Ushuaia, Argentina – Award-winning actors and marine scientists are onboard two Greenpeace ships; the Esperanza, and the Arctic Sunrise, to research and expose the impact of climate change, plastic pollution and industrial fishing in the Antarctic region on penguin colonies, whales and other marine life.<\/p>\n\n
Stars swapping the red\ncarpet for ice floes include award-winners Marion Cotillard (La Vie En Rose,\nInception), Gustaf Skarsg\u00e5rd (Vikings, Westworld) and Ni Ni (The Flowers Of War, The Warriors Gate). As\nGreenpeace Ocean Ambassadors they will be raising awareness about\nthreatened Antarctic wildlife and the urgent need for a global network of ocean\nsanctuaries.<\/p>\n\n
Marion Cotillard, who won the Oscar for Best Actress for La Vie En Rose said: “The Antarctic is a frozen wilderness that should be far beyond the reach of human impact, but even the most remote parts of our planet are changing at an alarming rate. I\u2019m here to bear witness to this fragile environment, inhabited by penguins, whales and seals whose ocean home needs to be protected. <\/p>\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the first time I\u2019ve ever lived on a ship, and it\u2019s amazing to spend time with the Greenpeace crew and the scientists who are out here doing crucial work to understand the threats facing the oceans, like climate change, industrial fishing and plastic pollution. Our planet is a blue planet: the ocean covers more of it than every continent combined, and we all have a responsibility to protect it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
Gustaf Skarsg\u00e5rd, who is no stranger to ships from his role in Vikings, said: <\/strong>“It’s an incredible experience to be down here in the Antarctic, it\u2019s remote, wild, hostile, inspiring. I\u2019m here with a crew of campaigners, actors and scientists to show what could be lost. <\/p>\n\n \u201cPoliticians should\nunderstand that climate change, plastic pollution and industrial fishing are\ndamaging our natural world beyond recognition and they should act to protect\nit. But they’re not. So I’m here to do what I can to tell the story of how\nwe’re losing penguins, and whales, and seals, and other wildlife in the world’s\noceans. We urgently need a Global Ocean Treaty, and it’s on the table at the\nUN! We have a unique chance to protect the world’s oceans with sanctuaries, free from human activity, so we\ncan give nature a chance to heal itself.”<\/p>\n\n Multi-award-winning actress Ni Ni said: \u201cFor most of us, the Antarctic and the high seas are far away from our daily lives. Sometimes we forget that our actions have a profound impact on them. I look forward to joining Greenpeace\u2019s Antarctic expedition and to witness the impact of human activities on these natural wonders. I want to understand why ocean sanctuaries are powerful tools for marine protection and to bring back what I have seen and learned to China. I hope that more people will take action in support of ocean sanctuaries, so we can protect at least 30% of our oceans before 2030.\u201d<\/p>\n\n During the expedition, a\nteam of six scientists from Stony Brook University and Northeastern University\nwill be conducting drone and manual surveys of penguin colonies and operating\nfrom remote base camps to research population levels of chinstrap penguins in\nthe region. Meanwhile another group of scientists will conduct research on\nmicroplastic pollution and whale migrations in the region.<\/p>\n\n Heather J. Lynch, IACS Endowed Chair of Ecology & Evolution at Stony Brook University and the expedition’s scientific lead, said: \u201cWe are going to gather data on the status of penguin colonies in places that have either never been properly surveyed or haven’t been surveyed since the 1970s, allowing us to observe the pace of change in this region over the past half-century. Penguins are sentinel species, by studying them we can understand how climate change and fisheries are affecting the Antarctic environment\u201d <\/p>\n\n The voyage to the Antarctic\nis the last stop of Greenpeace\u2019s pole to pole expedition<\/a> aimed at highlighting the threats facing international waters \u2013\nfrom the Arctic to the Antarctic \u2013 and the urgent need to protect them under a\nnew Global Ocean Treaty. <\/p>\n\n ENDS Photos and videos<\/strong> can be seen here<\/a>. Greenpeace and scientists\nare calling for a treaty that can create a network of ocean sanctuaries\ncovering at least a third of the global oceans by 2030. For more information\nsee Protect the Global Oceans:\nWhy We Need a Global Ocean Treaty<\/a>. The\nfourth round of negotiations towards a treaty covering international waters is\ntaking place at the United Nations in New York in late March 2020.<\/p>\n\n Contacts: <\/strong><\/p>\n\n Julia Zanolli, Global Media\nLead for the Protect the Oceans <\/em>campaign, Greenpeace UK: julia.zanolli@greenpeace.org<\/a>, +44 (0)7971 769107<\/p>\n\n James Hanson, Press\nOfficer, Greenpeace UK: +44 (0) 7801 212 994, james.hanson@greenpeace.org<\/a><\/p>\n\n
Notes for editors:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n
Pole to Pole Expedition: Map of the \u2018Pole to Pole\u2019 route<\/a>. See contacts below for expedition inquiries, including for media interested in joining the ship on-board. <\/p>\n\n
![Map of the \u2018Pole to Pole\u2019 route<\/a>. See contacts below for expedition inquiries, including for media interested in joining the ship on-board. <\/p>\n\nGreenpeace and scientists\nare calling for a treaty that can create a network of ocean sanctuaries\ncovering at least a third of the global oceans by 2030. For more information\nsee Protect the Global Oceans:\nWhy We Need a Global Ocean Treaty<\/a>. The\nfourth round of negotiations towards a treaty covering international waters is\ntaking place at the United Nations in New York in late March 2020.<\/p>\n\nContacts: <\/strong><\/p>\n\nJulia Zanolli, Global Media\nLead for the Protect the Oceans <\/em>campaign, Greenpeace UK: julia.zanolli@greenpeace.org<\/a>, +44 (0)7971 769107<\/p>\n\nJames Hanson, Press\nOfficer, Greenpeace UK: +44 (0) 7801 212 994, james.hanson@greenpeace.org<\/a><\/p>\n\nGreenpeace International\nPress Desk: pressdesk.int@greenpeace.org<\/a>, +31 (0) 20 718 2470 (available 24 hours)For the latest Greenpeace\nInternational press releases follow <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"“We urgently need a Global Ocean Treaty, and it’s on the table at the UN!”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":28291,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_planet4_optimize_post_is_variant":false,"_planet4_optimize_experiment_name":"","_planet4_optimize_variant_name":"","ep_exclude_from_search":false,"p4_og_title":"","p4_og_description":"","p4_og_image":"","p4_og_image_id":"","p4_seo_canonical_url":"","p4_campaign_name":"not set","p4_local_project":"","p4_basket_name":"not set","p4_department":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[70,99],"tags":[19,20,85],"p4-page-type":[98],"class_list":["post-28275","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nature","category-ships","tag-arctic-sunrise","tag-esperanza","tag-oceans","p4-page-type-press-release"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28275","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28275"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28275\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28324,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28275\/revisions\/28324"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28291"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28275"},{"taxonomy":"p4-page-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/p4-page-type?post=28275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}](\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/static\/planet4-international-stateless\/2019\/04\/0a5823bc-ship-tour-poster-a2.png\"){kind=link}