Bruliam wines and Antarctica - a great combination!

Recently, we learned about a wine company that sponsors a contest wherein fans of the wine can win money for the charity of their choice by wearing the company's shirts in exotic locales. One fan, Jana Hirschenbein, submitted a photo of herself wearing the shirt in Antarctica, and donated the proceeds from her win to our organization. We're honored to be the beneficiary of her win, and are quite impressed that Bruliam actually gives all their profits to charity, not just a bit here and there for photo contest winners! Looks like they make good wine, too.

We're also a bit jealous of Jana's photo backdrop (i.e., the Antarctic peninsula). Just because you work for an Antarctic organization doesn't mean you get to go to Cuverville Island and enjoy breathtaking scenery. In any case, we're very pleased with Jana's combination of two great things - good wine and the Antarctic wilderness.

Antarctica - a year on ice

This video's been around a while, but it's worth watching. Through the magic of time lapse photography, you can get an idea of the changes Antarctica goes through over the course of a year.

Antarctica wind farm up and running

We mentioned before that a wind farm would soon be up and running in Antarctica - and now it is! You can check out some videos of the farm on our YouTube channel, provided courtesy of Cody Meyer, The Antarctic Cowboy. It's pretty nifty. Along with Belgium's zero-emissions research station, this is a great development for Antarctica, and a great example for the rest of us.

Our Man in Antarctica

ASOC is pleased to have been contacted by Cody Meyer, aka Antarctic Cowboy, who works as a chef at McMurdo and is very interested in Antarctic conservation and off-grid living when he's not busy feeding hungry scientists. He's even started an Antarctic Conservation League for his fellow McMurdo-ites.

From Cody's updates, it appears that a welcome effort to keep research stations sustainable is underway. Whether briefing staffers on ways to conserve resources or installing wind farms, it appears that the old days of assuming that there were so few people in Antarctica that they didn't have to worry about pollution are thankfully over. The Ross Island Wind Farm that went online this year, for example, will eventually supply 100% of Ross Station's energy needs, and 50% of McMurdo's according to Cody.

It's fantastic that there are people like Cody around to spread the word about greener ways of living, especially in fragile environments. He recently gave a presentation in Antarctica explaining his background in sustainable, off-grid living. Some slides from his presentation below:





Check out Cody's blog post on his adventures in living sustainably. And if you're working in Antarctica, join the Antarctic Conservation League! We at ASOC look forward to hearing more from Cody and the ACL.


One of the wind turbines for the new Ross Island wind turbine, courtesy of Mr. Meyer. In case you were wondering, Antarctica is the windiest place on the planet so it's a no-brainer to use wind power down there, although transporting the equipment does present something of a problem.