Polar explorer Will Steger tells Mother Jones that he's baffled by the way former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty has changed his tune on global warming.

Steger had worked with Pawlenty on programs to fight climate change, but that ended in 2008, when Pawlenty began his run for president and came out against efforts to fight climate change. Earlier this month, Pawlenty said human efforts are only a minor contributor to global warming.

Steger told Mother Jones that Pawlenty's new stance is unfortunate: "I'm baffled by that. But I think he's getting information from the wrong source and it's really too bad for our children. It's reckless."

Steger, who achieved great fame with his dog sled journeys to the North Pole and Antarctica, has long been pushing for more awareness of global warming. He's appeared at schools, churches and business meetings, often bringing along his sled dogs to grab attention.

He met first with Pawlenty in 2006:

"It was a real heart to heart. I really believed that morally we were on the same level. We saw the moral imperative. And he understood, and back then, he chose to veer in another direction [from his party], which took a lot of guts. I have to respect that."

The two appeared together around the state at global warming events. They even held a community forum in Ely with Sen. Amy Klobuchar. And Steger invited Pawlenty to join him on an Arctic expedition.

Soon after, though, Pawlenty made a major U-turn on the topic, and, as the story says: "... he began using global warming as a punch line, not a talking point."

Steger said he's not resentful, just baffled, and still considers Pawlenty a friend.

"A lot of environmentalists think I want to dump on the governor because he changed around," Steger says. "No, I respect the governor and I'm thankful that he did what he did do. It's too bad that he couldn't carry the flag, but in that party, you don't carry that flag."