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GMB’s Laura Tobin recalls leaning on Susanna Reid for support following Svalbard backlash
Good Morning Britain’s meteorologist Laura Tobin, 40, gave a poignant report about the effects of climate change when she flew to Svalbard, Norway, last year.The bulletin was shown live on GMB in September and Laura broke down in tears after witnessing how global warming had melted the glaciers and put polar bears in danger.In the segment, she explained that Svalbard is heating up more than anywhere else on Earth and that the ice melting will cause changes to the weather in the UK, including rising sea levels and more flooding.Laura’s voice started to break when she said her young daughter, Charlotte, five, had drawn her a picture of a polar bear.She sobbed: “If Charlotte comes here when she’s my age, there potentially won’t be polar bears.”Despite the tearful report, some viewers criticised Laura because the flight to Norway would have added emissions to the atmosphere and contributed to climate change.Speaking exclusively to Express.co.uk, Laura revealed that she turned to Susanna for support during the tough time.She confessed: “Susanna is really supportive.“When I was in Svalbard, I phoned her and told her what we had seen, the people we had spoken to. We discussed the criticism I received and whether I should mention it [on the show].“We both agreed because we need to own what we are doing, where we are going and why.”While Laura accepts that the flight would have made a carbon footprint and emitted pollution into the atmosphere, she doesn't feel "guilty" because the benefits outweighed the negatives.She stated: "The amount of people that watched, who maybe wouldn’t have watched an Arctic documentary, was in the millions.