Britain currently ranks in the top five when it comes to polar science. But we’re in a slightly dodgy situation at the moment because, along with everybody else, we’re being faced with massive cuts.

I think NERC’s decision to lump polar science in with every environmental science, and make them all compete for grant money, is going to prove quite a serious mistake. We need to work out how much polar science we can afford to do – maybe not as much as we do now – and then work out the most efficient way of doing it.

One of the problems with polar science is that it’s expensive because of the logistics, but it’s inefficient to keep the resources, ships and bases that we have in Antarctica and leave it to chance to see whether the scientists get grants or not. That doesn’t make sense, it really doesn’t. This is important stuff, we can’t leave it to chance.

I think there are certain bits of science that are fairly crucial: fundamental physics, and the large hadron collider; some parts of astronomy; and polar sciences and the climate change story. And however much it costs I think you have to say we’re going to be part of that. And you have to commit certain funds to them. And that’s what we have to do with polar science.

Polar science is right up the top when it comes to understanding climate change. One of the things that keeps the global circulation going is the difference between the white at the poles and the dark at the centre of the globe, because they reflect different amounts of the sun’s rays. You can’t do anything about the dark bits in the middle but polar science tells you how long you’re going to keep those white bits.

You also get beautiful historical data at the poles. Looking back at the ice cores you can see how the temperatures and carbon dioxides levels have gone up and done over the centuries. And that’s another crucial part of climate science and the climate change story.

From the UK’s point of view if we’re going to try and guess what’s going to happen to us in the next hundred years or so climate-wise then you really need to know what’s going on in the poles. Because if anything bizarre is going to happen to the UK climate, it will certainly be because of changes in the direction of the Gulf Stream, which is partly fed by fresh water from the Arctic. 

Another reason we need to continue investing in polar science is because Britain’s membership of the Antarctic Treaty depends on our doing science there. It’s an odd situation but it’s a very important club to be in because being part of it gives you rights to decide things about Antarctica. And as oil and minerals run out there are going to be more ways in which people want to exploit Antarctica but as long as we stay in that scientific group we will be able to help manage and protect Antarctica. And that’s very important.