Good Morning Britain’s Laura Tobin has responded to criticism over her decision to fly to a remote Arctic island for a climate change report.

The meteorologist travelled to Svalbard, located between Norway and the North Pole, in 2022 to deliver a live report on the effects of global warming. The bulletin was broadcast live on air and saw Laura break down in tears as she discussed the impact global warming had on polar bears and glaciers.

She highlighted that Svalbard is experiencing faster warming than any other place on Earth, with significant implications for weather patterns in the UK. Despite the powerful message, some viewers questioned the necessity of her 1,800-mile flight to the island.

The 43-year-old explained how a decision was made to travel to the island on the Mile Fly Club podcast with A Place in the Sun star Laura Hamilton. She explained: “We discussed whether we needed to go.

“I’d spoken to the Met Office scientists, I knew the science, I knew the glaciers were retreating, I knew that the temperatures were rising, I knew what the worst case scenario would be. I was like ‘do we need to go see it, can’t we just report the science from here,’ it was crazy.”

Podcast host Laura queried if the reluctance to fly to the island was based on a sense of guilt. Meteorologist Laura responded: “Yeah, for two reasons. One, I don’t want to travel unnecessarily if I don’t need to and two, I knew that people would probably whinge and criticise, which they did.

“And I think it was really important to address that and to say we took a tiny crew, we offset our flights, and for the negative footprint on the planet, of which there were carbon emissions.

“It was massively outweighed by the really positive coverage, of so many people messaging saying ‘I would never watch an Arctic documentary but I saw you on Good Morning Britain,’ of people saying they were crying and they were talking to schools wanting to do more and making changes in their lives.”