Table of contents for Winter 2019 - 2020 in The Explorers Journal

The Explorers Club Annual Dinner is like any other great migration. Every year the greatest explorers from around the globe gather in New York City to share their stories of triumph, tragedy, and camaraderie. I thought it would be difficult to outdo last year’s ECAD, with a record crowd of more than 1,700 members and guests descending on New York for a celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the first landing on the Moon. And this year the dinner and weekend look like they may be even better. Our theme this year is Conservation, which is close to the heart of many of our members and supporters. In addition to Jane Goodall, who signed on as our keynote speaker last fall, I’m also honored to announce the evening’s awardees. Topping…

46 EAST 70TH STREET, NEW YORK, NY 10021 WWW.EXPLORERS.ORG | 212-628-8383 AFRICA Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka gladys@ctph.org ALASKA Mead Treadwell meadwell@alaska.net ATLANTA Steve Pigott jagter@msn.com AUSTRALIA & NEW ZEALAND Todd Tai todd@mivision.com.au BHUTAN Matthew DeSantis matt@mybhutan.com CANADA George Kourounis chapterchair@explorersclub.ca CENTRAL & SOUTH AMERICA Jimmy McSparron jimmy@trekkingnut.com CHICAGO/GREAT LAKES Robert A. Shuchman, PhD shuchman@mtu.edu EAST & SOUTH ASIA Steven R. Schwankert steven@sinoscuba.com FLORIDA Joseph Dituri, PhD joe@gallantaquatic.com GEORGE ROGERS CLARK Leonard A. Weakley, Jr. lweakley@rendigs.com GREAT BRITAIN & IRELAND Mark Wood, Chair mark@markwoodexplorer.com Rory Golden, Vice Chair rgolden@eircom.net www.britishexplorersclub.org GREATER PIEDMONT James Borton asiareview@yahoo.com HAWAII Gary Bowersox mrgary77@aol.com HONG KONG Michael E. Barth mebarth@explorershk.org NEW ENGLAND Gregory Deyermenjian paititi@alumni.clarku.edu NORTH PACIFIC ALASKA Joshua C. Lewis & Victoria M. Becwar-Lewis npac1@me.com NORTHERN CALIFORNIA Lesley Ewing lesleycoastal@gmail.com NORWAY Synnøve Marie Kvam Strømsvåg explorers.norge@gmail.com PACIFIC…

One of the great joys of The Explorers Club is the forum it provides for intellectual exchange—a chance to encounter curiosity seekers representing every imaginable exploratory discipline and, in the course of one’s discussions, learn something new, exciting, or just plain interesting. In short, The Explorers Club is a major source of what I like to call “brain candy.” For this edition of THE EXPLORERS JOURNAL, we take up the subject of chance encounters, both anticipated and unexpected. In his “Letter from Lisbon,” newly elected Explorers Club member Julian Lennon shares the story of how his decades-long commitment to environmental conservation and indigenous rights was born out of an impromptu meeting with the Mirning, one of Australia’s aboriginal peoples, during a concert tour of the Land Down Under in 1992.…

MY PENGUIN YEAR BY LINDSAY MCCRAE 304 PP • NEW YORK: WILLIAM MORROW, 2019 • ISBN-10: 0062971360 • ISBN-13: 978-0062971364 • $27.99 In My Penguin Year: Life Among the Emperors, Lindsay McCrae delightfully recounts the time he spent filming emperor penguins in Antarctica. He begins his narrative by tracing his interest in watching animals to his childhood, when he spent hours observing creatures in the woods near his house. He soon began to film them, which then landed him a job working on a major documentary upon his graduation from high school. But it wasn’t until his partner Becky was expecting their first child that McCrae was offered his “dream job”—the chance to film Antarctica’s penguins during their annual mating ritual for the BBC documentary series Dynasties, narrated by Sir…

WE LOOK TO THE PAST TO GAIN KNOWLEDGE AND INSPIRATION FROM THE EXPLORERS WHO HAVE COME BEFORE US. PERHAPS MORE IMPORTANT, WE MUST LOOK TO THE FUTURE AND NURTURE THIS CURIOSITY AND PERSEVERANCE IN A NEW GENERATION. A GIFT TO THE LEGACY SOCIETY HELPS ENSURE THE CONTINUATION OF THE EXPLORERS CLUB AND ITS MISSION. —DR. JUDY RADKE, MN’17 John G. Alexander • Alan B. Albright • Robert J. Atwater • Capt. Norman L. Baker* • Barbara Ballard • Robert D. Ballard, PhD • Samuel B. Ballen* • Mark Gregory Bayuk • Daniel A. Bennett • Josh Bernstein • Bruce Blanchard • John R. Bockstoce, DPhil • Jack Aaron Boggs • Bjorn G. Bolstad* • Capt. Bruce M. Bongar, PhD • Brian M. Boom, PhD • Jill Botway • Garrett R.…

From vast ocean depths to the frontiers of outer space, THE EXPLORERS JOURNAL offers firsthand reporting from those pushing the limits of knowledge and human endurance. Founded in 1904 to promote exploration “by all means possible,” The Explorers Club is an international organization dedicated to the advancement of field exploration and scientific inquiry. Among our members are leading pioneers in oceanography, mountaineering, archaeology, and the planetary and environmental sciences.…

ELECTED A MEMBER OF THE EXPLORERS CLUB IN 2020, JULIAN LENNON IS A GR AMMY-NOMINATED SINGER-SONGWRITER, PHOTOGRAPHER, DOCUMENTARIAN, PHILANTHROPIST, AND NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR. BORN IN LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND, LENNON FOUNDED THE GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL AND HUMANITARIAN ORGANIZATION THE WHITE FEATHER FOUNDATION IN 2007, WHOSE KEY INITIATIVES ARE EDUCATION, HEALTH, CONSERVATION, AND THE PROTECTION OF INDIGENOUS CULTURES. FOR MORE INFORMATION, VISIT WWW.WHITEFEATHERFOUNDATION.COM AND WWW.JULIANLENNON-PHOTOGRAPHY.COM. Some moments seem filled with promise. Thus it was last spring when I received an email from Tom de la Cal of the noted Film Festival Agency, asking me if I would attend a “Global Exploration” summit to be held in Lisbon, Portugal, the first week of July. Sponsored by The Explorers Club and the Government of Portugal, the forum—known by its acronym GLEX—would bring together dozens…

JOIN THE “EXPLORERS IMMORTALS” AND ENGRAVE YOUR NAME OR DEDICATION IN STONE ON NEW PAVERS FOR THE LEFRAK TERRACE AT EXPLORERS CLUB HEADQUARTERS. ADORN OUR LANDMARK OUTDOOR SPACE AND HELP PAY FOR URGENT WORK FOR PHASE II RENOVATIONS BY MAKING A TAX-DEDUCTIBLE DONATION OF $2,500 PER DEDICATED PAVER TO OUR LOWELL THOMAS BUILDING FUND. THE EXPLORERS CLUB WOULD LIKE TO THANK THE FOLLOWING WHO HAVE PURCHASED A PAVER: Robert Ashton, James H. Alexander, John G. Alexander, Darlene T. Anderson, Jeanne D. Andlinger, Barbara Annan, Robert J. Aresty, Atlanta Chapter, Robert J. Atwater, Norman L. Baker, Andreas Bender, Josh Bernstein, John Bierley, Bruce Blanchard, John R. Bockstoce, Brian M. Boom, John R. Boreske Jr., Gary W. Bowersox, Lawson W. Brigham, Diane Britz-Lotti, Julianne M. Chase, James M. Clash, Allen S. Counter,…

SOMETIMES A HERO IS AN ORDINARY PERSON THROWN INTO AN EXTRAORDINARY SITUATION. ELEVEN YEARS AGO, CAPT. CHESLEY “SULLY” SULLENBERGER’S AIRBUS A320 HIT A FLOCK OF GEESE JUST AFTER TAKEOFF FROM NEW YORK’S LAGUARDIA AIRPORT. THE STRIKE CRIPPLED BOTH ENGINES. SULLY USED JUST 208 SECONDS TO LAND THE PLANE SAFELY ON THE HUDSON RIVER, SAVING ALL 155 PASSENGERS AND CREW ABOARD. JC: What were your thoughts once you knew the engines were dead? CS: I remember vividly my first three thoughts in those first seconds. First, “This can’t be happening.” Having read about many accident flights, this is a very typical response rooted in disbelief. That was followed immediately by, “This isn’t happening to me.” In over four decades, I had never been so challenged in an airplane that I doubted…