Parker Liautaud

Last updated
Parker Liautaud
Born
Parker Liautaud

(1994-08-12) August 12, 1994 (age 27)
Palo Alto, California,
United States of America
NationalityAmerican
EducationYale University
Parent(s) Bernard Liautaud

Parker Liautaud (born August 12, 1994) is a climate researcher who has undertaken several polar expeditions. [1] He graduated from Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. [2]

Contents

Polar expeditions

By the age of 17, Liautaud had undertaken three expeditions to the North Pole. [3] At 19 years old, he led the Willis Resilience Expedition to the South Pole, a two-part Antarctic journey with Willis Group that included a 1900 km crossing of Antarctica to conduct climate change research, followed by a 560 km trek from the edge of Antarctica to the South Pole. [4] On December 24, 2013, Liautaud and fellow explorer Doug Stoup completed the expedition.

During the Willis Resilience Expedition, Parker and his team conducted live-streaming video interviews to news shows including Good Morning America [5] and CNBC's Squawk Box. [2]

Climate change

Liautaud has been actively working on climate issues since the age of 14. [3] He has interviewed world leaders, such as former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and former President of Ireland Mary Robinson, in front of large audiences. [6] In September 2013, former US Vice President Al Gore interviewed Liautaud in a session at the United Nations Foundation Social Good Summit. [7]

Liautaud has been outspoken about the need to address the business risks of climate change. In remarks from the main stage at the Clinton Global Initiative's 2014 Annual Meeting, he noted that “our world is entering an unprecedented risk landscape”, adding that “a risk-based approach drives action and builds resilience”. [8] In a September 2014 interview with The Wall Street Journal's Digital Network, Liautaud noted that he believed that the private sector was best positioned to tackle climate change, but added that “at the moment, I don't think that we're adequately preparing for the risks of the world that we're headed into. There definitely are the risks that exist, but businesses aren't taking them seriously enough right now”. [9]

In a June 2014 op-ed he wrote for UN Women, Liautaud pointed out the “abundant” evidence connecting climate change to problems of gender equality, and called for greater action to tackle gender-based inequalities, describing it “a non-negotiable priority”. [10]

Liautaud is currently[ when? ] completing his PhD at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts under Peter Huybers.

Awards and honours

In December 2013, while in Antarctica for the Willis Resilience Expedition, Liautaud was named to Time Magazine's top 30 people under 30 changing the world. [11]

In March 2014, Liautaud was honoured by The White House as a Champion of Change for “engaging the next generation of conservation leaders”. [12]

Related Research Articles

Transport in Antarctica has transformed from explorers crossing the isolated remote area of Antarctica by foot to a more open era due to human technologies enabling more convenient and faster transport, predominantly by air and water, but also by land as well. Transportation technologies on a remote area like Antarctica need to be able to deal with extremely low temperatures and continuous winds to ensure the travelers' safety. Due to the fragility of the Antarctic environment, only a limited amount of transport movements can take place and sustainable transportation technologies have to be used to reduce the ecological footprint. The infrastructure of land, water and air transport needs to be safe and sustainable. Currently thousands of tourists and hundreds of scientists a year depend on the Antarctic transportation system.

Ann Bancroft American arctic explorer and author

Ann Bancroft is an American author, teacher, adventurer, and public speaker. She was the first woman to finish a number of expeditions to the Arctic and Antarctic. She was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame in 1995.

Ranulph Fiennes British explorer (born 1944)

Sir Ranulph Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes, 3rd Baronet, commonly known as Sir Ranulph Fiennes, and sometimes as Ran Fiennes, is a British explorer, writer, and poet, who holds several endurance records.

Scotts Hut Antarctic base

Scott's Hut is a building located on the north shore of Cape Evans on Ross Island in Antarctica. It was erected in 1911 by the British Antarctic Expedition of 1910–1913 led by Robert Falcon Scott. In selecting a base of operations for the 1910–1913 Expedition, Scott rejected the notion of reoccupying the hut he had built by McMurdo Sound during the Discovery Expedition of 1901–1904.

Robert Swan British adventurer

Robert Charles Swan, OBE, FRGS is the first person to walk to both Poles.

Cape Crozier Headland of Antarctica

Cape Crozier is the most easterly point of Ross Island in Antarctica. It was discovered in 1841 during James Clark Ross's expedition of 1839 to 1843 with HMS Erebus and HMS Terror, and was named after Francis Crozier, captain of HMS Terror. The extinct volcano Mount Terror, also named during the Ross expedition, rises sharply from the Cape to a height of 3,230 m (10,600 ft), and the edge of the Ross Ice Shelf stretches away to its east.

Antarctica Continent

Antarctica is Earth's southernmost continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean, it contains the geographic South Pole. Antarctica is the fifth-largest continent, being nearly twice the size of Australia, and has an area of 14,200,000 km2 (5,500,000 sq mi). Most of Antarctica is covered by ice, with average thickness of 1.9 km (1.2 mi).

Christo Pimpirev Bulgarian scientist and polar explorer (born 1953)

Christo Pimpirev is a Bulgarian scientist (geologist) and polar explorer.

South Pole Southern point where the Earths axis of rotation intersects its surface

The South Pole, also known as the Geographic South Pole, Terrestrial South Pole or 90th Parallel South, is one of the two points where Earth's axis of rotation intersects its surface. It is the southernmost point on Earth and lies on the opposite side of Earth from the North Pole at a distance of 12,430 miles in all directions.

Willis Group Multinational risk advisor, insurance brokerage and reinsurance brokerage company

Willis Group Holdings plc was a multinational risk advisor, insurance brokerage and reinsurance brokerage company with its headquarters in the Willis Building in London until its merger of equals with financial services company Towers Watson in 2016. It was the world's third-largest insurance broker when measured by revenues. Willis has around 400 offices in 120 countries and approximately 18,000 employees.

Arctic Trucks Icelandic automotive engineering company

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Felicity Aston British adventurer/climate scientist

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The Willis Resilience Expedition was a scientific and exploratory program that took place in Antarctica from November 2013 to January 2014, with goals of gaining a better understanding of changes in the Earth's climate brought on by global warming in addition to weather-related risk. Announced in August 2013, the Expedition was led by Parker Liautaud, a teenage polar adventurer and environmental campaigner, and fellow explorer Douglas Stoup. The expedition was underwritten by Willis Group, a global risk advisor, insurance and reinsurance broker.

Jan-Gunnar Winther

Jan-Gunnar Winther is Director of the Norwegian Centre for the Ocean and the Arctic at UiT The Arctic University of Norway and Specialist Director at the Norwegian Polar Institute located in Tromsø.

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Alain Hubert Belgian explorer (born 1953)

Alain Hubert is a Belgian explorer. He is a certified mountain and polar guide, a civil engineer, and the founder President of the International Polar Foundation. With the Foundation and its private partners, he built and financed the construction of the scientific research station ‘Princess Elisabeth’. This station is the first ‘Zero Emissions’ station in Antarctica, designed under the spirit of the Madrid protocol system establishing in 1992 the strictest environmental rules to date for a continent through the Antarctic Treaty System.

Climate change in Antarctica Impacts of climate change on Antarctica

Climate change in Antarctica is resulting in rising temperatures and increasing snowmelt and ice loss. A summary study in 2018 incorporating calculations and data from many other studies estimated that total ice loss in Antarctica due to climate change was 43 gigatons per year on average during the period from 1992 to 2002 but has accelerated to an average of 220 gigatons per year during the five years from 2012 to 2017. Total mass loss over the period 1992–2018 was likely 2720 gigatons for the grounded part of the Antarctic ice sheet.

Lois Jones (scientist) American geochemist

Lois M. Jones was an American geochemist who led the first all-woman science team to Antarctica in 1969. They were also the first women to reach the South Pole. Jones was well regarded for her contribution to geological research in the McMurdo Dry Valleys, one of the few ice-free areas of Antarctica, and published many papers and abstracts.

Preet Chandi British Army officer, explorer (b. 1988/89)

Harpreet Kaur Chandi is a British physiotherapist and British Army medical officer who completed a solo expedition across Antarctica to the South Pole, on 3 January 2022.

References

  1. ↑ "Teenager sets record for fastest trek from Antarctic coast to south pole". the Guardian. 25 December 2013.
  2. 1 2 Jeff Morganteen (2013-12-12). "Teenage Yale student attempts record trek to South Pole for research and climate change". Cnbc.com. Retrieved 2015-07-10.
  3. 1 2 "Parker Liautaud". Archived from the original on 2016-10-27. Retrieved 2015-07-02.
  4. ↑ "Parker Liautaud". Archived from the original on 2015-07-03. Retrieved 2015-07-02.
  5. ↑ ABC News. "19-Year-Old Parker Liautaud Expected to Set World Record in Antarctica". ABC News.
  6. ↑ "How can young people join in the debate about climate change?". The Elders.
  7. ↑ "Al Gore, Melinda Gates, Malala And More At The Social Good Summit". The Daily Beast. Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2015-07-02.
  8. ↑ Parker Liautaud Discusses Climate Change in the Arctic - CGI 2014 Annual Meeting. YouTube. 16 October 2014.
  9. ↑ "Polar Explorer Parker Liautaud Talks Climate Change". wsj.com. 23 September 2014.
  10. ↑ "Parker Liautaud - UN Women – Beijing+20". Field Office Beijing Plus.
  11. ↑ "Parker Liautaud - TIME 30 Under 30: World Changers - TIME.com". TIME.com. 2013-12-06.
  12. ↑ "Engaging Americans in the Challenge of Climate Resilience". whitehouse.gov . 24 March 2014 – via National Archives.
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