Human Settlements Minister Tokyo Sexwale will be joining a climate change expedition to the Antarctica this weekend.

The expedition, called Destination: Reality 2012, aimed to resolve doubts about the seriousness of climate change and the crisis facing the world, the Human Settlements Department said on Thursday.

The team was convened by Climate Reality project founder and chairperson and former US Vice President Al Gore. Virgin Group founder Richard Branson, United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change executive secretary Christiana Figueres, the President of Iceland Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson and the Turner Foundation chairperson Ted Turner also formed part of the team.

The 116-strong group would depart for the Antarctica from Ushuaia in Chile aboard the National Geographic Explorer on the January 29 and return February 5.

In a letter to expedition members, Gore said he was last in the Antarctica in 1988 and was looking forward to learning from the world scientists and a “very select group of extraordinary individuals” as they developed and shared new ways to confront and solve the climate change crisis.

“Ashore in Antarctica, we will explore its many natural wonders and observe, first hand, the dramatic impacts of climate change on the continent, and learn about what they mean for the world as a whole,” he wrote.

Arts and Culture Minister Paul Mashatile would be acting Human Settlements Minister during this period.
 

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