National Geographic BlogWild

Amid rain and snow, the Summit on the Summit team—working to raise public awareness of the global freshwater crisis—has reached its final encampment before trekking to the top of Kilimanjaro. Anticipation has some team members excited, while thin air and the arduousness of the climb has made others ill. Those who can will rise in the night for the final ascent to the mountain’s 19,340-foot crest.

National Geographic Emerging Explorers Alexandra Cousteau and Jimmy Chin are climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania with Jessica Biel, Emile Hirsch, Lupe Fiasco, Isabel Lucas, and other celebrities to raise public awareness of the shortage of clean water across much of the planet.

NGS/Waitt grantee Silvina Vigliani explores the canyons of the Sierra Prieta in the Mexican portion of the Sonoran Desert. Her quest: To locate and determine the significance of rock paintings made by native peoples centuries ago.

Eloquent anthropologist, ethnobotanist, and National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence Wade Davis sends word from Copenhagen, where he’s roaming the streets, exhibitions, and meeting halls recording his observations of the United Nations COP15 meetings on climate change.

It is day three of the United Nations climate negotiations in Copenhagen, Denmark. I'm here leading Expedition Copenhagen with a team of young people from across the American midwest.

What strikes me the most about this historic event is the incredible diversity of the people who have congregated here to influence the outcome or observe the process—from the more than 1,000 youth from across the globe (500 from the United States alone), to the large presence of civil society (including NGOs, independents, and new media), to fellow eco-adventurers who share similar lifestyles and goals to my own (here at the conference, as am I, to communicate and educate on their experiences, and to promote climate solutions).

What do a volcano straddling the border of Chile and Bolivia, a 97-year-old woman dressed in her Sunday best at a bus stop in Chamblee, Georgia, and a peppermint shrimp in a sponge at the bottom of Bonaire’s Margate Bay all have in common?

I was recently in Poland reconnecting with my Trans-Antarctica Expedition—a historic, 20-year reunion and the first time we had all gathered together in one place since 1990. It seems a lot has changed for the planet, and more specifically for Antarctica, as a result of global warming since we last traversed the continent.

According to a recent report by the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research, temperatures in Antarctica are expected to increase by 5.3 degrees Fahrenheit this century, and the melting of much of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet could contribute to a global sea level rise of 4.5 feet by 2100.

National Geographic Kids has partnered up with some of the world’s best-known marine explorers on a contest to design the official flag for the next Ocean Now expedition. Robert Ballard, Sylvia Earle, Enric Sala, David de Rothschild, and Nancy Knowlton will judge flag submissions from children and teens ages 8 to 14.

The educator? The astronaut? The scientist? The ultra runners? The veteran? The surfer? The filmmaker? Or perhaps the road trippers? Who will become National Geographic Adventure’s first-ever Readers’ Choice Adventurer of the Year??

You decide.

Sunday night, the popular CBS news program 60 Minutes plans to profile pioneering oceanographer and National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence Robert Ballard.

As creator and editor of the Google Earth Blog, Frank Taylor has spent the last four years viewing and exploring the world from above, monitoring the latest in satellite imagery, geospatial tools, and storytelling on the increasingly rich digital marvel. Now he’s sold his house and embarked on a new adventure.

Terra Cotta Warriors: Guardians of China’s First Emperor opened today at the National Geographic Museum. By the time NatGeo staff welcomed the first ticketholders at 10 a.m., the Society had sold more than 105,000 tickets to the spectacular exhibition.

The H1N1/swine flu outbreak has prompted officials to close hundreds of schools across the United States and left thousands of kids and teens (both sick and well) stranded at home. The U.S. Department of Education has recommended that schools and parents help students continue learning while they’re home, and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan called on educational publishers to support the effort.

Friends and colleagues Sarah Caban (editor of the My Wonderful World blog) and Maggie Strassman (intern and University of Wisconsin Madison geography department superstar) have lined up a bevy of fired-up contributors for the first annual Geography Awareness Week Blog-a-Thon. The week, which runs through Saturday, coincides with the National Geographic Channel’s Expedition Week, and highlights the importance of geographic literacy and geography education in the United States.

The National Geographic Channel kicks off Expedition Week 2009 in the U.S. Sunday night with Search for the Amazon Headshrinkers—and an invitation to shrink your own head.

Exciting times here at National Geographic headquarters! Yes, today IS my birthday … but that’s not the reason. In just one week, Terra Cotta Warriors: Guardians of China’s First Emperor opens at our museum. More than 80,000 tickets have already been sold for the exhibition—the largest collection of the life-sized figures ever to tour the United States.

The Wildest Dream got its Canadian debut screening Saturday night at the Banff Mountain Film festival. The new National Geographic feature film combines fascinating archival video footage of George Mallory and Andrew Irvine on Mount Everest in 1924, love letters between Mallory and his wife Ruth, and a bold attempt to recreate Mallory and Irvine's bid for the summit by modern-day climbers Conrad Anker and Leo Houlding.

National Geographic's biggest fan here at Banff, Jim Olver, gave us a tour of the Banff Centre yesterday and introduced us to the Leighton Artists' Colony, which Banff supports in addition to the Mountain Films.

National Geographic photographer Steve Winter had the Banff festival audience laughing and gasping as he shared gorgeous photographs and riveting stories of capturing the rare snow leopard in Ladakh, India. Extreme altitude and cold, plus some exhausting travel, had made for an emotionally stressful time for Steve, but fun stories for us!