Will Steger, Polar Explorer
Today's guest is Will Steger, an educator, activist, photographer, and polar explorer. Will is a prominent spokesperson for the preservation and understanding of the Arctic and is the creator of the Will Steger Foundation, which exists to educate and empower people to engage in solutions to climate change.
Will was the fourth person ever to have reached both Earth's poles. He led the first confirmed dogsled journey to the North Pole in 1986. In 1989 and 1990, he led the first dogsled traverse of Antarctica, a 3,471-mile journey, to raise awareness of the need for international cooperation to ban mining and oil exploration in Antarctica. This journey became a worldwide media phenomenon, leading to meetings with multiple global heads of state.
Will and Cody talk about how he built and leveraged his platform, the current priorities of his foundation, his childhood, how he started exploring, and how he's seen the world change in his lifetime, both physically and in terms of understanding and support for climate action. Lastly, they talk about survival, how Will manages to do it in the bleakest moments of an expedition, and how he thinks humans will do it in the face of climate change.
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Episode recorded on March 23, 2023.
In this episode, we cover:
[2:15] Will's early expedition to Antarctica which gained global recognition in 1986
[7:45] An overview of the Antarctic Treaty and Will's experience with diplomacy and building awareness and cooperation among global leaders
[10:15] Reflections on his first trip to the Antarctic and landing on the Larsen A Ice Shelf
[12:40] An overview of the Will Steger Foundation
[15:58] His work to bring climate into school curriculums and the shifting youth attitudes toward the topic
[20:58] Will's upbringing and early interest in exploration
[26:40] How he got involved with dogsledding and an overview of working with dogs
[29:30] Will's first journey to the North Pole in 1986
[33:16] An overview of Will's new Steger Center for Innovation and Leadership
[34:28] Observations that have been most effective in helping people understand the implications of climate change
[42:14] How to follow Will's travels at https://stegercenter.org/
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Cody Simms (00:00):
Today's guest is Will Steger, educator, activist, photographer, and polar explorer. Will is a prominent spokesperson for the preservation and understanding of the Arctic and is the creator of the Will Steger Foundation, which exists to educate and empower people to engage in solutions to climate change.
(00:20):
Will was the fourth person ever to have reached both of the Earth's poles. He led the first confirmed dogsled journey to the North Pole in 1986, and in 1989 and 1990, he led the first dogsled traverse of Antarctica, a 3,471-mile journey, in order to raise awareness of the need for international cooperation to ban mining and oil exploration in Antarctica. This journey became a worldwide media phenomenon and led to meetings with multiple global heads of state.
(00:57):
Will and I talk about how he built and leveraged his platform, the current priorities of his foundation, his childhood, and how he started exploring and how he's seen the world change in his lifetime, both physically and in terms of the understanding of and support for climate action. Lastly, we talk about survival and how he manages to do it in the bleakest moments of an expedition and how he thinks humans will do it in the face of climate change.
(01:24):
But first, I'm Cody Simms.
Yin Lu (01:28):
I'm Yin Lu.
Jason Jacobs (01:29):
And I'm Jason Jacobs. And welcome to My Climate Journey.
Yin Lu (01:35):
This show is a growing body of knowledge focused on climate change and potential solutions.
Cody Simms (01:41):
In this podcast, we traverse disciplines, industries, and opinions to better understand and make sense of the formidable problem of climate change and all the ways people like you and I can help.
(01:53):
Will, welcome to the show.
Will Steger (01:55):
Good to be here, Cody.
Cody Simms (01:56):
Will, I am enthralled to learn from you today. There are so many directions we can go with this conversation, but one place I want to start is actually, from what I understand, somewhat in the middle of your journey as an explorer, which was in 1989, 1990, you led a 3,400-plus-mile dogsled expedition of Antarctica. And a motivation for doing this, as I understood, was to raise awareness in the public mind and ultimately in the political policymakers' minds of the need to ban mining and oil exploration in Antarctica.
(02:34):
Walk us through the origins of that trip and then we'll talk a little bit about what actually happened, which as I understood it, resulted in President H.W. Bush at the time, who obviously is himself very much an oil and gas man, making a pretty monumental decision.
Will Steger (02:51):
Yeah. Well, it actually started in 1960 during the Cold War. Antarctica was set aside in an amazing treaty called the Antarctic Treaty. So it was set aside for science only, international cooperation, open inspections, no military, no nuclear. But they had a clause that in 1990 they would review the treaty in case something that they couldn't foresee would come up. And back in 1960, of course minerals seemed like they would last forever. There wasn't any issue with minerals at all.
(03:21):
But then when it came for the review of the treaty, actually in 1986, behind closed doors, the 27 Treaty nations decided to, in a formal document called the Wellington Convention, decided that they would open up Antarctica through that treaty at that review in 1994 for mineral exploration, which basically would be the beginning of end of that environment. But also, in the later '80s, we were aware that climate change was happening, but we didn't have data, there wasn't enough science, and we needed more science in Antarctica. So if this went in the direction of mineral exploration, all that research would've gone into commercial direction and we wouldn't have the data. We would need that for the policies that we now have.
(04:05):
So I was leading, at that time in 1986, a unsupported expedition to the North Pole, 50 dogs, five dog teams, eight people. And I literally ran into one other guy that was out there, Jean-Louis Etienne, who was a Frenchman doing a solo. And it was on that evening after I met him, I went to his tent. And of course, we talked about our present expedition, but we talked about our next expedition. I had a map of Antarctica with me, and I showed him that the long route, and he was a French physician and he was really captivated by just a magnitude of even the idea of crossing at the long route.
(04:42):
But we talked about what we were doing in '86 was a personal best, and we wanted to do something more than that. And we both knew at that time, because we kept up with affairs, holder affairs, we knew that they had agreed to open it up. So we formed this international expedition, 16 members from the six main signees of the original Antarctic Treaty. Basically, the six countries that we helped sway in the beginning, which was Japan, China, the Soviet Union, Great Britain, France, and the US.
(05:11):
So we formed this expedition, trained, raised $8 million, and then crossed it on this incredible route. I mean, it was a 227-day trip journeys. We almost perished a number of times along the way. We laid out caches, and some of the caches, we couldn't find. But it actually, the expedition did what we wanted to do. It caught the fascination of the whole globe. We had over half the world following us and this was before the internet.
Cody Simms (05:41):
Yeah, I saw you had 2.5 billion media impressions. Where were you generating this awareness? Was this in magazines? Was this on... Did you have video footage of the trip as well? Explain a little bit more about the awareness you were able to generate in 1989, 1990 in this regard.
Will Steger (05:57):
Yeah, it's a good question because we had a professional film crew from France, climbers that were used to this type of climate. They came in five different times. Though logistically, getting them in there was difficult, but we needed the images so we could garner a following.
(06:11):
But the impressions were made mainly through TV and radio. We had a majority of China following us. I mean, China had one half an hour where the whole country watches that half an hour. We were consistently on there. And we were talking about the nuclear science. So when we finished the expedition, we had 15 million kids that followed us. This is pre-internet.
(06:33):
But when we finished in March of 1990, then we did a tour for about six months around the globe and met with the world presidents because we had to have all 27 treaty signees, they had to reverse their decision. If one abstained, it was a no-go. So it was like a poker game. We landed our Soviet ship from Antarctica, landed in Australia, and we got the Prime Minister of Australia. So that was one card in the hand, and then we got President Mitterrand, and then we got the Prime Minister of Japan, the President of China. And we ended up getting all the signees except for George Bush, and he abstained, and because he abstained, it was a no-go.
(07:13):
So they reconvened a year later, and the reason he abstained is that his Chief of Staff was Sununu, he was an anti-environmental Republican from Massachusetts. And he kept all this information away, basically away from the President. He was not aware of everything that was going on, but he voted again against it, but we were able to get him a letter. We did a lot of politicking in the Congress for a whole year. And then he realized that this was an opportunity for himself and the United States, and he signed on board then in '91.
Cody Simms (07:45):
I've read somewhere that said that in order for you to get his sort of attention, you needed to reframe the issue away from global warming or climate change or environmentalism and reframe it more as an international cooperation initiative. Is that accurate?
Will Steger (08:00):
Yeah, we did. When we met the President, we were told that's what you're to talk about. And when you're doing diplomacy, you're not yelling and shouting. You got to follow a certain protocol of respect and you have to go for the long run. And it was the international cooperation that really captivated his interest. But of course, in 1990s you did not talk about climate change or global warming. That was just something if you want to shut down the conversation. But we knew we needed that data for climate change because we needed science.
(08:30):
And then the treaty was signed for another 50 years. But guess what? If they want to change it, they have to now have a majority going the other way around, which is extremely unlikely that that minerals clause will ever be changed.
(08:44):
And then the other issue, back in 1990, there was no treaty governing minerals at all. In other words, any country could go into Antarctica and grab the minerals like you had in Kuwait in 1990 or '91. It was really a dangerous situation. But that new treaty review really set that aside and made that aware of that, there's no grabs for minerals and so forth. So that was really a victory for-
Cody Simms (09:07):
Who governs that now? Is it the UN that needs to govern the ability to... I mean, I guess it's banned because of the treaty, right?
Will Steger (09:14):
Yeah. It's still in the treaty. The treaty is much larger now. I think there's 40-some countries involved in it and it's a very well-reinforced treaty, and it's supported openly by countries like China and the Soviet Union. I don't know where the Soviet Union is now the last year, but up until this Ukraine war, the Soviets were on board also about keeping science science down there. So it was a remarkable achievement for everybody, and it was a good statement of where the world was in 1990.
Cody Simms (09:44):
Well, it's also a great example of how to leverage your own skills and interests to make a difference. Not all of us can drive dogsleds across the Antarctic, but you could, and so leveraging that and using that to build the following and raise awareness is, to me, just a fantastic example of climate action.
(10:01):
I read or I think I saw a video that was you talking about how, as you were flying into Antarctica for the first time, you actually ended up landing on the Larsen B Ice Shelf. I'd love to hear your reflections on that.
Will Steger (10:15):
The first sight of Antarctic, we flew in in July, which is their mid-winter, and it was low lighting, just pastel, beautiful. I've never seen anything more beautiful coming up to the Antarctic Peninsula. The peninsula is a real narrow peninsula and sticks in. It's the Pacific Ocean on one side, the Atlantic on the other. And I remember the Atlantic Ocean was open, the Bellingshausen Sea was open, which I thought was really unusual. And then we flew over the mountains and on the Pacific side, which was the Weddell Sea, and that was open, and that was a real red flag for me with climate change.
(10:51):
And I actually did a recording of it that I said something like, "The ice below us here is going to dictate the fate of the human race." And we landed on the Larsen. Actually, it was the Larsen A Ice Shelf, which is, in the Antarctica size, a little bit smaller, but still a huge size. And I remember seeing that. The ice shelf is the largest land feature I'd ever seen in my life. It was just incredible, the size of it. And that was a small land feature. So I automatically thought this is permanent.
(11:19):
But little did I know, 13 years later, that whole Larsen A and Larsen B Ice Shelf has disintegrated. And that was in March of 2002. And that's only 21 years ago. That broke up. And that was my call to action. I mean, when that happened, I realized the time is now. This is very serious. And on the other hand, 21 years ago, no one had a clue what was going on in the climate at that time. There's no awareness at all. We called it a global warming, but we repositioned that as climate change. It's a little easier to understand a change in climate, which when a warming climate produces that.
(11:59):
So I committed my life at that point to the solutions and the adaptations around climate change, and that's what my life has been about in the last 21 years, and hopefully for another 20 more years.
Cody Simms (12:14):
And I saw, so based on that, in 2006 is when you created the Will Steger Foundation. And that is, as I understand it, focused on educational and sort of empowerment concerns around climate change. Maybe share a bit more about what you're doing in the foundation, and then we're going to go into the way back machine and really talk about how you started in all the first place and hear some of your stories as well.
Will Steger (12:40):
Yeah, thank you. Yeah. Actually, I started forming the organization right in 2003. I formally legally drafted a nonprofit in oh '05, '06.
(12:48):
But I approached it several ways. One was, first of all, we needed to keep an educated community through our K-12 education. I mean, the basic education, the STEM education was most important. So we worked in that avenue in climate, getting climate and energy and so forth into the curriculum. The climate standards now are in over, I think it's 35 states now. So we went from classroom to classrooms of course, and worked always with teachers because the teachers create the curriculum, but we did the political avenue that enabled that to become a standard because, like the Antarctic Treaty, that was a policy. We created a new policy, and I've always worked in policy, so in this case, the educational policy in terms of standards. So that was one of the goals.
(13:38):
The other goal that I had was I saw the solutions to climate change as economics, that 20 years ago, I saw this economy that's now just starting to get underway. Not just clean energy, but the new technical revolution that we're having, the new ways of building the new... I mean, everything that we're doing to adapt and be resilient is all economics. The whole infrastructure, the structure of the infrastructure right now is going to create an enormous new economy, and this economy would enable us, for the first time, to really bring people out of poverty because poverty and inequity is our big issue. I mean, we have two big issues. That's climate and it's race, and it's an inequity of people of color for our whole history of this country. But without really stable, good paying, middle class-type jobs, there's no equity. But I saw the equity being in the creation of these new jobs.
(14:37):
For example, you talked about trades in our conversation before, some things you were doing in trades, for example. Anybody that's in the trades right now, electrical, carpentry, plumbing, all this, you're assured of a good job for a whole career. It's not training that's going to get you a job for a while and disappear. So we're creating a whole economy.
(14:59):
My vision 20 years ago is where we're at today, where here we are, everybody's talking about it. It's also safe to talk about it because early on, you really couldn't bring it up. I mean, you could and fight over it, but that wouldn't get you anywhere.
Cody Simms (15:12):
Right. It would cause debate.
Will Steger (15:14):
Yeah. I mean, if people deny it, they deny it. We're always going to have 20% deniers. But denying in a leadership or a political leadership role is not... That's not acceptable.
Cody Simms (15:26):
How have you seen K through 12 education receptivity to this topic change over the last 20 years? Was it hard to get your foot in the door originally with schools? They were sort of waving their hands saying, "Oh no, this is too political for us," or were they always willing to engage from a science angle?
Will Steger (15:46):
Yeah. Well, first of all, the kids were always there. The kids are.
Cody Simms (15:50):
Yeah, sure. Well, you bring in stories about dogs and sleds and I'm sure they love it, right?
Will Steger (15:54):
Yeah, yeah.
Cody Simms (15:55):
The kids, they learn through your experience, which is amazing.
Will Steger (15:58):
Yeah, the teachers are there. But it takes awareness on a larger scale, like we did in Minnesota. In '07, '08, we had, for the first time since 1970, both our State House and Senate met and 94% we got, we created the new Energy Act, bills that enabled our clean energy to flourish like it is today. But that took a lot of being in the trenches, being in the media. So you have to bring the topic to the public and the politicians.
(16:30):
We did have a lot of resistance on the Republican side on the standards, but we still were able to do it because it was the right thing to do to get climate into science and acceptable. So once it was in acceptable standards, then the teachers had the cover to teach it. It's almost like teaching evolution. That's really charged. So it was almost a very similar thing early on. But once you got the standards going, it was... Rural teachers are really my heroes. They still have a hard time with climate in some areas, but for most of our region here in the Midwest, about 90% of it, at least in education, the STEM science and so forth accept it.
Cody Simms (17:14):
Amazing. And how have you seen kids change in their attitudes? I mean, it feels like the current kids who are in elementary school, even up through high school, obviously are the ones who are going to be stuck with whatever problems we leave them, and I'm curious how you've seen their attitudes change over the last two decades.
Will Steger (17:34):
Well, the third area that we worked in, of course, was youth, the climate movement. My goal was to help start the climate movement and the kids were ripe for that moment. It was for them. From the very beginning, they got it and they got it more clearer than the adults. It was unusual that they usually look for adults for your education, but 20 years ago, the adults were denying a lot of this.
(17:59):
But as you see today, the climate movement and the social justice climate movement is huge. And I'm not sure how the rest of the country went, but our politics here in Minnesota, this last election we had were really helped sway by the youth votes there now. So it's about them. It's their future.
(18:17):
So that was almost a no-brainer. I never had an argument with a young person about climate change. I mean, it's not that difficult to understand.
Cody Simms (18:26):
Have you seen attitudes shift from recognition of the problem and the scope of the problem to recognition of solutions and actions to take? Has that been a shifting sentiment or am I wearing too much of my technology rose-covered glasses in asking that?
Will Steger (18:46):
Well, what really did it was I got my traction because I was an eyewitness. I saw this happen in the polar regions, and I could bring my story, my adventure to the public, and that helped. People got it. But oh, maybe it was probably around seven years ago, we all started to have our climate stories. Anybody that's half-aware, you know it's changing. You can look out. I can look out my window here in Minnesota and what's going wrong here?
(19:13):
So we became all eyewitnesses to the climate and that is what really... It's a tactile understanding. And climate change is about erratic climate that goes back and forth and we see that all the time now in the media. And I mean, it's just overwhelming what's happening, one after another after another. And that is what really brought the true believers. And I think common sense got its hold also. And then I think a lot of people realize too that, hey, it's best for our economy here to work towards these solutions or at least to the adaptations of that.
Yin Lu (19:52):
Hey everyone, Yin here, a partner at MCJ Collective. I want to take a quick minute to tell you about our MCJ Membership Community, which was born out of a collective thirst for peer-to-peer learning and doing that goes beyond just listening to the pod.
(20:05):
We started in 2019 and have grown to thousands of members globally. Each week, we're inspired by people who join with different backgrounds and points of view. What we all share in common is a deep curiosity to learn and bias to action around ways to accelerate solutions to climate change.
(20:21):
Some awesome initiatives have come out of the community. A number of founding teams have met, several non-profits have been established, a bunch of hiring has been done, and many early stage investments have been made, as well as ongoing events and programming like monthly Women in Climate meetups, idea jams for early-stage founders, climate book club, workshops and more.
(20:42):
Whether you've been in climate for a while or just embarking on your journey, having a community to support you is important. If you want to learn more, head over to MCJCollective.com and click on the members tab at the top. Thanks and enjoy the rest of the show.
Cody Simms (20:58):
Well, let's now talk about you as a youth growing up when no one was talking about climate change. As I understood it, you grew up in Minnesota, and at some point, were inspired by the book Huck Finn to become an explorer. That led you to take a trip down a couple of significant rivers, maybe emulating the Huck journey, and ultimately became a significant kayaker, which then turned into, hey, I'm going to go try some dogsledding.
(21:25):
Am I getting the broad brush origin story correct here, Will?
Will Steger (21:30):
Yeah, that's a broad stroke. I'll give you the roots of it, and the roots of it were actually my parents.
(21:35):
I had great parents. We had 10 kids in our family, and my parents had a great relationship, and we were in their first ring of the first suburbs in the late '40s in Minneapolis, so we had a small house with one bathroom. And my dad was an entrepreneur and he raised his kids on his ideas and that was the way I was raised. As an entrepreneur. And my parents allowed us, my brothers and sisters and I, to have tremendous freedom and I ran with that freedom because I could dream big and I could then go and activate that dream.
(22:11):
And I also was left-handed and I was dyslexic. School was tough, but that was actually a very good... I really had to work hard and overcome that handicap. That was really good for me.
(22:23):
But my first book that I read in fourth grade was this huge book called Huck Finn, but it was the sketches and the diagrams that drew me in. So I wanted to go down the river to New Orleans. I was always fascinated with the river here in the Twin Cities. And that put the whole pieces together of that. He goes to New Orleans and all these adventures along the way.
Cody Simms (22:43):
Oh, that's right. The Mississippi River actually goes through the Twin Cities. Does it not?
Will Steger (22:46):
It does, yeah.
Cody Simms (22:47):
When I think of my geography, I don't recognize that, but I guess it does.
Will Steger (22:50):
Yeah, it does, yeah. It splits Minneapolis and Saint Paul. It starts at the very top. So when I was 12 years old, he didn't ask me that. I told him, I wanted to go down the river to New Orleans. And he said, "Well, you have to have a good boat." So I worked for three years and made a boat and fixed up a motor, traded it in.
(23:06):
So I ended up going down the river. I recruited my brother who was 17. By 1960, I was 15 then, down to New Orleans and then back up. And anyone could go down the river, but going back up... And we had to pay for all the gas. So the gas took all of our money and we were always hungry. So it forced us to kind of live off the land. In other words, we met so many people that took us in.
(23:32):
And as a 15-year-old, an innocent 15-year-old, to go down through the Deep South, and we landed in Natchez and Vicksburg. We were taken in by the Black people there in the lower community. The lower river was always Black communities and just wonderful people. And then each town we landed in the South, they arrested us because they thought we stole the boat. So we got that side of it. But we were white, so we weren't beat up.
(23:58):
But I saw that, the contradiction. I saw both good people in white and Black, but I saw this hatred with the white people. Being a Catholic kid back then, it was a cultural thing. It wasn't a cultural thing that harmed me, but it was just a perception. That was good for me at that age to see a side of stuff that most people don't even see when they're adults.
(24:22):
And then there was, along the river, people treated us just great. But when we got back, I was in debt to my parents for a year and a half paying off the gas. That was my first and last motorized adventure, so I start kayaking. I climbed, did first ascents when I was a teenager, and I was always fascinated by the mountains. But I ended up kayaking and the kayaking was a vehicle to get into the high Arctic. In '63 to '64, I did a kayak expedition up the Yukon River. There was no one else in the country at that time, the Native people and the trappers, but there weren't any tourists like Patagonia people kayaking around there. You didn't see anyone.
(25:02):
But I did about 10,000 miles of rivers in the high Arctic and that inspired me to buy property in the wilderness of Minnesota by the border. So I lived off-road, three miles from the road, two lakes from a road, without electricity. And I cleared land, I raised my own food, built a sauna, a workshop. I was pretty much self-supporting. I lived on $2,000 a year for 12 years and I had a generator and never used it. I had kerosene lights. I mean, it was the simplicity. I wasn't trying to prove anything to anybody. That just was the way I gravitated towards that.
(25:40):
I actually, when I was younger, I wanted to put my mind into wilderness. That's really... But to support myself, I started a dogsledding and skiing school, something that no one ever tried in Minnesota. And all along, I always had a vocation as being an educator. And when I was in the city, I lived in the city in until I was 25. I got a master's in education and taught three years, got my undergraduate in geology. So the formal education and to be certified as a teacher was important. But in 1970, when I was 25 is when I moved to the wilderness and then started the school. And the school really enabled me to develop programs and develop my ideas in education around wilderness.
(26:22):
So I did that for about eight years and I was really successful. I was making my full livelihood. I could have done that forever, but I wasn't reaching enough people. So I ended up having good dog teams and I branched out into a 25-year career of dogsledding the far north.
Cody Simms (26:40):
What was the origin of dogsledding? How did you decide I'm going to raise dogs and take them through the wilderness?
Will Steger (26:46):
You know, when I moved to the wilderness, my mindset was I wouldn't have anything to do with animals. I wouldn't be chained up to animals. I didn't want to bring a farm to the wilderness. But I met a friend that raised dogs and it was through seeing the dogs, and then that's what gave me the idea of doing dogs. And dogs did fit in well because it enabled me to bring in supplies that long distance because I was off-road. So in our long winters in the north, I could bring in supplies and to build, to build up my homestead.
(27:19):
But it also was an excellent way of recruiting students. I mean, I didn't do just high school kids. I did a lot of work with youth at risk, you'd say men and women's courses. I worked a lot with physical disabilities and mobility disabilities, bringing people out into the wilderness. So I was able to fulfill that need, educate. So it was a perfect match for me.
Cody Simms (27:42):
And I assume an advantage of dogsleds is that you don't have to port fuel around, right? You have to find food for them, and maybe you can explain what that looks like, but you're not having to cart around large amounts of fuel.
Will Steger (27:55):
No. With dogs, being in an isolated community too, an isolated spot, in the summertime, I would always have a lot of people my age that were helping me and I was teaching people how to do all these skills, so the dogs were actually a big part of our community, even in the summertime. They would, of course, stake out the dog house and so forth, but they were a very important part of our community. And the dog food was, to us, it was expensive, but I made enough money on the school to support the dog food for them.
(28:26):
And I had to bring everything in because if I didn't get everything in in the winter, then you would have to carry it all in, which was carrying in 4,000 pounds of dog food is... You could do it, but you didn't have to waste your whole summer doing it.
Cody Simms (28:38):
So when you're on your expedition, you're bringing dog food along with you on the sleds? Is that how that works?
Will Steger (28:44):
Yes, it is. Yeah. I mean, I lived off the land before in the '70s, early, way back 50 years ago, but almost all of our expeditions. That's the trick with dogsledding, you have to, okay, where's your dog food going? I mean, where's your dog food in Antarctica? So you've got to bring it down there.
(29:01):
And we set out in Antarctica, the first 2,000 miles to the pole, we set out food caches, and there's real bad weather still in the summer, every 200 miles. But we lost three of those caches and almost perished all three times. So when you're doing these really remote geographical firsts, and they're geographical firsts for a reason because they're difficult to do, it takes a lot of logistics and figuring out. It's all about figuring out the food for the dogs.
Cody Simms (29:30):
We've talked about Antarctica, and as I understand it, you were the fourth human to have been to both the North Pole and the South Pole, which assuming that's true, if history is correct, I believe there are only 12 humans ever who have been to the moon. So that is pretty incredible. And let's talk a little bit about that first journey you took to the North Pole in 1986. If I understood it, it was the first confirmed journey to the North Pole without resupply, so I assume that means you had to pack in everything you needed and pack it back out, is that correct?
Will Steger (30:04):
Yeah, '86, I was 41 at that time. I've done, prior to that, five incredible years. Once, I left for a year and a half and dogsledded 6,000 miles and dog packed and rafted out. So I mean, I had a lot of experience, but I used to think the North Pole was kind of a silly goal. But I realized, back at that time, that the North Pole had never been done unsupported and everybody said that was impossible. And I actually saw myself as a slice of history because I knew I could do that.
(30:36):
But it took lots of training and it was a calculated expedition. And we didn't have GPS. We used a sextant only, which made it... All the so-called unsupported expeditions, they used the GPS, but the sextant is really difficult on the Arctic Ocean because that ice is moving. If you make one navigational error, regardless of how hard you try, you're going to miss the pole, just finding it.
(31:03):
So I organized that expedition, eight people, 50 dogs. And to me, that expedition was do or die. I was not coming back unless I made it. I mean, I was so determined to make it because I realized at that time, I was doing well. I had a school and I had these expeditions under my belt, but I really saw much more opportunity for my life, as great as my life was. And I knew that if I could make the pole, I would open up these doors of opportunity. And particularly, I really wanted to work more at the national, international level on the environment. The reason I left my school behind is I was reaching about 70 people and making really good friends. And even today, whenever I meet a student I had 50 years ago, we have a lot of great conversations, but it just wasn't enough in my mind. As an educator, I wanted to do more and I knew that that expedition would open the door.
(31:58):
And we did make it. We had two injuries along the way. So six of the eight of us made it to the top and Ann Bancroft was the first woman to make the poll. She's a great educator. She went on to do amazing things. And then just ironically, along the way, I ran into... You know the size of the United States, moving ice, you can only see a quarter of a mile. I ran into the Frenchman, Jean-Louis, and we put together this Antarctica expedition, which then launches my career right up to the international level where the learning curve and everything I've learned through Jean-Louis and that.
(32:33):
So I was really right at the national level. I mean I was making $2,000 a year, and 12 years and three years later, we were doing million dollars worth of sponsorships. And all of this is risk-taking. I mean, you have no idea, the risk. Just raising the money and telling everybody you're going to do that. And boy, if you fail, you lose absolutely everything, your reputation. It isn't like anyone hands you the check. It's harder raising money and it's so much harder raising the money than doing the expedition itself. And it's the organization of not just the business part of it, but it's your educational programs, your policy and everything else you're doing. It's just a fascinating life.
(33:16):
And then I went on then to do more expeditions in the polar regions, the north polar regions. But after I left the school, 45 years ago, my real vision for my life was to build a wilderness center, a center in the wilderness to bring higher level leadership and policy makers, and Antarctica really confirmed that dream of mine. In fact, on an Antarctica expedition, I drew up the plans, the designs, for this Steger Center, which is now almost completed. And I started building in 1988 and I didn't have any idea how long it was going to take me. It took me 35 years, but I just kept building. And at that time, for the first 20 years, I didn't tell anybody what I was doing. I was trying to build this center.
(34:06):
And now, last year, all the land I owned and everything I owned, I donated, along with my assets, I gave it all way into the nonprofit. So now the Steger Center is like a 401(c)3. It was a 401(c)3 about seven, eight years ago. And then we're beginning next year to do our first pilot programs, but the center is really what my life has been about. All my expeditions have been simply a means to an end to do that center. And I knew that back then. I never talked about it, but it was almost like expeditions were like heavyweight boxing champions. If you won, you're the top, but then you got to do another one. If you lose, you're out of the game. So it gave me the ability to...
(34:48):
And I knew the center, there would be two challenges. One was raising the money, which is an incredible amount of money, and the second would be who would come? And I did studies on small centers like that and the problem is bringing people there. And I always felt, 40 years ago, I could bring and develop a statute where I could get people to come to the Steger Center. But all along, I felt the reason for the Steger Center, I thought I could make the biggest impact in my life if I could reach the top leadership and the policymakers, similar to what we did in Antarctica, what we did in policy on around climate. That's really my call to action.
Cody Simms (35:28):
What have been some of the observations you have witnessed with your own eyes that have been most effective at helping people understand the implications of climate change at our global poles?
Will Steger (35:43):
Yeah, that's a good question. I really feel that it's the story that's important, as simple as that is. I had the story of dogsledding and the adventure and I could miserate people with the pictures and so forth. But the story really, I taught it. I taught through the story and they felt it and we had this exchange. And everybody has their own story now of climate change or we have our stories of... So many stories of people of color, we need to hear their stories.
(36:15):
I'm not so much interested in hearing the media talk about it. I want the stories.What is it like to be in those situations? What was it like to be in the South in the 1960s or the climate change? But I really feel it's through our stories, our heart-to-heart, one-to-one. We can communicate of course through our videos and photos, there's many different ways of doing it, but when it comes down to it, we have to empower our own individual self and I think that's where a lot of people don't give themselves enough credit.
Cody Simms (36:48):
For your individual self, how have you seen, for example, the Arctic or the Antarctic, whichever one you want to choose, we've already talked about the Larsen Ice Shelf disintegrating, so maybe from the Arctic perspective, how have you seen it change with your own eyes over the decades?
Will Steger (37:04):
Yeah, it's enormous. The North Pole was '86, and I had a sense in '86 seeing 50 dogs, five dog teams, 50 below, I really thought that this was the last of an era. Although in '86, I didn't realize that in 2007 that 50% of the Arctic Ocean broke up and the Arctic Ocean is mechanized or walking or however you want to get to the pole from the land. I don't think that's possible anymore. I mean, it's just so dramatic.
Cody Simms (37:35):
There's just too much water in between the different chunks of ice, essentially?
Will Steger (37:38):
Yeah. I mean, we have about 70% of what was once like 98% ice. That used to reflect the oncoming radiation. And when you have a polar summer, the sun's up for four and a half months, it doesn't set. And that energy reflects off the ice. Now in the summer, it's about 60, 70% is dark open water, which absorbs that energy. When it's absorbed, of course there's more energy now coming in. That causes more... The permafrost is now melting at a rapid rate, and it's just a whole chain of events.
(38:13):
And I've seen it not only through my eyes, but I've traveled in the Inuit, Athabasca Native, the Indian communities for most of my life. In some communities, I've been through off and on for 40 years. I know generations of people, so I know it through their stories, the stories of the elders and we've interviewed and recorded a lot of that. I've seen it through their eyes because they don't need a science book. They're out there living it, and their observations are very... But their attitude is something I think we can learn from because I would ask the elders, men or women, I said, "Okay, what about global warming?" They get it. They said, "Well, if the sea level rises, we'll move our villages up higher. And if we lose the ice, we'll fish."
(38:57):
They have this attitude, which is a healthy one, is that they're not going to get upset or lose their joy or their peace of mind over something that they have no power over. But what they have power over, they can change. And I think that's the issue that we are now facing right now.
(39:18):
I didn't know if I would be alive to witness this, but to witness the point where I feel we're at, where we're seeing that yes, we've screwed up or however you want to blame it, this is all going to change and there's no stopping it. We can adapt around it, we can slow it down, but we're over that edge. And as a result, and along with the politics and the media, people are just right at this point. I think everybody knows it, that we're absolutely frantic and we need our grieving period and we have to go through certain stages, but we really need to get it back together and activate ourselves.
Cody Simms (40:00):
I'm hearing a bit of call to action from you there on seeking more innovation around the resiliency and adaptation side of obviously the more people fighting the causes of climate change, the better, right? Transitioning to clean energy, et cetera. But in addition, recognition that no matter how good of a job we do there, the world is changing and is going to continue to change. And putting some effort behind innovation to deal with that change is also incredibly important is what I'm hearing you say. Is that accurate?
Will Steger (40:29):
Yeah, definitely. The way forward is through innovation, the entrepreneurial innovation. That's economy. It's through making good money, supporting people. It's thinking out of the box constantly. There's so much opportunity. If my dad was alive today, he would see so many opportunities.
(40:47):
My center is called the Steger Center for Innovation and Leadership. It's taking leadership, but it's innovating. And I've been an innovator all my life. That's what keeps me really sparked and that's what I relate to. And this is the age of innovation. It is not the age of sitting down and feeling sorry for ourselves and pouting and pointing fingers at everybody. It's really getting up there and sitting an example and being a leader and empowering ourselves and recognizing our own power and our own influence. If we look at how many people we influence is tremendous and surround yourself with positive people. And when you're around negative energy, shut it off. Get away from it. Don't hang out with it and turn it off. If the news is bothering you, why listen to it?
Cody Simms (41:33):
I mean, that, to me, has been finding myself for years with my head in the sand about climate change, just feeling scared about it, and then now finding this community of people who are innovating and doing something has given me hope. So I think that message that I'm hearing from you, I agree with wholeheartedly. If you can align yourself with people who are working to try to make change, it can create more people sucked in who also want to make change and it cascades from there.
(42:03):
Will, how can people follow along today? People who are inspired by your work, who want to learn more about the Will Steger Foundation, who want to learn more about the Steger Wilderness Center, where should they go? What should they do?
Will Steger (42:14):
Yeah, they can go to just the Steger Center, StegerCenter.org. And I'm leaving on an expedition in another three weeks. So I'm doing the Northwest Territories, I'm dropped off by a small bush plane with 60 days of food, and the only way out is 600 miles away on the Arctic coast, so I have to make my way up in that direction.
Cody Simms (42:34):
Will, if you don't mind me asking, how old are you today?
Will Steger (42:36):
Yeah, I'm 78.
Cody Simms (42:38):
That's amazing. That's incredible.
Will Steger (42:40):
Yeah. I think you can look at my age or whatever, but I think we have to empower ourselves all the time by taking on, challenging yourself and that. To me, it's an incredible thing. But I do call in on a satellite phone every night to a small recorder. So if people go on another couple weeks here at the StegerCenter.org, you can follow along and every night there's a position on a satellite map. You can drill right way down to see where I'm at, so if you want to follow there.
(43:06):
And then if you want to follow along other things that I'm doing at the Center too, you can. There's the website and if you can get on the website, you can sign up for our newsletter, and our newsletter comes out only six weeks. It's not hammering at you all the time to do or give or whatever. But the newsletter, I think, is a good way of following too. And I'm on Facebook at Will Seeger, Facebook.
(43:27):
Just to conclude, we were talking about these difficult times, but what we have to realize, this is not the end of the world. We're going to be around for a long time, unless we get into a nuclear war, but we're going to have to adapt to some changes. But it's really not the end. We still can have a very prosperous world and a very just world. We can live up to the values that we hold, and that's what we have to hang onto if you're feeling down about our complicated situation that we live in, but our goals are more achievable than they've ever been.
Cody Simms (44:04):
I want to ask one more question, which is, you mentioned there are times in your expeditions where you've almost died or you've been in dire trouble. What kept you going in those times?
Will Steger (44:16):
In Antarctica, there were a couple of times when it didn't really look like we were going to survive these storms. They were so horrific. And at that time, it was almost like I was in blackness and I had just a little ray of light. And that's, first of all, I clung onto that light. And for myself, what got me through was just my belief in the young people, the real young, innocent children that are coming of age. And I knew what we were doing was right and good. And because of that, I just knew we were going to somehow survive this.
(44:55):
I hung onto the goodness of the human race. And I don't think, what else? I mean, that's the best life preserver there is out there for all of us.
Cody Simms (45:05):
Will, thank you so much for joining us on My Climate Journey, and good luck on your upcoming expedition.
Jason Jacobs (45:11):
Thanks again for joining us on My Climate Journey podcast.
Cody Simms (45:15):
At MCJ Collective, we're all about powering collective innovation for climate solutions by breaking down silos and unleashing problem solving capacity.
Jason Jacobs (45:23):
If you'd like to learn more about MCJ Collective, visit us at MCJCollective.com. And if you have a guest suggestion, let us know via Twitter @MCJPod.
Yin Lu (45:34):
For weekly climate op-eds, jobs, community events, and investment announcements from our MCJ venture funds, be sure to subscribe to our newsletter on our website.
Cody Simms (45:44):
Thanks and see you next episode.
