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| Dear Friends,
As we settle back into our fall routines, those of us in the Northern Hemisphere are hard-pressed to forget a summer where record-high temperatures threatened ecosystems and economies worldwide. In the Southern Hemisphere, ozone depletion pulled weather zones further south, affecting rainfall patterns, ocean currents, sea-surface temperatures and public health.
Climate change is a critical challenge for our century, and WINGS Fellows and Flag Carriers are at the leading edge of climate science and discovery. High-achieving botanists, biochemists, astrobiologists, forest ecologists, glaciologists - they represent many fields because it will take many remarkable minds to find sustainable solutions. Their work is revolutionizing our understanding of our magnificent yet endangered world, paving the way for women and girls in science, and giving us hope and heroes.
Our Flag Carrier program, which supports expeditions focused on scientific results, has helped place multiple climate pioneers in the field this past year. This month alone we have two Flag Carriers studying climate change in the Arctic. Terrie Williams, a comparative ecophysiologist investigating “how animals survive” in a changing world, is in Greenland researching the effects of warming oceans and retreating ice on the iconic narwhal. Sunniva Sorby, a member of the first all-female expedition to the South Pole in 1993, embarks next week on her 9-month overwintering project in Svalbard, Norway, to record extreme climate change events. You can sign up here to receive her weekly updates.
Back in New York City, the adventures continue – with a book club and author Q&A hosted by the WINGS Junior Council; an Explorer Talk and new film on ocean plastic pollution; and a webinar customized for our Fellows and Flag Carriers on intellectual property rights and bridging the gap in the number of patents awarded to women. WINGS advances the work of women overcoming insurmountable obstacles to blaze new trails in their fields. Thank you for supporting our mission and amplifying their voices. They deserve to be heard.
Yours in discovery,
Beth Nixon
Chair, Board of Directors
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Wednesday, September 18: Book Club Q&A with WINGS Fellow Kate Harris
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The WINGS Junior Council hosts a discussion on Lands of Lost Borders, a travel memoir by scientist/explorer Kate Harris about her epic journey biking the famed Silk Road from beginning to end. Kate, who received the 2010 WINGS Field Research Award, carried the WINGS flag during her expedition. Outside Magazine praised her book: “Beautifully written, a vivid conjuring of landscapes most readers have never seen. . . So many adventure memoirs detail seemingly superhuman feats of endurance that are off-limits to most mortals. Harris, instead, suggests that anyone can become an explorer simply by taking a long walk—or a bike ride—and paying close attention to the world as it passes by. . . [A] fresh new voice on what it means to be an explorer in the 21st century.”
Tickets: $25 - register now to receive a free book! (limited quantities remain)
Winner of the 2019 Rakuten Kobo Emerging Writer Prize in Literary Nonfiction • Winner of the 2019 RBC Taylor Prize • Finalist for the 2019 BC Book Prizes’ Hubert Evans Non-Fiction Award • A CBC and Kirkus Best Nonfiction Book of 2018 • Globe and Mail Bestseller • Indie Next Pick • New York Times Book Review Recommended Travel Read • NPR All Things Considered "Summer Reading List" • Winner of the Banff Mountain Book Award for Adventure Travel • Outside Magazine Book Club Pick • Amazon and Christian Science Monitor Best Book of the Month
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| NEW EVENT: Sunday, October 6 – Explorer Talk with April Burt
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| April Burt carried the WINGS flag on her 5-week expedition to the remote biodiversity hotspot in the Seychelles, the Aldabra coral atoll, to clear 28 tons of ocean plastic pollution and study its impact on island wildlife and surrounding ocean environments. The UNESCO world heritage site, described by Sir David Attenborough as “one of the world’s greatest surviving natural treasures,” is home to the largest giant tortoise population and contains near-pristine marine ecosystems, teaming with sharks, turtles and fish.
April will show a short film about the Aldabra expedition and ecosystems, and talk about recent research on plastic pollution, her work in island ecosystem management around the world, life on an isolated island with no electricity or running water, and how she landed the “best conservation job in the world.”
Tickets: $35 - bring your student to hear a first-hand account on this hot topic for teens!
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| What WINGS' Women of Discovery Are Up To
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- Vera Metcalf was inducted into the 2019 Alaska Women’s Hall of Fame for her work protecting the subsistence lifestyles of Alaska Native people and their traditions and languages as well as the resources critical to rural Arctic communities. Watch her induction ceremony acceptance speech here.
- Diana Beresford-Kroeger, a leading voice on the science of trees, comes out this month with To Speak for the Trees: My Life’s Journey from Ancient Celtic Wisdom to a Healing Vision of the Forest. A biochemist and botanist, Diana tells her story growing up with a unique education in both traditional Celtic plant lore and western science, which together offer fresh scientific concepts on how trees can stabilize our climate.
- Mandë Holford took her expertise studying deadly snail venom to launch a successful startup, Killer Snails, which creates card and video games for children and teens “that inspire a love of science.”
- Hope Jahren’s book, Lab Girl, was featured on Barack Obama’s summer reading list. check out her site #hopejahrensurecanwrite for news on a new release in 2020!
- Marla Spivak is interviewed in an article here about her Bee Squad research, a new queen breeding program, and the keys to maintaining a healthy bee population.
- Naomi Pierce won the 2019 International Prize for Biology for her work researching symbiotic relationships between insects and other organisms.
- Katey Walter-Anthony received the University of Alaska’s 2019 Usibelli Distinguished Research Award. Katey is a world leader in methane-related biogeochemistry, an area increasingly in demand due to profound environment shifts in the Arctic. Watch her popular YouTube video here.
- Susan Eaton and Team Sedna return to the High Arctic this November to run an Indigenous women’s leadership program and undertake scientific research of ocean conditions, marine geology, microplastics, orcas and plankton. Learn more at sednaepic.com.
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| Treasure Hunting With Sue Hendrickson
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| Sue Hendrickson’s life has gone to the dogs.
The explorer, famed for discovering a Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton, lives a quiet life in Guanaja, a Bay Island of Honduras that is home to fewer than 6,000 people. Eighteen years ago, she started a veterinary clinic where she cares for cats, horses, pigs, parrots and more than 70 dogs. She is hoping to get most of the dogs adopted and sometimes travels to the United States with them to facilitate the process.
In 2005, Sue was honored with the WINGS WorldQuest Women of Discovery Award for her commitment to exploration. For decades she has traveled in pursuit of the world’s greatest treasurers – from prehistoric fossils to sunken shipwrecks and ancient cities.
> Read the full blog post
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| Terrie Williams' Expedition To Greenland
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| The narwhal, one of the most iconic marine mammals of the Arctic, remains virtually unstudied due to its deep diving habits and polar distribution. Extensive sea ice has prevented meaningful human contact until recently. Of primary concern to Terrie Williams, who studies the physiology of large mammals, is the impact of warming oceans and the loss of ice in the primary habitats of these large, toothed whales.
On an expedition in Scoresby Sound, Greenland, above the Arctic Circle, Terrie and her team conducted some of the first thermal measurements for this species. The primary instruments used were FLIR Infrared thermal cameras and digital image analyses to determine regional skin temperatures. This data was paired with hand-held heat flow transducers that assess localized heat loss. We look forward to learning the answers to her expedition's key questions: 1) How do narwhals lose excess body heat in the absence of a dorsal fin that typically is used as a radiator for other cetaceans? 2) Where are the “thermal windows” of narwhals and how susceptible is this species to overheating? 3) How do narwhals thermoregulate during diving? Stay tuned for her flag report!
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