Todd Carmichael has made it to the South Pole!

onDec 23, 2008 @ 22:56 PST

We have just got word that American expeditionist and DeSmogBlog writer Todd Carmichael has made it to the South Pole. This makes Todd the very first American ever to reach the South Pole solo and unaided.

And to top it off, Todd has set a new time speed record!

Todd has been writing on DeSmogBlog and Huffington Post for the last year raising awarness about the negative impacts of human-caused global warming on the Antarctica. Here’s one of his most popular pieces: Something Strange is Happening at the Coldest, Driest Place on Earth

Wayne Moore, a physician’s assistant working at the South Pole, sends an update about Todd via the guestbook on this site: “To all his very concerned friends & family, he has made a rapid recovery from the trip and has become a local hero at the station.” Thanks very much for the word Wayne! Besides being an astronaut, I can’t think of anything cooler than working in Antarctica. Cheers to you and everyone else down there.

Now that you’re a hero Todd, you can get back to work helping us!

But seriously, we met Todd about a year ago when he asked if he could write on DeSmogBlog to help promote solutions to reducing greenhouse gas. After a cursory glance at his credentials we quickly obliged. In fact, we even made Todd his own section on the site.

Todd is one of those amazing people you read about that dream big and make the best of everything that life has to offer. The whole DeSmogBlog team is proud to be associated with Todd and really, really hope that he doesn’t come back from his trek too famous to write for us once in a while.

So over this holiday season when you pop a champagne cork, make sure one is dedicated to Todd.

By Kevin Grandia

Kevin is a contributor and strategic adviser to DeSmog. He runs the digital marketing agency Spake Media House. Named a “Green Hero” by Rolling Stone Magazine and one of the “Top 50 Tweeters” on climate change and environment issues, Kevin has appeared in major news media outlets around the world for his work on digital campaigning. Kevin has been involved in the public policy arena in both the United States and Canada for more than a decade. For five years he was the managing editor of DeSmogBlog.com. In this role, Kevin’s research into the “climate denial industry” and the right-wing think tank networks was featured in news media articles around the world. He is most well known for his ground-breaking research into David and Charles Koch’s massive financial investments in the Republican and tea party networks. Kevin is the first person to be designated a “Certified Expert” on the political and community organizing platform NationBuilder. Prior to DeSmog, Kevin worked in various political and government roles. He was Senior Advisor to the Minister of State for Multiculturalism and a Special Assistant to the Minister of State for Asia Pacific, Foreign Affairs for the Government of Canada. Kevin also worked in various roles in the British Columbia provincial government in the Office of the Premier and the Ministry of Health. In 2008 Kevin co-founded a groundbreaking new online election tool called Vote for Environment which was later nominated for a World Summit Award in recognition of the world’s best e-Content and innovative ICT applications. Kevin moved to Washington, DC in 2010 where he worked for two years as the Director of Online Strategy for Greenpeace USA and has since returned to his hometown of Vancouver, Canada.