Where 21st Avenue ends across from the Pioneers and Soldiers Memorial Cemetery stands the Green Institute. This last stop destination conceals the center of environmental activism in Minnesota. The neighborhood surrounding the Institute is America: a hybrid of industrial, residential, and business life forming one community. Here reside the elements that compose human civilization and simultaneously endanger it. In the middle of this quintessential American landscape you’ll find explorer Will Steger, best known for evading it.

In the atrium of the Green Institute a group of teachers from Berlin, Germany were waiting expectantly for polar explorer and educator Will Steger. The teachers were participants in a teaching immersion program, and had been helping at various schools around Minnesota for
the past two weeks. During their time in Minnesota, the image of Americans as gas guzzling, urban sprawling, wasteful citizens had not improved.

The lack of recycling bins in most schools was particularly disconcerting to the teachers. Kerstin Beyer warned, “In Germany we have a fee for not recycling.” The teachers stressed the importance of making recycling a habitual action for children. “In German schools, students are taught to separate the recycling,” states Hieke Gaul. The teacher’s previous experiences in the schools had confirmed the stereotype that Germans were more environmentally conscious than Americans. However, they had not yet been to the Green Institute.

As soon as Will Steger and his colleague Abby Fenton began their presentation on the Will Steger Foundation and Global Warming 101 initiative, the teachers’ negative impressions were immediately challenged. Here were Americans on the front lines of the battle for the environment.

The Educational Program Manager for the Will Steger Foundation, Abby Fenton, showed the teachers lesson plans and videos available on their website (willstegerfoundation.org), and introduced the Will Steger Foundation: a non-profit organization whose mission is to “foster
international leadership and cooperation through environmental education and policy.”

In 2007, Fenton joined Steger and two other Foundation members on a four-month dogsled expedition across Baffin Island in the Canadian Arctic. The impact the expedition had on her was apparent as she enthusiastically recounted stories of the three Inuit hunters they traveled with, the sled dogs’ encounters with arctic wolves, and the effects of climate change on the terrain. Seeing first hand the effects of global warming motivates her current work with the Global Warming 101 initiative, an integral mission of the Will Steger Foundation.

During Fenton’s presentation Steger sat quietly in the back of the conference room. His calm presence was that of someone who would rather work behind the scenes, but whose compelling background thrust him into the limelight. Clad in a green woolen sweater and hiking boots with tan, weathered skin, and perpetually windswept hair, Steger appeared to be the quintessential explorer. Yet for someone used to climbing through ice caverns in -20°F temperatures he exuded warmth. Offering organic snacks and Cliff Bars, he began to chat amicably about dispatches and images from his various polar journeys.

His passion for the environment was apparent. This was a man who had left the comfort of his secluded home in the wilderness of Ely, Minnesota for a busy life of presentations, conferences, and speeches in Minneapolis. The sights he has seen throughout 45 years of polar exploration feed his determination. The places he has trekked have been irrevocably damaged; such as the three Larsen ice shelves on the Antarctic Peninsula that have disintegrated in the past ten years, and the Arctic sea ice that decreased by 60% in 2007. He is driven by a need to share what he has seen in hopes that it will spark change.

Steger’s adventuresome nature began with a love of Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Huck’s character was so inspirational to the young Steger that at the age of 15 he decided to follow his lead and boat down the Mississippi to New Orleans with his 17-year-old
brother, Tom. This experience began a lifetime of discovery. Since his first adventure, Steger has gone on to more prestigious explorations, has received the National Geographic Adventure’s Second Annual Lifetime Achievement Award, and the 2007 Lowell Thomas Award- whose past recipients include Sir Edmund Hillary and Buzz Aldrin.

Particularly well known in his home state, Steger’s tireless canvassing efforts in Minnesota have made him a ubiquitous fixture in the state’s culture. He has spoken in churches, worked with Governor Tim Pawlenty to protect Lake Superior, and has even manned a booth at the Minnesota State Fair.

Although his primary focus today is on Minnesota, his online educational program has a global audience of millions. He urges teachers around the table to use online tools and first-hand
footage within their classrooms.

International relations were of the utmost importance regarding global warming Steger emphasizes, stating that “It is like a war, we all need to pull together. We don’t have any choice.” The teachers echoed this view. They were hopeful that President-elect Obama, an extremely
popular figure in Germany, would help unify the United States and Europe in the green movement. Steger is also optimistic about a renewed environmental effort. “I think Obama is going to be great, and bring unlikely alliances together,” he asserted.

The teachers believe that Obama will sign the agreement proposed at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP15) in Copenhagen in 2009. They were excited at the future possibilities for transatlantic partnership despite the failure of the United States to sign the 1992 Kyoto Protocol, which incited annoyed grumblings from the German teachers.

The COP15 is Steger’s current focus, and he is working to educate students on what he referred to as “the most important meeting since World War II.” Making the voice of the younger generation heard at the conference is necessary, Steger and Fenton stated, as they will deal with the outcomes of the climate agreement.

Educating a young demographic was the primary purpose of Steger’s recent expedition across Ellesmere Island. He traveled with five “emerging leaders”, ages 21 to 27. The trek crossed 1,400 miles on dogsled, and was an eye-opening experience for the members. They saw firsthand the collapsed ice shelves and rivers cutting through the tundra.

At this moment, after an hour of discussing environmental dangers, one of the German teachers, Carmen Arzig, asked succinctly, “So is there hope? I mean this is depressing.”

However, her depression was received encouragingly, as it is awareness-derived. This awareness is the first step in the endeavor to save the planet. “Many people avoid the edge because they don’t want discomfort, they don’t want to be really challenged,” Steger states, smiling. He knows exactly what achievements are possible when you walk that icy edge.