Frederik @ climate conference & then checks into hospital

Yesterday Crown Prince Frederik attended the opening of the University of Copenhagen's climate change conference: 'Climate Change: Global Risks, Challenges and Decisions' currently underway at the Bella Centre in Copenhagen. The conference is an interdisciplinary one on climate change with more than 2,000 participants from 80 countries. It results from cooperation between ten of the world’s leading universities in the International Alliance of Research Universities (IARU) comprising the Australian National University (ANU), ETH - Zürich, the National University of Singapore, Peking University, the University of California - Berkeley, the University of Cambridge, the University of Copenhagen, the University of Oxford, the University of Tokyo and Yale University. When in Australia in 2005 Frederik and Mary signed a memorandum of understanding on behalf of Danish universities with the Australian National University, which is now bearing fruit in forums such as these.



Photos © Lizette Kabré/University of Copenhagen

In other news, the court has announced in a press release that Crown Prince Frederik went to Rigshospitalet after the opening of the conference to have an operation on his leg. The cause is a fractured fibula, which the Crown Prince sustained during a sledge ride with Prince Christian and Princess Isabella on the last day of the family's recent holiday in Switzerland. Frederik is expected to be released quickly and to have the leg in plaster for six weeks. It is still expected that the Crown Prince Couple's planned US trip in March will go ahead.

Update: The operation went well, and late in the afternoon the Crown Prince had woken from the general anaesthesia. He is expected to be released on Thursday and will have to have the leg in plaster for about six weeks. Official engagements are expected to continue as planned. B.T. reports Frederik was to be released today but will stay an extra day until tomorrow. He will therefore miss an event at Amalienborg Palace this evening. The event is the Defense Force and Air Force's Medal of Honour dinner at Christian VII's palace to present the Defence Medal for Bravery. Mary will be at the dinner and presentation on her own.

Politken
DR.dk
TV2
Billed Bladet
TV2
The Sydney Morning Herald
The Age (Melbourne)
B.T.

TV2 clip (00:48)

msn starlounge gallery of Frederik at the conference

Frederik opens climate research centre

Also on Thursday Crown Prince Frederik attended a symposium at the Centre for Ice and Climate at the Niels Bohr Institute at the University of Copenhagen.



Varm velkomst til iskold forskning
TV2 Sputnik Local Eyes video clip (1:45) (thanks jema!)

Frederik with Galathea 3 in the Galápagos

Jyllands-Posten reports that Frederik arrived on the Vædderen in the Galápagos Islands and is already busy with Galathea 3 activities. Frederik will participate with the researchers and crew on the expedition until he leaves on March 11 in Panama. On Sunday afternoon he visited the Charles Darwin Research Station in Puerto Ayora.



Check out some of the things on the Galathea 3 website:
Vædderen webcam
Galathea 3 news
Science projects in the Galápagos (it is interactive - click on Galápagos for the menu)
links to all the scientific projects Galathea 3 is working on

In Danish from the Galathea 3 website:
Kronprinsen på "Vædderen"


Added: Jyllands-Posten photo gallery of Frederik on board

Frederik with the Galathea 3 expedition

Crown Prince Frederik has left Denmark to rendevouz with the Galathea 3 expeditionary ship the Vædderen today in the Galápagos Islands. Today is day 204 of the cicumnavigation which will have taken 258 days at journey's end. Frederik is the patron and will be away for nine days (3-11 March) sailing with the expedition to the Virgin Islands where Frederik will cross paths with Prince Henrik as he leaves. Prince Henrik will join the expedition for five days from 11-16 March 2007 on the stopover in St Thomas. Next stop after the Caribbean is Boston on April 4 and then the Vædderen sails for Denmark to return on April 25 to Copenhagen.

Explore the Galapagos Islands (not quite as good as going there!)
Galápagos Conservancy.org
Galápagos Islands.net
Charles Darwin Foundation - science for Galápagos
galápagos.com

Galathea 3 - the expedition

Frederik at opening of International Polar Year

Today Crown Prince Frederik has attended the launch of the Danish part of International Polar Year 2007-2008, of which he is patron, at the Nordatlantiske Brygge in Copenhagen. Frederik knows first hand about the situation in Greenland ( a part of the polar region) as he was a participant in Expedition Sirius 2000. He was one of six people who took part in the 2,795 kilometre long sledge journey along the coast of North and North East Greenland. Danes followed the journey through a series of documentaries in which Frederik spoke of the hardships as well as the amazing experiences of nature during the four month journey. Frederik has spoken a number of times in interviews about the great impact the Sirius Expedition had upon him. He also participated in a royal colloqium in 2005 focused on the Arctic Under Stress.

International Polar Year 2007-2008 has been launched this week world wide and involves multiple research organisations, educational institutions and will be centred on the North Polar region and on the Antarctic. There are numerous projects operating out of Hobart (the centre for Australian Antarctic research), including educational expeditions. There will be multi-disciplinary research and data collection as well as educational outreach during the Polar Year. The primary launch was in Paris on March 1 and the year will involve 60 nations and 220 projects.



Some symbolic passing around of Greenlandic ice carved as a globe.

Some of Crown Prince Frederik's related patronages:
The Commission for Scientific Research in Greenland and the the Greenland Scientific Research Commission
See also Danish Polar Centre
Frederik is patron Danish Expedition Foundation and the Galathea 3 Expedition
Much of the research and concern for these environments centres on the question of global warming and the now evident degradation of polar regions involving melting of massive ice sheets, fjords and affects on wildlife including polar bears, birds and many other species.
BBC NEWS - Huge polar study ready to begin
SMH - Global polar study launched
SMH - Australia to lead Antarctic research

Added: Madeleine Glindorf's gallery (thanks Madeleine!)

Galathea 3 - the Vædderen sets sail

Crown Prince Frederik waves to the crew of the Vaedderen
Today Crown Prince Frederik, as the royal patron of the Galathea 3 expedition, attended the send off of the expedition in Langelinie wharf, Copenhagen. Check our previous post for more info.



Crown Prince Frederik's speech (in Danish)
Visit Madeleine Glindorf's gallery for many more photos.
Around the world in 257 days (denmark.dk)

Galathea 3 - the expedition begins

Today Crown Prince Frederik is visiting the ship Vædderen, the lead ship in the Galathea 3 Expedition which is due to set sail tomorrow. Along with other guests, Frederik is attending this event to highlight the beginning of this third Danish Galathea expedition. Frederik will also be present to see the expedition off tomorrow from the Amalie Quay in Copenhagen.

Galathea expeditions have an interesting history. The first expedition was initiated by King Christian VIII and sailed from 1845 to 1847. See Galathea 1 (1845-47).

The second expedition came a hundred years after the first and sailed from 1950 to 1952. See Galathea 2 (1950-52). Prince Axel (nephew of Frederik's grandfather King Frederik IX) was involved with this expedition.

The Vædderen, which means 'The Ram' in Danish, is the Danish Navy surveillance vessel which will undertake the voyage to circumnavigate the Earth, sailing tomorrow and returning to Denmark in April 2007. The expedition will be concerned with research into biology, geology, culture and history, and climate and the environment. Read about the Vædderen (Danish Naval History) and the preparation of the ship and its facilities for the voyage.

Crown Prince Frederik is the patron of the Danish Expedition Foundation which organises the expedition and has been quite closely involved with its organisation. Frederik has already been an expeditioner: in 1986 he went to Central Asia (Mongolia) and in 2000 he participated in the Sirius Expedition travelling 2,800 kms by dog sled across northern Greenland. It is expected that he may paticipate in part of this expedition too, although details are not yet known. See Galathea 3 bound for the seven seas for details of who is involved and its organisation (in English).




Explore the Galathea 3 website, it has some great information about the route, history, research and activities of the expedition. Danish classrooms will have a direct satellite connection to the ship while it is on its journey:
Galathea 3 Expedition (English version)
Galathea 3 Ekspeditionen (Danish version)
Denmark.dk 'Galathea 3 - Voyages of discovery, a venerable Danish tradition'
Politiken's Galathea 3 page (Danish)
Berlingske Tidende's Galathea 3 page (Danish)
Crown Prince Frederik's Sirius 2000 Expedition page (in English from Frederik's website)
Sirius 2000 Expedition and Sirius 2000 - interview with Crown Prince Frederik (both in English)

Crown Prince Frederik visits the Marine Center

Hamburg, GERMANY: Denmark's Crown Prince Frederik smiles during his visit of the Marine center 17 February 2006 in Hamburg, northern Germany.




Centre for Marine and Atmospheric Sciences
photo gallery of Frederik at the Marine Centre talking to scientists and finding out about some of the latest research
Max Planck Institute for Meteorology - photos and account of Frederik's visit Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark visits Hamburg's Centre for Marine and Atmospheric Sciences (ZMAW)
During his state visit to Hamburg, HRH Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark took the opportunity to inform himself about modern marine and climate research... Prince Frederik, who took part in a four-month sledge expedition in Greenland in the winter of 2000, is interested in marine and polar re-search, especially in connection with Greenland, the Faroe Islands and the surrounding seas. Since this is one focus of the research at the ZMAW, he expressed the wish to become acquainted with the work here....