Parker Liautaud

Last updated
Parker Liautaud
Born
Parker Liautaud

(1994-08-12) August 12, 1994 (age 30)
Palo Alto, California,
United States of America
NationalityAmerican
EducationYale University
Parent 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 2021 completed his PhD at [Dissertation: "Causes, evolution, and dynamics of ice ages in the last 3 million years" 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ann Bancroft</span> 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ranulph Fiennes</span> 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tim Jarvis</span> Environmental scientist, explorer, film-maker and author

Timothy John Jarvis is an English and Australian explorer, climber, author, environmental activist, and documentary filmmaker. He is best known for his numerous Antarctic expeditions, particularly his attempted Antarctic crossing in 1999 and the period recreations of historical treks by Sir Douglas Mawson and Sir Ernest Shackleton.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Scott's Hut</span> 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Swan</span> British adventurer

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

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Antarctica</span> Earths southernmost continent

Antarctica is Earth's southernmost and least-populated 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 about 40% larger than Europe, and has an area of 14,200,000 km2 (5,500,000 sq mi). Most of Antarctica is covered by the Antarctic ice sheet, with an average thickness of 1.9 km (1.2 mi).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">South Pole</span> Southernmost point on Earth

The South Pole, also known as the Geographic South Pole or Terrestrial South Pole, is the southernmost point on Earth and lies antipodally on the opposite side of Earth from the North Pole, at a distance of 20,004 km in all directions. It is one of the two points where Earth's axis of rotation intersects its surface.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Willis Group</span> Multinational risk advisor, insurance brokerage and reinsurance brokerage company

Willis Group Holdings plc was a multinational risk advisor, insurance brokerage and reinsurance brokerage company headquartered in the Willis Building in London. It was the third-largest insurance broker worldwide by revenues. In 2016, the company acquired Towers Watson and was renamed Willis Towers Watson.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Felicity Aston</span> British adventurer/climate scientist

Felicity Ann Dawn Aston is a British explorer, author and climate scientist.

Ellen Mosley-Thompson is a glaciologist and climatologist. She is a Distinguished University Professor at Ohio State University and director of their Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center. She is known as a pioneer in the use of ice cores from the Polar Regions for paleoclimatic research and is an influential figure in climate science. She is an elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Geophysical Union and an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences.

The Willis Resilience Expedition was a scientific and exploratory program in Antarctica from November 2013 to January 2014. The expedition's goal was to gain a better scientific understanding of the changes to Earth's climate due to global warming and weather-related phenomena. The expedition was announced in August 2013 and was led by explorers Douglas Stoup and Parker Liautaud. The expedition was underwritten by the Willis Group.

Eric Larsen is an American Polar adventurer known for his expeditions to the North Pole, South Pole, and Mount Everest.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alain Hubert</span> 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.

Florica Topârceanu is an Antarctic researcher, best known for her work was on Antarctic aquatic viruses and the development of the Antarctic scientific community in Romania. She was the first Romanian woman biologist to study life in Antarctica and the first Romanian woman expert to the Antarctic Treaty.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lois Jones (scientist)</span> 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Women in Antarctica</span>

There may have been women in Antarctica, exploring the regions around Antarctica for many centuries. The most celebrated "first" for women was in 1935 when Caroline Mikkelsen became the first woman to set foot on one of Antarctica's islands. Early male explorers, such as Richard Byrd, named areas of Antarctica after wives and female heads of state. As Antarctica moved from a place of exploration and conquest to a scientific frontier, women worked to be included in the sciences. The first countries to have female scientists working in Antarctica were the Soviet Union, South Africa and Argentina.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Preet Chandi</span> British Army officer, explorer (b. 1988/89)

Harpreet Kaur "Preet" Chandi is a British physiotherapist and British Army medical officer who completed a solo expedition across Antarctica to the South Pole, finishing on 3 January 2022. In January 2023, she recorded the longest ever solo and unsupported polar expedition.

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. 17 October 2014.
  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. 4 June 2014.
  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.