Former South Dakota Sen. Tom Daschle and his wife, Linda, are headed for the Arctic on Thursday as part of a National Geographic excursion aimed at studying the impacts of climate change.

The tour also includes former President Jimmy Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, business mogul Ted Turner, former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and Prince Albert of Monaco. Google founder Larry Paige and chief executives for Shell-US and Chevron also are on the tour.

"We will be traveling for 10 days. It is a great group," Daschle said by e-mail Wednesday morning. "The purpose of the trip is to understand better what is happening to the Arctic and the dramatic changes that are occurring there. We are told that all of the sea ice could disappear during the summer months within five years."

The tour will enter the Arctic waters on the National Geographic ship Endeavor and travel to Longyearbyen, a community in a group of islands in the Arctic Ocean called Svalbard. Svalbard is part of Norway.

The area is noted for large numbers of breeding birds, including puffins, auks, terns, kittiwakes and gulls. Svalbard also has a variety of flowering plants that are especially striking this time of year.

After the Arctic trip, Daschle will travel on to Rwanda with the One Campaign, a global campaign to fight poverty in Africa being led by Bono, star singer for the rock band U2.

Daschle, an Aberdeen native who was a member of Congress for 26 years and served as Senate Democratic leader, will be joined on the Rwanda trip by Cindy McCain, wife of Republican presidential candidate John McCain, and former Sen. Republican Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee.

"It's going to be an interesting July," Daschle said.

Contact Kevin Woster at 394-8413 or kevin.woster@rapidcityjournal.com