By Tom Rayner in Ushuaia, Argentina
One of Britain's leading polar explorers has told Sky News that decades of campaign efforts to get people engaged with climate change have failed.
Robert Swan, who was the first man to walk to both the North and South poles, was speaking in Argentina on the eve of the launch of his latest expedition to Antarctica - one which he hopes will help turn the tide of public apathy towards green issues.
He said: "People are really sick and tired of seeing pictures of another glacier melting, another forest dying.
"This whole approach of the doomsday scenario is not working because people switch off and they think - 'well we can't do anything'.
"It's not working, this whole showing endless pictures saying there is a problem, I think anyone in the real world knows there's a problem, what we've got to do now is say, how can we inspire people?"
Mr Swan will be leading a group of 80 young people from 28 countries across the world to the Antarctic Peninsula.
His mission is to impress upon them the importance of maintaining the current international legal frameworks that protect the frozen continent from mining and drilling for energy resources.
Mr Swan hopes the expedition members will take plans of action back to their own countries after seeing Antarctica for themselves.
"We've got 80 people coming together to get a really good story that they can take back with them. They can go to Antarctica, come back, and then inspire people with ideas about change and solutions, not doomsday scenarios."
Made up of high-flyers from industry, business, banking, politics, NGOs and education, the expedition is comprised of young people from across the Middle East, Asia, Europe, Africa and America.
Some have had travel paid for by their companies or organisations, others have personally raised money through private sponsorship to pay for a place on the expedition.
The group, described as 'decision-makers of the future', will travel from the most southerly city in the world, the Argentinian port of Ushuaia, across the notoriously stormy sea channel known as Drake's passage, and then finally onwards to the Antarctic Peninsula.
Mr Swan's campaign is known as 2041 - a reference to the year when the international community could begin to re-evaluate the international treaty and environmental protocols which currently ban all exploitation of Antarctica's natural resources.
The continent, which is governed by an international treaty and not owned by any one state, is known to have significant reserves of minerals such as iron ore and coal, and scientists believe there are likely to be oil and natural gas reserves too, although they have not yet been identified.
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