#HorizonteAntártida

* Countdown: in ten days the expedition begins

“I want to write a song celebrating Nature, science and the exemplary work of scientists and sailors.” With these words the journalist and writer Valentín Carrera launches his latest project, #HorizonteAntártida. Carrera is preparing to travel as a Special Envoy in the next Spanish scientific expedition to Antarctica, which starts in ten days, departing from the ports of Vigo and Cartagena, and organized once again by the Spanish Polar Committee.

 

The #HorizonteAntártida campaign was presented by Valentín Carrera in his region, ElBierzo, at the headquarters of Pharmadus Botanicals, the firm which sponsors the project jointly with ABANCA and Galicia Calidade. For four months, Carrera will sail on board one of the expedition’s two oceanographic research vessels, the Sarmiento de Gamboa and the Hesperides, and he will visit the two Spanish scientific bases in Antarctica, the Juan Carlos I base, on Livingstone Island, and the Gabriel de Castilla base, on Deception Island. It will be the journalist’s second visit to Deception Island, thirty years after he visited there as a chronicler of the first Spanish scientific expedition to Antarctica, in the Southern Hemisphere summer of 1986/87.

 

“In the past three decades, Spain has developed significant scientific work in Antarctica, at the highest international level,” says Carrera. “I intend to report the work and passion of our scientists to society as a whole, but especially to the young; because the adventure of science, the difficulty of the work on board the research vessels and on the scientific bases, the tenacity, the constancy of the researchers, and the professionalism of the military that makes possible the stay on the icy continent, are values worthy of admiration and respect”.

 

From the Hesperides, Valentín Carrera will be sharing his daily adventure on his blog http://www.horizonteantartida.es/en. His reports will also be published by the news agency EFE on its specialized webpage EFE:VERDE; in weekly chronicles for the Televisión de Galicia and Radio Galega; and in reports on different media such as the new Chronicle, Mundiario, Galicia Dixital; as well as in social networks, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. “The reach will be global and immediate”, explains Carrera. “Thirty years ago, I sent the Chronicles by radio telegraph, but on this expedition we will have Wi-Fi. My eyes will be your eyes.”

“Antarctica is the great global laboratory, the place where the chain of life is more fragile and delicate than anywhere else in the world. Reducing pollution of the seas and preventing global warming are part of our collective responsibility. ABANCA, Galicia Calidade and Pharmadus Botanicals will share this trip with Valentín Carrera because these companies also share these values. We feel part of this challenge of leaving to our sons and daughters a clean, sustainable world, in harmony with nature, where the air, the land, the rivers, and oceans are a source of well-being.”

by Horizonte Antártida