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Activists reach North Pole in summer

4 July 2006, 18:00 PM
INTERNATIONAL
By Afp, Chicago
US explorers Lonnie Dupre (L) and Eric Larsen (R) make history as they become the first-ever to complete a trek to the North Pole in summer on July 2. PHOTO: AFP
Two environmentalists became the first people to reach the North Pole by canoe and on foot in summer, in an expedition aimed at drawing attention to how global warming is threatening polar bears with extinction, they said in a satellite telephone interview Monday.

When they got there on Saturday, the Pole was covered with water.

"What really surprised us was the state of the ocean," said Lonnie Dupre, 45, a carpenter from the Midwestern state of Minnesota.

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"We've seen the ocean bursting up under our feet," he said. "We expected flat, condensed ice from about 86 degrees north but when we got here the ice was completely pressured and fractured everywhere."
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