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Tag: bohemian

A Glimpse into Bohemian Istanbul

When I reflect back on my time in Turkey this winter, so...

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youngadventuress

Mother of plants @node.nz and author of “Houseplants & Design” 🪴 Friend of kākāpō, the girl with the whales 🐳 currently exploring the Arctic ❄️

In the high Arctic, life revolves around the sea i

In the high Arctic, life revolves around the sea ice and waters. Before spending months up here this summer with @adventure.canada, I had always connected sea ice with polar bears; after all, polar bears are marine mammals and depend on the sea ice to hunt seals. They’ve become the symbol for climate change: no sea ice = no polar bears.
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While this is true, what’s far more important are the Inuit people of the Arctic. Over 150,000 Inuit call these places home, and their lives and culture are intrinsically connected to the sea ice. It’s how you travel and hunt, where you find supplies and food. The sea ice is the highway in winter connecting remote communities. It’s a critical infrastructure, and it’s disappearing. Climate change is causing the Arctic to warm 2.5 times faster than the everywhere else.
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Inuit have traditional knowledge of the sea ice passed down through generations. In Inuktut, the importance of ice is highlighted by the dozens of different words that exist to define things such as sea ice form, type, location and age. Once predictable sea ice patterns are now uncertain with direct impacts on their way of life. Old hunting grounds are now inaccessible and people are falling through the ice more than ever. And yes polar bears have always been part of this world, coexisting but also as a part of a subsistence-based life, for food and for products.
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My Inuit friends have said they’ve seen more polar bears now than ever before, with more encounters and more destruction of their properties. Scientists say that polar bears are spending more time on land because of diminishing sea ice. This is world where people have to carry rifles all of the time, and where traditional knowledge of the environment has long been dismissed. It’s a very privileged position for us to sit back from afar and say “oh but save the polar bears,” when we have *literally* no idea about what it’s really like for those who live in the Arctic and what they’re facing from choices we have made. Personally, as much as I love bears and conservation, now when I think of sea ice and climate change in the Arctic, I think of the people first. I hope you do too.

I’ve dreamed of seeing the northern lights ever

I’ve dreamed of seeing the northern lights ever since I read His Dark Materials as a pre-teen. Yet on every trip I’ve taken to the north over the years, they’ve eluded me. Clouds, midnight sun, sleeping through them, or just no lights, the aurora has remained elusive. But my wish finally came true this week in Greenland with @adventure.canada 💚 While I’ve seen the southern lights twinkle on the horizon in New Zealand, it was nothing compared to the vast ribbons of light dancing across the skies for hours. So bright, ethereal, and mesmerizing, we crowded the top decks in wonder night after night. Sometimes I feel like I’ve lost my childlike sense of wonder, but as I hopped up and down on the balls of my feet beneath glowing green skies, I couldn’t have been more giddy.

Greenland’s got my seal of approval 🦭🤟 @ad

Greenland’s got my seal of approval 🦭🤟 @adventure.canada

“Death or the west coast of Greenland,” the in

“Death or the west coast of Greenland,” the indomitable polar explorer Fridtjof Nansen said could have been the motto of his 1888 expedition, the first crossing of interior Greenland. He later would call it the “scheme of a lunatic,” which I feel could be applied to most polar expeditions of the time. While it’s much easier now to access the world’s biggest island, Greenland in many ways still holds the myth and wonder that captivated so many explorers over the centuries. No roads connect the communities, and it still holds the top honor for least populated nation on earth. Wild, ancient, poignant and profound, Greenland has definitely carved out a corner of my heart 💚 @adventure.canada

Boop 🐻‍❄️ baby bear with lunch all over h

Boop 🐻‍❄️ baby bear with lunch all over his face @adventure.canada

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Who is Young Adventuress?

Hi, I'm Liz, and I got my first taste for traveling when I was 16 years old. On my own, 12 years and 50 something countries later, my wanderlust has only grown and the list of countries I want to visit longer. After living in Spain for the past few years and returning home for a stint, I then quit my job and moved to New Zealand and I've been here ever since. Follow my misadventures as I wander, eat, and photograph my way around the world

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