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It's a good thing Lindsey Andersen likes cold weather.

The Glenview 18-year-old is accompanying about 100 university students and faculty, scientists and other experts on a 17-day expedition to Antarctica.

"We're the future of what global sustainability will be," Andersen said. "It's our job to raise the public's understanding on just how big a role the poles play in maintaining the entire Earth's climate and ecosystem."

Even though expeditions have taken scientists to the polar regions since the late 1800s, much is still not yet known about how polar climate operates and interacts with and influences the oceans, atmosphere and land masses.

Andersen became interested in global warming and sustainability during an internship at Fermilab in Batavia. So when her mother, Margot, came across information about the International Polar Year Antarctic University Expedition, the Glenbrook North High School senior jumped at the chance.

Andersen was notified in November -- the night before her birthday -- that she had won one of only two scholarships offered for the expedition, which will cover expenses expected to total about $27,000.

"I had probably not smiled that much in a very long time," she said of her reaction.

Andersen was still grieving the death of her 29-year-old brother, Adam. He'd been killed July 31 while trying to carry a bicycle across Lake Shore Drive in Chicago.

"This was the first thing where it finally gave me something to channel all of my energy into," she said. "Finally I can be part of something that's bigger than myself. It gives a reason to get back and into what I do."

This won't be the first time Andersen gets the opportunity to travel to a cold climate. She had spent a month in Alaska as part of a volunteer community service program.

"I watched how a small group of people could change so much," she said of that experience.

In Antarctica, Andersen believes she will experience research that could ultimately end up saving the planet.

"I can read and take in information and analyze it, but when I go there, I'm going to be able to see whiteness all around and know that this is what I'm trying to save," she said. "This is the most pristine place left on earth and is the ultimate laboratory for studying climate and almost any kind of science you can think of."

It will take several flights and three days by ship through the Drake Passage and the South Shetland Islands to get their Antarctic base.

The temperature will hover in the negative 20s while Andersen is there. She and the other students will live on board a ship. In between lectures and lab exercises, they'll make frequent field trips to the Antarctic mainland via inflatable boats.

The educational activities include taking ice core samples, hiking on the ice cap, exploring natural sites and visiting scientific research bases.

It will be Andersen's task to act as a student ambassador when she returns.

"We take the natural world way to much for granted," she said. "This is my chance to give back to a world that's given me so much. If I do a tiny bit, and all these other kids do, and then we get other kids to join, some day maybe we can actually make a difference."

Original source taken from: http://www.pioneerlocal.com/glenview/news/1413315,gv-southpole-020509-s1.article

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