“It will only take about one hour, one hour and a half to get there” answered the woman while I was getting on this tiny black boat. I was never a big fan of boats so I just stared at my brother hoping it would not be a very bumpy ride to our destination.
That was just me convincing myself that it would be a nice ride because the Arctic ocean has never been the smoothest place on the planet, but I couldn’t leave the incredible island of Svalbard (Norway) without seeing walruses. About the bumpy boat ride,I was right… I obviously knew it wouldn’t be a French Riviera summer boat ride, but an hour and a half after leaving the town of Longyearbyen and on the verge of being seasick, I desperately walked to the back of the tiny boat, avoiding everyone else while they were having their breakfast, and asked “Are we there yet?”. The woman did not seem convinced and without knowing how to give me the bad news in a subtle way, she just said “Well, it’s kind of windy so we have at least an hour, an hour and a half left…”. Oh no…
Three hours after leaving our town and staring at every piece of land I saw wishing I could be there, we finally reached our destination: the most western island of Svalbard, famous for being the summer home of a group of walruses. Suddenly the ocean changed from blue to grey and there were hardly any waves. How was it possible? The top of the surrounding mountains were covered with thick white clouds that would sometimes mix with the shiny white snow and the ocean was flat. There was no noise. Nothing.
How did I feel? Confused. There was no noise at all and as human beings we find it surprisingly worrying and uncomfortable. But it was magical. I almost felt vulnerable. It was me, a few other people and NATURE. The beautiful, breathtaking nature… Suddenly, a few meters away, a whale came up to the surface to breath and slowly disappeared again under the grey, almost aluminium like, water. Wow…
Where is it going? What is under our boat? How many things do we not know? What does this whole ecosystem hide from us? We slowly approached the island and we could already see, and smell, a group of 20 or 30 walruses lying on their backs. After all, to them this was the equivalent of the French Riviera. It was magical! These animals, that can weigh up to a ton, with massive tusks, were peacefully laying there, kilometres away from human activity.
We then managed to set foot on the island and as we approached the group, respecting their privacy by setting a few hundred meter distance between them and us, we stood there, absolutely amazed by nature itself. Everything, the surroundings, the walruses, even the noise they made, was incredible. This was definitely worth the bumpy trip… That is when I realised the incredible beauty of nature.
Suddenly, out of nowhere, two very curious walruses come out of the water to check on who we were. Our guide couldn’t believe it and told us that it had never happened to him. I took many pictures and at the same time, just looked at them and enjoyed this unique moment. What were they thinking? Did they come and say hello? A few minutes after we left, heading back to Longyearbyen. On our way we saw another whale and her calf, millions of sea birds and a few very isolated houses. How do people live here in the winter when there is no sunlight and a lot of snow? How do they avoid polar bears?
Or maybe they don’t have that much snow anymore… According to the United Nations, 2010-2019 has been the warmest decade and our planet is on track to rise as much as 3.2 degrees celsius by the end of the century. Even though oceans unfortunately make me seasick, they regulate the global climate system as they are our planet’s largest carbon absorber, catching around 23% of our yearly CO2 emissions.
NATURE as a topic might seem quite vast but just like everything on our planet, it is composed by millions of smaller things that create what you and I call nature. If we start to protect each one of these smaller “things”, or solve problems and issues others may have, we can reach our goal of protecting NATURE as a whole.
At MANOA we are convinced that it is better to understand the issue before looking for solutions. Most of the people on our planet are aware of the climate emergency we will face in a few years, but do they really understand the importance? Our team will therefore focus on explaining why we are at a turning point and how we believe each and every one of you can make a difference. You can be an individual, a business, a family, MANOA is here for all of you.
This year we decided to focus on our exaggerated use of plastic. Let’s not lie to each other and say that by tomorrow it is possible to avoid using plastic. Unfortunately it is not possible. However, it is possible to reduce our daily amount of plastic and recycle a majority of items we use. Our team is therefore working hard so that everyone understands the origin of plastic and why back in the 70’ humans absolutely needed it. Globally only 20% of our plastic waste is recycled! Is this really the best we can do? Of course not! Recycling also uses 88% less energy and creates jobs, offering game changing solutions to people and countries around the world.
So join our ecosystem, subscribe to be the first to learn about what people around you are doing to protect our planet, our oceans, and help us understand and reduce the amount of plastic we use. This ecosystem was created for you. Me hope you enjoy it and learn all the important data you have to know to finally act and become a MANOA explorer!
Welcome on board!
PS: Think about the walruses… They are cute, chubby, and have funny moustaches. Do you need a better reason to subscribe and start learning about how to make a difference? I don’t think so…
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