HAVING just completed his matric exams, Daniel Jacobs from Pietermaritzburg was yesterday named as one of the top 10 candidates for the Matrics in Antarctica 2022, chosen from thousands of applicants in South Africa.
Jacobs hopes he will make it into the final five who will travel to the icy continent in February.
Having attended St Charles College, Jacobs will take up mechanical engineering at university next year and after finding out he was in the top 10 yesterday evening, he said: “I was quite nervous, but once my name was read out, I was so excited, I felt lost for words.
“I’ve always had a passion for renewable energy and have opposed climate change. I want to go into that kind of field, such as renewable energy and it would be awesome to go to Antarctica and see climate change,” he said.
Leading the team of matrics will be South African explorer and extreme adventurer Riaan Manser who grew up in Zululand.
Now living in Cape Town, Manser said the top 10 candidates will spend time with the selection panel and educators next month in the Grootvaderbosch Nature Reserve in the Western Cape.
Manser said the reserve with 250ha of forest “has a magical, fairy tale quality which will leave the top 10 with a lasting impression that they have stepped into another world”.
He will lead the final five matrics on the Antarctic trip in February, when the winners fly out of Cape Town on a cargo plane and, six-and-a-half hours later, land on a block of ice in the Antarctic. They will be hosted at the Russian base, Novolazarevskaya, and will spend time taking part in science experiments as well as learning about themselves.
Having been to Antarctica three times, Manser said it was “a phenomenal place, it’s surreal.
“We will land on a smooth, slippery block of ice which is about four metres thick. All about you, it is white,” he said, adding that matriculants will bring fresh ideas and fresh thinking to issues such as climate change.
He said February was the hottest time of the year, with temperatures between zero and -10 degrees.
Shaye Lupton, marketing manager of Bio-Strath, partners in the trip, said: “It is truly wonderful to know that the youth of today understand the need for sustainable packaging and their responsibility to not only talk about change, but be part of the movement for a better future.”
Dale Carolin, marketing and commercial senior executive of another partner, Consol, said: ”Unless we change the way we consume, by 2050, there will be more plastic in our oceans than fish. But by making better choices today, we can create a better tomorrow.”
The Independent on Saturday