Tuesday, February 12, 2013

E-base USA in the Blue Ridge Mountains

After successfully removing 1,500 tons of waste from the shores of Antarctica, Robert Swan, OBE, polar explorer, environmental leader and the first person ever to have walked to the North and South poles, stood at the Bellingshausen Russian Base and envisioned an education base that would allow him to share the beauty of this continent with students and leaders around the world.

Since 2003, Robert Swan and the 2041 team have taken over 200 people from 25 nations to Antarctica, on his renowned Inspire Antarctic Expeditions. Each year the visiting teams contributed to the design and construction of what would become the E-Base, Robert Swan’s education base overlooking the cleared beach on King George Island, Antarctica.


The E-Base serves as a symbolic model for educational, environmental and energy issues throughout the world. Its purpose is to inspire a global audience to tackle the issue of climate change, by showing that when we achieve the seemingly impossible in Antarctica, we can all take small, achievable steps in our own backyards.

 On Nov 21, 2011, a second E-Base opened in Pench National Park, India. Similar to the 2041 E-Base in Antarctica, the E-Base in India runs entirely on renewable energy. Serving as an educational and environmental platform for the local community, the E-Base focuses on wildlife conservation; largely, for the tiger.

And now with an extraordinary amount of excitement, Apple Ridge Farm, with enthusiastic support of Akzo-Nobel Corporation and many others, is developing and implementing their vision of the world's third E-base located at their farm in Copper Hill, Virginia.

eBase USA Blue Ridge Take 4 from Eldon Karr on Vimeo.
Inspired by Robert Swan, polar explorer, who established the world's first eBase in Antarctica to serve as a self-powered educational center to balance our energy demands with a commitment to protect our remaining natural environment; this video features a local effort at establishing the world's 3rd eBase in the USA in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia.