrafted log cabin that stands on a slope on the shore of Pickets Lake. It is heated by a wood stove and has a deck that is perfectly placed for gazing out over the frozen lake or up at the Milky Way. Most newcomers to the sauna experience are a bit nervous about the hot-cold combo. Well, despite a few icy dips, the experience is overwhelmingly a warm, cleansing hour of relaxation. Here's how it works.
Anyone familiar with winter in Northern Minnesota knows that temperatures regularly dip down into the negative twenties and thirties at night. Having a well-insulated home is important, as well as a reliable heat source. Out of the 24 buildings at the Homestead, 20 are heated with wood stoves. Wood is cut, split and stacked throughout the year in preperation for the cold winter months. During expedition training, cooks get up well before the sun to light the fire in the lodge. This is the only building that is consistently warm throughout the winter. Each person is responsible for splitting kindling and heating their own cabin.
The trees around Will’s Homestead in Ely are part of the southern edge of the Boreal (northern) Forest. The B
oreal Forest extends north into the Canadian Arctic. At the Homestead we have conifers (evergreens) like spruce, fir, pine, tamarack and cedar as well as some deciduous trees (that drop their leaves) like aspen and alder. It is fun to know the names of the trees—eventually the trees start to feel familiar, like friends.
Up here at the Homestead, the animals are our neighbors. The most common animals are the deer, wolves and beavers. When Will first arrived here at age nineteen, the timberwolves were close to extinction, but they were still thriving in the rugged areas around the Homestead.
Back then, there were long winters with deep snowdrifts; you could read the relationship between deer and wolf as it played out in their tracks. The wolves would use the deep snow to their advantage in hunting the deer; there were deer carcasses everywhere. But as the heavy snowfalls have disappeared, so has the evidence of the wolves' hunting.
Food at the homestead is organic. Will and the other team members feel strongly about eating food grown without chemicals. We believe organic food production is better for the environment and for our health. We also try to buy local food that hasn’t been transported across the country. Buying local food is one way we try to reduce our carbon footprint (the amount of carbon dioxide pollution for which an individual person or group is responsible). We further reduce our carbon footprint by storing food in an ice house (pictured here) and a root cellar rather than in an electric refrigerator.
Located in the Northwoods of Ely, Minnesota close to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, Will Steger’s Homestead has been the base camp for several historic expeditions and is now an integral part of the Will Steger Foundation’s programming.
The Homestead is a place where work teams visit to learn and grow, where students spend time to think and create, and where expedition planning and preparations take place, from designing and creating sleds, to chopping wood, to packing food for the expedition and training the expedition dogs.
I grew up in the suburbs of Minneapolis. Ever since I was fifteen years old, however, I had a plan to move out of the city when I turned twenty-five. The idea of being a pioneer fascinated me -- going over the mountains in a covered wagon, then clearing some land with an axe and making gardens.
When I was nineteen I kayaked for 3000 miles through Alaska. The Native Americans and trappers I saw there impressed me. I liked how they lived in log cabins and were self-sufficient. I had a lot of time to think as I was hitchhiking back from Alaska about the idea of living sustainably. I've always had a builder's instinct, and hitchhiking gave me time to visualize my perfect situation: two lakes' distance away from a road. Then I could be a few miles away from the nearest road, but not have to walk the distance, carrying my supplies. I could canoe.
Featuring special Guest, Dr. Naomi Oreskes, author of the recently published Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming with Erik M. Conway.
Science historians Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway, explains what—or rather who—is to blame for the climate misinformation campaign. It’s the troubling story of how a cadre of ideologues clouded the public interpretation of scientific facts to advance a political and economic agenda.
"Naomi Oreskes and Erik Conway have written an important and timely book. Merchants of Doubt should finally put to rest the question of whether the science of climate change is settled. It is, and we ignore this message at our peril."
- Elizabeth Kolbert, author of Field Notes from a Catastrophe
Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs, Cowles Auditorium
University of Minnesota, West Bank Campus
301 19th Ave. S., Minneapolis, MN 55455
Wednesday August 11th, 2010, 6 P.M.
Download the event flyer here (PDF 2.5MB)
For Directions and Parking visit:
www.hhh.umn.edu/contact/parking.html
Interested in meeting our guest? Join us for a private reception where you can meet the author. Click Here to learn more & purchase tickets.Event Sponsors:
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Will Steger Foundation
2801 21st Ave South Suite 127
Minneapolis, MN 55407
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Telephone: 612-278-7147
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