BAR HARBOR, Maine — There's a unique opportunity this week to hear from a Maine-based scientist who has studied at both the north and south pole.
Sean Todd, a professor at the College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor, is a marine scientist. This week, as part of the Camden Conference, he will be giving a talk called, "Poles Apart: The Differences and Similarities Between Polar Regions."
Todd will explain that while the poles may look similar— they are literally at the ends of the earth, remote, cold and difficult to study— they are in fact quite different, in terms of their geography, oceanography, history, and governance.
"Antarctica is essentially a governance experiment that has been working very very well since the 1950s," says Todd. "We decided as a global community that nobody would own Antarctica. It would be run by a treaty, and the continent would be dedicated towards peace and science."
"In terms of the Arctic, however, it's very different. Many countries infringed upon the Arctic in terms of their sovereign land, and of course, we have a rich rich indigenous community of Inuit that also live in the Arctic."
The virtual talk is on Tuesday evening, February 9th at 5:30 pm. It is hosted by Southwest Harbor Public Library in collaboration with the Camden Conference.
To register for this virtual talk and receive a link to the Zoom presentation, please email programs@swhplibrary.org.
According to a press release from the Camden Conference, Todd is the Steven K. Katona Chair in Marine Sciences at College of the Atlantic, Bar Harbor. He has staged research on the Antarctic Peninsula as well through the Northwest Passage, in Newfoundland, and sub-polar Labrador.
Todd has been traveling to these extreme regions for almost twenty years and "has accrued a deep understanding of the ecology of their environments, especially in regard to the role of ecotourism in developing these sites as wildlife sanctuaries—particularly salient given the increasing impact of climate change."
Todd recently authored and starred in ” Life in the Worlds’ Oceans”, a 30-part video course exploring everything from deadly microorganisms to massive marine mammals, produced by The Great Courses in partnership with Smithsonian.
The theme of this year’s Camden Conference is “The Geopolitics of the Arctic: a Region in Peril." It will be held on February 21st and 22nd.