Announcement by the Royal Society of New Zealand

2 August 2007

Otago Girls High Team Depart for Greenland and UK to Make Climate Change Documentary

Winners of the 2007 Freemasons BIG Science Adventures school DVD competition will be farewelled by Minister of Climate Change, Hon David Parker, at school assembly on Friday morning, and then at a special function in Wellington, hosted by the British High Commissioner, George Fergusson, on Monday. 

Year 13 students from Otago Girls High, Susan Smirk, Peggy Russell and Annika Metua, teacher Wendy Dunn, young filmmaker Jinty McTavish, and Listener writer, Sarah Barnett, will travel to the East Coast of Greenland to see first hand the effects of climate change.  Here, the local people live a traditional subsistence lifestyle, using kayaks to hunt seals. 

They will also spend a week in the UK investigating various climate change action initiatives, including a visit to the Mayor of London’s office to find out about the city’s plans to reduce carbon emissions, and a meeting with Guardian journalist Leo Hickman, who wrote a book about the year he and his wife spent trying to live as ethically as possible.

On their return, Jinty McTavish, a recent graduate of the Natural History filmmaking course at the University of Otago, will make a ten minute documentary about their expedition, and a further commercial half hour film.

On 20 August, the expedition party will meet up with New Zealand explorers
Graham Charles and Marcus Waters, who will be enjoying their last night in a real bed before setting out the next day to cross the Greenland ice sheet.  The Freemasons BIG Science Adventures team are packing the New Zealand flag for a small farewell ceremony. 

The Royal Society of New Zealand, which organises the competition, is grateful to Freemasons New Zealand for the way in which they have supported this competition over the last four years. 

Said President of the Royal Society of New Zealand, Neville Jordan, “Trip of a lifetime is an apt cliché for the experience the Freemasons are giving these students.  It is a true adventure, and it is adventure and experience that young people crave.  I know these young women will make the most of it, and bring back what they saw and what they learned in film and writing that we can all benefit from.”

The Royal Society also wishes to thank British Airways for sponsoring the travel to the UK, as they have done in previous years.  The British High Commission have also supported the expedition and New Zealand National Commission for UNESCO and the Royal Society have enabled Sarah Barnett of the Listener to join the party.