Ann Daniels: "I've seen plastic in the Arctic Ocean, a place that doesn't have many communities"
Interview: Jack Hayes
The record-breaking polar explorer Ann Daniels was part of the first all-female group to walk to the North Pole, an experience that made Ann the sustainability and equality champion she is today.
In this exclusive interview with Ann Daniels, a famed explorer and adventure speaker, we discover her most memorable experiences and why Ann believes diversity is vital.
How important is a diverse team and inclusive leadership?
“I think a diverse team is hugely important.
“The world is made of diverse people, and everybody is different. If you have a team with the same skills, the same colour skin, the same racial background, the same cultural background, you will always just do the same thing.
“If you have a mixed team made of many different people, all those skills, all those ideas, they will make that team more powerful. Equality is vital for a better, more successful, happier world.
“And how people think that it's not, I just don't even understand. So, diversity is powerful, it's huge and it is hugely important.”
Can you describe when you have seen the most shocking effects of global warming first-hand?
“Oh, gosh, I've seen the shocking effects of global warming so many times. I was part of an expedition put together by Pen Hadow, he was the guy who ran it and he asked me to pathfind on the expedition.
“This expedition was measuring the thickness of the North Pole ice caps. The scientists were expecting the thickness to be 1.9 metres or there about... it was less than 1.5. On that expedition, we saw swathes of very thin ice, kilometres of it, open water everywhere.
“In 1997, the Arctic Ocean was covered in thick ice, and now there's hardly any of it left, it's gone. There's water, there's thin ice, there's moving ice because there's not as much there. It has gone.
“I've been involved in ocean acidification science - which is how the chemistry of our oceans are changing - and I've seen the results of that, which is traumatic.
“I've seen plastic in the Arctic Ocean, a place that doesn't have many communities that live right on the edge of it and there are tonnes of plastic. It's horrific and I've seen that over 20 years, the change is huge.
“I know that the way we live our life around the world affects those very ends of the Earth. And if that doesn't bother us, what happens at the end of the world has a knock-on effect on the rest of the world.
“We must speak out about how we live our lives, starting with supermarkets and their plastic-wrapped vegetables. I could go on forever; why are we buying vegetables in plastic bags? If we stop buying it from the supermarket, they won't do it anymore.
“So, we can make a difference and we definitely should.”
Of all the experiences and places you have visited, what was the most memorable?
“The North Pole and the Arctic Ocean are my absolute favourite, the most beautiful places!
“You're walking on a crest of ice, and you see huge lumps of ice widgets that are 30ft in high and they look solid, they look like mountains, and then you see them move slowly and it takes your breath away.
“It's as if it's a living beast with its own personality. Nowhere have I experienced it to such an extent where the environment feels like it really has got its own personality.
“For me, the Arctic is [the most memorable place I have visited].”
What got you into exploration & who inspired you growing up?
"I was brought up on a council estate in Bradford, so I didn't have inspirational people in the way that I hear lots of people did because I never likened my life to them. So, I thought they were great people, but they didn't inspire me because they were too far removed. I never thought I could do anything that they did.
“So, I think the people that probably inspired me and instilled that I could do something were the people you wouldn't think about, like the schoolteachers. One teacher believed in me once, first time anybody had believed in me, and he turned my life around at school just because he believed in me.
“How did I get involved in it? Building on the fact that people inspired me and told me I could do things. I gave birth to triplets, so I had to leave my job in the bank, which I had thought was a lifetime job.
“I was going through a difficult marriage. I was in a really difficult place, and I saw an advert in a newspaper asking for ordinary women to apply to be part of the first all-female team to walk to the North Pole.
“There was every reason to not apply: I'd never skied, I'd never had a ruck sack on my back, I was a mother of 18-month-old triplets, I had no job. But I just applied anyway.
“I felt the pain and the fear, I'm not saying I didn't, but I just applied anyway because if I didn't apply, I knew I had already failed. So that's how I got into it, just taking an opportunity that I was frightened of, and I managed to get myself selected, which changed my life.”