THIS EXPEDITION WILL SHOW YOU THE NEW COASTLINE

+ Click to Enlarge GOING BEYOND: Atlantic Rising (from left: Tim Bromfield, Lynn Morris and Will Lorimer) will drive along the one-metre contour line, 32 000km through 31 countries, to show where the coastline would be if the Atlantic rose one metre.

August 14, 2009

Three Cambridge graduates have been given a Land Rover Defender 110 and a cheque for the equivalent of R140 000 by the Royal Geographical Society in London for a 32 000km expedition through 31 countries to raise awareness of the potential effects of climate change along the Atlantic coastline.

The Atlantic Rising team, winners of the 2009 "Go Beyond" bursary, will drive around the Atlantic Ocean and try to follow the one-metre contour which, scientists forecast, could become the new coastline by 2109.

Tim Bromfield, Lynn Morris and Will Lorimer will drive as closely as possible to the line, visiting schools along the way to create an educational network of about 10 000 students.

They will report from some of the most threatened coastal regions of the Atlantic Ocean and establish a sea-level change education project that can be used in 1200 schools throughout the world through the Rafi.ki online schools network.

Bromfield said: "Education is the most powerful weapon we have to combat climate change. By encouraging students around the Atlantic to work together we want to highlight our shared responsibility in dealing with this critical issue.

"By encouraging international friendships, we hope to make people care enough to act."

Royal Geographical Society director Dr Rita Gardner said: "This project will focus on one of the most challenging issues we face – the potential effects of climate change on coastal regions.

"Atlantic Rising will 'go beyond' their normal limits and boundaries and at the same time support one of the society’s objectives - to promote the wider understanding and enjoyment of geography.”

EXPEDITION MEMBERS

Tim Bromfield has a degree in geography from Cambridge and has worked as a teacher in London and Uganda. For the past five years he has been working at Accenture where he has led projects such as the Guardian's Katine project in Uganda. Desperate to swap his suit for sandals, Tim continues to work with the African Medical and Research Foundation.

Lynn Morris graduated from Cambridge in 2002 with a BA in Social Anthropology and has an MA in Visual Anthropology from the University of Manchester. She's a video journalist for the Press Association and blames her wanderlust on a childhood spent between family in Kenya and Somerset.

Social anthropology graduate Will Lorimer has worked as a cameraman in Palestine, Poland and America on productions for the BBC and Channel 4 and directed programmes for Five, National Geographic and the Discovery Channel.