Italian explorer Alex Bellini has conceived an extraordinary plan to live alone on a drifting iceberg in northwest Greenland for up to a year, or until it melts away – whichever happens first. He aims to stay alive during this time in a tiny survival pod, and hopes his experience will encourage further discourse on climate change and the environment in general.
At this stage of the project, which is dubbed Adrift 2015, Bellini offers relatively few fine details on how he plans to achieve his aim. The explorer does seem to have a taste for dangerous challenges though, and has previously rowed a small boat solo across the Mediterranean Ocean and Atlantic Ocean. An attempt to row across the Pacific Ocean solo fell just short and ended in rescue.
Bellini aims to live atop the iceberg within his survival capsule from Spring (Northern Hemisphere) 2015 in northwest Greenland, and remain in place even as the iceberg melts and becomes steadily smaller.
He will live off 300 kg (661 lb) of dried food provisions until he is forced to abandon the iceberg, then float within the survival pod until it's washed ashore to safety. Presumably there's a plan in place to rescue Bellini should the survival pod not float ashore in due time.
Treehugger reports that the survival capsule Bellini is planning to use is the same kind used by ocean oil rigs, and that it is kevlar-reinforced.
Bellini will be alone for much of the time, but expects to be visited by journalists, and hopes to raise awareness and provoke discussion on climate change and the environment.
"With my next adventure I don't want to do anything but let people talk about climate and sustainability," says the explorer on his Facebook page. "Not proving the planet is warming, nor the planet is cooling. I have my own ideas you can have yours and the more I do research on this matter the less I see the whole thing clear. I'm not a scientist [but] just someone, as many others, who cares about the planet."
The video below offers a few details on the project.
Source: Alex Bellini
