Jade’s experiences in the polar regions left her with a deep emotional connection to Earth. She channels this passion for preserving the planet for future generations in her role as Youth Advisor to The Villars Institute, including as a mentor in The Villars Institute’s new Mentorship Program.
Jade, 23, is Youth Advisor to the Villars Institute. She graduated from Monash University in Melbourne, Australia in October 2023 with a Bachelor of Commerce (Finance). She completed an internship with the Villars Institute while completing her studies in 2022. In 2019, Jade was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in the Queen’s Birthday Honours. Jade has also chronicled her polar journeys in her book, My Polar Dream, and National Geographic documentary On Thin Ice: Jade’s Polar Dream, which has been aired in 170 countries. She’s also delivered a TEDx Talk, spoken at the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos and attended the UN Climate Change COP27 in Egypt.
HER POLAR EXPEDITIONS
I was born into a very adventurous family. My dad climbed mountains, including the Seven Summits, so our family holidays usually involved hiking in off-grid places. On one trip, when I was 12, we trekked to Mount Everest base camp in the Himalayas. It was there I met an inspiring Icelandic woman, Vilborg Arna Gissurardottir – Villa, for short. Villa had skied to the South Pole solo and shared her stories with me while we walked. I thought, ‘If she can do it, maybe I can as well.’
Our South Pole expedition was the greatest challenge of them all. We decided to attempt a new route from the coast of Antarctica through the Transantarctic Mountains via the Kansas Glacier. The route had only been studied by aerial photograph – no human had set foot there before. Compared with the traditional route, the crevasses were not marked on the GPS, we were forced to cover around 200km through waist-high sastrugi (ridges of snow that look like sand dunes), and we were confronted with a daunting and steep climb out of the glacier and up onto the polar plateau.
ON HER JOURNEY AS A YOUNG SYSTEMS LEADER
My polar expeditions taught me that bravery is more important than perfection. There’s no way I would have completed my polar journey if perfection was my goal, because, for starters, when I first set out to ski to the North Pole, I didn’t know how to ski! In fact, I only learned how to downhill ski in Switzerland two years ago while interning at Villars! If I’d worried about being the perfect skier, I don’t think I would have even started.
Sadly, my expeditions confirmed for me the devastating impacts humans are having on our precious and fragile polar regions. In the Arctic, the start of our expedition was delayed by two weeks, because the sea ice, which would usually form a runway for our plane to land, kept breaking up due to the warm weather. We also experienced unusually warm temperatures in Greenland, where, before we could even start skiing, the ice had retreated so far from the coast that we were forced to physically carry each of our 100kg sleds over a kilometre from our drop-off point to the closest ice. Then, at the summit of the ice sheet (around 2500m above sea level), where conditions should have been extremely cold, we got caught in a blizzard for 2 days, and it was so warm we got soaked by pelting rain. We were trapped in our tent for 2 days while we sat out the storm and dried out our gear.
I was lucky to be accompanied by such a great team, including the NatGeo camera assistant, Heath Jamieson, who became my mentor and a great friend. Heath is an ex-Special Forces soldier who was shot through the neck in Afghanistan and was told he’d never walk again. Heath dragged the heaviest load of anyone on the trips: his own gear, food and fuel, plus the heavy film equipment. He told me that the human brain is lazy – it’s constantly looking for excuses to not have to do anything that is hard or uncomfortable. The key is to trick the brain by, for example, smiling. I have applied this thinking every day since.
A great way to deal with online trolls is with humour. After returning home from the North Pole, age 15, I delivered a TEDx talk, which was about shifting the focus for young women from how we appear to the possibilities of what we can do. The talk was uploaded to YouTube and it received many responses of support and encouragement, but there was some trolling, mostly comments that were demeaning to women, including: ‘Make me a sandwich.’ On the way to the South Pole, occasionally we would joke about these comments. When we arrived at the Pole, I asked the male chef at the camp to make a sandwich. That night I posted the photo on my Instagram alongside the words, “…for all those men who commented ‘make me a sandwich’ on my TEDx Talk…I made you a sandwich (ham & cheese), now ski 37 days and 600km to the South Pole and you can eat it xx”.
This year, I will be completing further studies in business and entrepreneurship. My dream is to start a company that has a positive impact on our environment and society. I am passionate about dedicating more time this year to learn the tools and strategies required to successfully govern a purposeful organisation, including through an exciting program in Melbourne focused on doing business with greater empathy.
ON THE VILLARS INSTITUTE
My Villars journey started back in the Arctic in 2016. It was there I first met my good friend, Keith Tuffley, Villars board member, who was part of a different expedition also skiing to the North Pole. Keith and I kept in touch and we later reconnected about the Villars Institute, after which I spent three months interning with the Villars team in 2022.
I have been privileged to meet some truly inspiring individuals through Villars, including professor Johan Rockström, Director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research. I first got to know Johan during a ‘Sail and Science’ trip on the Abel Tasman Expedition Yacht in the Lofoten islands in Norway in 2022, where I learnt much from him and his sons, Isak and Alex, about climate science and planetary boundaries. Johan continues to inspire me, knowing better than anyone how dire our situation really is, yet he continues to show up in his role as Director of PIK. He is a very cool human.
Young people are moving from ‘eco-anxiety’ to ‘eco-ambition’. Part of my role as Youth Advisor involves leading the Villars Institute’s Global Issues Survey, an annual survey examining youth perceptions about under-reported topics shaping the future. It aims to challenge the dominant narrative that youth sentiment is that of anger and “eco-anxiety”. The trend we have seen so far is positive and optimistic: many young people are shifting from “eco-anxiety” to “eco-ambition” and are coming at the climate crisis through the lens of agency.
Systems thinking is central to finding a pathway to protecting the planet. It prompts us to consider the broader context and long-term impacts of our actions, and helps in identifying root causes, anticipating unintended consequences, and creating sustainable solutions in complex and dynamic environments. Preparing future leaders for an increasingly complex world, must also mean preparing them to be systems thinkers.
Despite the facts, I remain optimistic about the climate crisis. I am confident that my generation will have the technology, the passion, and the unified movement to make a meaningful difference. The growing community of nearly 500 Villars Fellows continues to confirm this confidence in me, but I do believe it is up to the current generation of leaders to accept responsibility for the education and development of today’s youth – the future next generation of leaders – with a focus on the fields that will be most important to a sustainable future, and the mindset and skills needed required to thrive within the planet’s boundaries.
I am very excited to be joining the upcoming Villars Institute Mentorship Program as a mentor. My hope is that through sharing my story, I can inspire others to be brave. Bravery is a requirement for us to fully express all the things that make us unique and that we can contribute to this world. When we live our lives in this way, our actions have a ripple effect on those around us. Our collective future depends on us choosing to be brave… and imperfect.
