01x06 - Our Frozen Planet

[bunniefuu]

In this series, we have explored
the Earth's frozen frontiers.

We have celebrated the
astonishing variety of animals

that are found there.

And revealed the extraordinary ways
by which they manage to survive.

At a time when our icecaps are
melting faster than ever before,

we will meet the scientists
and people who are dedicating

their lives to protecting
our frozen planet.

And striving to turn things
around while there is still time

to do so.

It won't be easy,
but it's doable.

It's crucial...

..that we try to understand
what the impact will be,

not just for the wildlife and
the people that live there,

but for you and for me.

We start our journey in the
high Arctic and the vast frozen

expanse of Greenland.

This huge island is blanketed
by the largest store of ice

in the northern hemisphere.

But now it's shrinking.

Professor Alun Hubbard is a
glaciologist, and he's spent

over 30 years studying the movement
of ice along Greenland's coastline.

It is a beast of a glacier, that
it's just growling constantly.

Thundering in the background.

Oh, there we go,
bit of activity.

Carving icebergs is
a natural process,

but what we've seen in the
last 20 years is there's

been much more melt.

And much more ice carving
off, producing huge icebergs.

So it's quite an intimidating
place to be hanging out.

One thing in particular
has caused this increase

in melting and carving...

We put this weather
station here in 2010.

And the hottest temperature
was two days ago.

At 22.37 degrees centigrade.

That is very, very
hot for Greenland.

As the ice falls into the ocean,
it raises sea levels globally.

These are now rising by an average
of four millimetres a year.

A quarter of that comes from
the Greenland ice sheet.

And scientists fear that this
figure could increase rapidly.

To investigate, Alun has
travelled 70 miles inland

to the top of the ice
sheet, where the glaciers

start their lives as compacted
snow more than a mile thick.

Here, the effects of a warming
climate are only too clear.

There are thousands of these
beautiful azure blue lakes,

littered across the
surface of the ice sheet.

The surface has always melted in
the summer, but not on this scale.

And Alun wants to know what
effect the increase in meltwater

is having on the ice
sheet as a whole.

The sheer quantity of water...

..shifting through
the system is crazy.

Powerful torrents of
meltwater are boring shafts

known as moulins
into the ice sheet.

This is nuts, this a moulin
actively being formed.

A moulin in Genesis.

As we speak, that water is finding
the path of least resistance,

sculpting this shaft that's
going deep into the ice.

And here it is.

Just toppling over a waterfall edge
and dropping into the ice sheet.

But where is all this
meltwater going and what impact

is it having on the
structure of the ice sheet?

To find out, Alun decides to
climb inside a dried up moulin.

Think it must be 15,
20 metres down here?

I'm going to go
down a bit further.

It's a very narrow shaft here.

It's always been assumed that
the meltwater drains straight

down and out of the
bottom of the ice sheet.

But what Alun discovers
is very different.

I can hear a big amount of
water moving in this system.

And the water's starting to
spread sideways, laterally.

So the drainage system
is obviously complex.

It's interlinked.

These observations suggest that
the meltwater is branching out

in every direction,
causing this once rigid

structure to destabilise.

Whoa, it's a bit rotten.

Everything is rotten here.

The implications of
this are frightening.

Alun believes that as the ice
sheet begins to thaw, it's sliding

towards the ocean at
a much faster rate.

And he's now confirmed that
using time lapse photography.

The ice at the front can be moving
in excess of 20 metres a day.

Which is fast.

That is a huge quantity of
ice straight into the ocean.

Some of Greenland's glaciers are
moving three times faster today

than they were 30 years ago.

As the climate's warming, the
rate at which this ice sheet flows

is absolutely critical.

So whereas at the moment
we're thinking this thing

is going to take thousands of
years to melt and disintegrate.

If it does move faster and
accelerate, it means centuries.

That is a really contentious
and very important question

because this ice sheet has enough
water in it to raise global sea

level by over seven metres.

And that's a total
disaster for humanity.

Calculations predict that nearly
half a billion people living

in coastal communities around
the world will be displaced

by flooding by the
end of the century.

But if the Greenland ice sheet
slips into the ocean more rapidly,

this could all
happen far sooner.

Greenland isn't the only large
body of ice in the Arctic.

In winter, the ocean here freezes
over, creating a cover of ice

larger than the
entire United States.

This sea ice has always got
smaller in summer, but today

it's rapidly disappearing.

Hotter temperatures are melting
it at an unprecedented rate.

With worrying consequences
for the wildlife

that depends on it.

For harp seals, the sea
ice is an excellent place

for giving birth
out of the water.

It provides the defenceless
newborn pups with a safe space

for their first six weeks
until they're big enough

to swim proficiently.

But with the sea ice
disappearing increasingly fast...

..will they be able to adapt?

Coastguard 432...

Coastguard radio,
coastguard 432.

In Canada's Gulf of St Lawrence,
a group of seal biologists

are trying to find out.

It's a pretty dangerous,
pretty inhospitable place.

But it's the perfect environment
for these seals to spend the first

few weeks of their lives.

There's a group just down
here to the right, now.

But the fragile sea ice
is a challenging place

in which to work.

Here, let's go a
little further out.

To support a two tonne helicopter,
the ice must be at least

30 centimetres thick.

And the only way to find out
if that's so, is with a drill.

It's just unsafe here.

There's a couple just
down here below us now.

We've got a pretty
short window here.

The team are trying to
discover where the seals go

when they become independent.

This is a juvenile harp seal.

This is exactly what we've been
out on the ice trying to find.

Hey, little guy.

They're absolutely beautiful.

We'll be putting a satellite
transmitter on the top

of this animal's head so that
every time the animal comes

to the surface, we can
get a location estimate

for where he is at sea.

It won't harm them in
any way, and in return,

the amount of information we
get from them is invaluable.

We're really interested to
see where these animals go,

as the ice starts to break
up over the coming months.

The results from the study so
far do not look encouraging.

Despite migrating huge distances,
when the time comes to have pups

of their own, harp seals almost
always return to the area where

they themselves were born.

But as the sea ice shrinks, so
does its Suitability as a nursery.

The problem really comes about
if the only ice available

in the traditional
areas is very thin.

They'll still use that ice and then
you get an increased mortality.

In short, the pups risk drowning
if the ice isn't thick enough.

And the bigger question
is will the ice continue

to exist at all?

In my lifetime, we've lost
about two thirds of the summer

sea ice in the Arctic.

And it's likely that in the
next 30 years we're going to end

up with an ice free
Arctic in the summer.

I think one of the issues
with climate change

is that it's really
difficult to see.

But in the case of harp seals,
it's really quite simple.

If we lose the sea ice in the
Arctic, we lose the harp seals.

For harp seals, their
future, it has to be said,

appears uncertain.

But what about the most famous
face of climate change...

..the polar bear?

Can this keenly intelligent animal
adapt to a rapidly changing world?

As the summer sea ice melts
away, many polar bears

are forced to head for dry land.

Some swim up to 400
miles to get there.

This is Wrangel...

A remote island
in Arctic Russia.

HE SPEAKS RUSSIAN

Without the sea ice, the hungry
bears cannot hunt seals and feed

on their calorie rich flesh,
but find other sources of food,

including human food supplies.

Each summer, Gennadiy is
joined by polar bear expert

Dr Eric Regehr.

We need to cross that ridge. OK.

Eric wants to find out just how
many bears are ending up here.

In 20 years of studying polar
bears, I've never been anywhere

like Wrangel Island.

The density of bears is unlike
anything I've ever seen before.

This past two years, we've
seen about 500 bears.

My sense is that's just a
fraction of how many are here.

BEARS GROWL

But with so many hungry
animals in one place...

..is there enough
food to go round?

Gennadiy, if you can keep
an eye out for us, please,

like, up on the hill or just
wherever you've got a good view.

All right. Thank you.

This is a hair trap.

So bears like anything
that smells strong,

and so this has a little
bit of spoiled cheese,

milk and fish in it.

So the goal here is to get
a polar bear to come in

and put his hand or its
head inside this box.

And when that happens, these little
wire brushes will pull out a few

pieces of hair that we can
use for scientific analyses.

You can learn a lot about
polar bears just from

a piece of their hair.

We can figure out which
individual it is, or you can get

information on what
they're eating.

There we go.

Hair collected.

Eric's molecular studies of
the polar bears' hair shows

that the bears on Wrangel appear
to be finding enough food.

But with more and more
bears coming here,

will there still be
enough food to go round?

One of the main things we expect
to happen with sea ice loss

is changes in the movements and
the distribution of polar bears.

So polar bears are going to appear
in places they never were before,

and they're going to disappear
from places that they were.

Some coastal towns in Siberia
have been overrun with up to

50 bears at a time.

BEARS GROWL

They're desperate to
eat whatever they can.

And in the city of Norilsk,

one female was found an incredible
250 miles away from the coast.

Lost and starving,

she was eventually rescued.

But many are not so lucky.

They are intelligent animals, but
there's simply no food on land

that could compare to the seals
that the bears eat on the sea ice.

A future without polar
bears would be very sad.

But the sea ice is not
just essential for animals.

It's a lifeline for many
of the four million people

who call the Arctic their home.

Aleqatsiaq Peary lives in Qaanaaq
on Greenland's west coast,

the most northerly
Inuit town in the world.

For centuries, life here
has depended on the sea ice.

Not only are dog sleds a way to
reach neighbouring communities,

which can be over
100 miles away,

but in a land where no crops can
grow travelling over the sea ice

is a vital route to
food, fur and livelihood.

But the dwindling of the sea
ice is making this way of life

not only difficult, but
increasingly dangerous.

Today, they must turn back.

For Qaanaaq's 650 residents

the loss of sea ice is the
loss of an entire way of life,

and it is creating
an uncertain future.

And there's a reason for this
accelerating rate of change.

In the last 30 years, over
14 trillion tons of ice

have been lost from the Arctic,
creating a vicious cycle

of ever-increasing temperatures.

Normally, large areas of snow
and ice would act as a mirror,

reflecting up to 85% of the
sun's rays back into space.

But as the ice melts, the great
white mirror is being replaced

by the darkness of
the ice-free ocean.

The dark ocean absorbs
the sun's rays, so causing

even more ice to melt, creating
a feedback loop that contributes

to further warming.

Because of this, the Arctic is now
warming more than twice as fast

as the Earth as a whole.

That has far-reaching consequences
not just for the Arctic Ocean,

but for the vast frozen
lands that surround it -

the tundra.

In summer, the open
tundra provides refuge for

great concentrations of life.

But today its thick surface
soil that has been deeply frozen

for thousands of
years is thawing.

And the pooling water is
creating millions of new lakes.

Here in Alaska, we've seen a
40% increase in the lake area

since the '80s.

Professor Katy Walter Anthony
has worked across Alaska

and Siberia studying
their lakes.

She is interested not so
much in the lakes themselves,

but in what is
seeping out of them.

We are seeing a bright
spot in the satellite image

that we suspect is gas bubbling.

To identify the gas
in these bubbles,

Katy must collect some of it.

I'm surrounded by tiny
bubbles that are rising.

Methane appears to
be the dominant gas.

Methane is produced by the
decaying remains of prehistoric

plants and animals.

As the frozen soil beneath
the lake starts to thaw,

it releases stores of this
potent greenhouse gas,

which is up to 30 times more
effective than carbon dioxide

when it comes to trapping
heat in the atmosphere and

accelerating global warming.

45 parts per million
for these tiny bubbles.

It's rising higher and higher.

Now it's going above 70.

This is a huge
amount of methane.

It could be a mega-seep.

We are discovering more and more
of these methane mega-seeps.

It's just streaming out and
entering into the atmosphere.

Methane can be seen
escaping from lakes.

But it also rises from the land
wherever the frozen soil, known as

the permafrost, begins to thaw.

And the Arctic tundra is
thawing and collapsing

at an unprecedented rate.

It's concerning because
permafrost, or frozen ground,

occupies about a quarter of the
northern hemisphere land surface.

As permafrost thaws, if
even a small fraction

if that trapped methane escapes,

it will accelerate
climate warming

and you cannot reverse it.

It's clear that in the Arctic
changes to permafrost on the land

and floating ice on the sea will
have far-reaching consequences

to the planet as a whole.

And there is nowhere
better to see the extent of

these global changes...

..than from space.

All of my life, I've thought
about how this would feel to gaze

back on the planet
with my own eyes.

Nasa scientist Jessica Meir
has spent six months in orbit.

From the space station, you have
the planet spinning beneath you.

And you're passing over it
at 17,500 miles per hour.

We are going around the entire
planet every 90 minutes,

so you can begin to see
larger-scale phenomenon

in ways that you just can't
experience on the ground.

And we can see the change
in these systems over time.

We cannot deny that we are
having an incredible effect on

the fate of our planet.

And the effect that we have
as humans on our planet...

Right there, actually, I'm
looking down at several fires.

I'm not sure where those are.

Let's take a quick peek.

So right now we're flying
over Europe and I can see

some fires over
in that direction.

And that is, of course,
something that we have to contend

more and more with as
our climate changes.

As the Arctic warms, wildfires
are not only getting more intense

but they're breaking out in
parts of the northern hemisphere

where they have never
occurred before.

FIRE BLAZES

SIRENS WAIL

Some scientists believe that
unusually warm air rising in

the Arctic is disturbing
high-altitude wind currents

like the polar jet stream.

Once disturbed, the jet stream
produces hotter and drier

conditions much further south.

All of these factors that contribute
to wildfires - the temperature,

the soil moisture, the presence of
trees and shrubs and other fuel -

have either strong, direct or
indirect ties to climate change.

A warming Arctic may
not only be responsible

for the outbreak of wildfires.

But it may also be leading
to extreme weather conditions

across the whole of the
northern hemisphere.

I've always cared so much
about the environment and known

that we all need to do
our part in protecting it.

But after seeing this view
with my own eyes, after seeing

all of those ecosystems from
up here, it really makes it

resonate even more loudly.

Outside the Arctic, there's
another frozen realm that stretches

across the world's continents.

Our high mountains.

Home to an extraordinary
array of species.

But here, too,
there's a problem.

Across the world, mountain
glaciers, which have existed for

tens of thousands of years,
are shrinking and vanishing.

By the end of this century,
some ranges may have

no ice remaining at all.

And this will affect not
just animals, but people too.

Ice lost from the mountain glaciers
from the great ranges of the world

has a huge a consequence for
the populations downstream,

and that consequence
is their water supply.

Glaciers in the Himalayas are
the source of ten of the largest

rivers in Asia, which together
provide reliable, fresh water

for around a billion
people downstream.

If the glaciers disappear, so
too will the water they supply.

We know that these glaciers
are losing about a half a metre

of ice a year.

What we don't know is
how much ice is left.

So if we know how many metres of ice
are left, we can work out how long

they'll last, how long this
water supply will keep going.

Dr Hamish Pritchard is part
of a team of scientists

who have devised a new
instrument to measure one of

the largest Himalayan glaciers.

What we're putting together
here is a long frame structure,

and it's designed to hang
underneath a helicopter.

We're going to put a radar on
it and the radar will send out

the radio waves and then they'll
bounce back off the bottom

of the glacier, and we'll be able
to measure how thick the ice is.

Once his team know how thick the
ice is, they can start to work out

how long it will last.

Yeah, it's a nervous moment.

We're just waiting for it to get
lifted off up for the first time.

But hopefully it's going
to be nice, steady, stable,

a nice easy lift-off.

But we're about to find out.

That line is clear.

The load is lifting.

OK, it's north of the...

..to the Khumjung area.

Hi. It's Hamish here.
How was your flying?

Yeah, when the wind picks up
it's a little more squirrelly,

but no problems otherwise.

Yeah, you might want to gain
a little bit of height there.

Yeah, no problem.

OK, we'll fly out and
then head towards Everest.

After hours of scanning, the
projection for this particular

glacier is finally revealed.

Yeah, that's pretty
nice and clear.

I can see exactly how
thick that ice is.

That's about 150 metres.

So at the current
rate of melting,

this section would last
maybe 200 to 300 years.

But we know that the melt
rates are increasing.

And this is one of
the biggest glaciers,

so there are many, many glaciers
which are much smaller than this

with much thinner ice.

And they're going to be disappearing
much, much earlier than that.

Water is already scarce
in parts of Asia.

And as glacial water supplies
dry up, there will be

even less to go round.

So what happens if these
glaciers disappear...

..is that, in dry summers,
the rivers dry up.

Tensions rise, especially
between nations that

share water across borders.

So one of the big risks of
losing this ice is that it raises

the risk of conflict.

And that's a
frightening prospect.

If I have a one-year-old son.

Children born at the same time
as him will see this happen.

We need to act now to turn
those trajectories around.

There's no doubt that large
tracts of our frozen wilderness

are undergoing dramatic changes.

But what about the largest
body of ice of all,

Antarctica?

We have already seen how even here
animals living around the fringes

are starting to be
affected by climate change,

including chinstrap penguins.

PENGUINS SQUAWK

But for another penguin,
the Adelie, the consequences

are even more extreme.

I arrived here for the
first time in 1974.

This part of the world was
just incomprehensibly wild.

It was filled with life.

Antarctica absolutely
captured me.

Professor Bill Fraser has
dedicated his entire 45-year career

to studying the Adelie penguin.

What really fascinated
me was the incredible

hardiness of these penguins.

Feisty, determined,

beautiful little animal.

But this environment
is changing.

In the last 45 years, the
tremendous warming that has

occurred has had an
incredible impact.

The changes have been very rapid,
more rapid than anyone anticipated.

Bill has witnessed first-hand
how these changes have affected

one of the largest colonies
of Adelies on the western side

of the Antarctic Peninsula.

Four decades ago, this area
contained 20,000 adults.

Currently, we only have somewhere
in the order of 400 breeding pairs.

One of the issues that Adelies
are clearly experiencing right now

is just the increasing rainfall.

Adelies are a creature
of the high Antarctic.

They evolve in a dry,
cold polar system.

They simply cannot tolerate
being continuously wet.

The chicks are soaking.

The rain is
penetrating their down,

breaking down their ability
to insulate themselves.

That's why you see they're
shivering, because they're just

trying to maintain their body
temperature and they can't.

It's sad.

This tiny chick at this point
has zero chances of surviving.

They can't even react to
the presence of a predator.

We are standing,

looking at climate change actually
k*lling off these Adelie penguins,

one at a time.

Before he leaves Antarctica for
the last time, Bill is visiting

an island that was once
an Adelie paradise.

When we used to walk
onto this island,

you could immediately
hear the Adelies.

They were everywhere.

In 1974, the populations here
were somewhere in the order

of over 1,000 breeding pairs.

All that remains are these little
pebbles scattered throughout

the area, stones that were
used in former nest sites.

The pebbles are still visible.

They're very abundant.

But the birds are gone.

This is where we recorded the
first island-wide extinction

of Adelie penguins.

And now the silence that exists
here is pretty overbearing.

Um...

There's no... There's no
words that can really describe

what I'm feeling at the moment.

We're working with
canaries in the coal mine.

Adelie penguins are without a doubt
indicator species that are telling

us that the globe is changing,
the globe is getting warmer.

It's happening.

And we need to do
something about it.

The disappearance of Adelie penguins
along the Antarctic Peninsula

is just one example of how
record-warming temperatures are

affecting life here.

But warming temperatures are also
affecting the very coastline itself

with serious implications
for global sea levels.

Across the glaciological community,
we've identified that sea level rise

from Antarctica is the
most pressing question for

the next 50 to 100 years.

And we as a collaborative group

have come together to
try and understand it,

and governments have come
together to try and understand it

because it's important.

Professor Sridhar Anandakrishnan
has been working in the polar

regions for over three decades.

He's part of a team of scientists
undertaking the largest Antarctic

expedition for
more than 70 years.

Their destination is a remote
part of western Antarctica called

the Thwaites Ice Shelf.

Without getting out on the
ice, you can't measure things

underneath the ice.

Going to take-off.

Those kinds of things
can't be done from space.

They can't be done by drones
or aircraft flying over it.

You actually have to go and put
your instruments on the ice.

The interior of Antarctica is
covered in a giant sheet of ice.

Which for millennia has been
slowly flowing to the coast.

But because it's so cold here,
rather than carve into the sea

the ice continues to flow out
into the ocean, forming a floating

platform known as an ice shelf.

As an ice shelf grows, it begins
to act as a dam, preventing

more of the ice sheet behind
it from slipping into the sea.

And the Thwaites Ice Shelf
holds back a body of ice

the size of Florida.

But scientists are concerned
that the ice shelf itself is now

at risk of melting.

We're going down through
600 metres of ice.

And once we drill the hole,

I'm going to put the
expl*sive charge down.

Small seismic surveys...

OK, fire in the hole.

..help establish exactly where to
sink their robotic underwater probe,

which the team hope will record
the temperature of the sea water

directly beneath the ice shelf.

OK, Andy, ready to descend.

Try to go a little slower.

OK.

Coming up on 75
metres. 75 metres now.

425 metres.

We've arrived at the
ice-ocean interface.

Early results are
not encouraging.

Have we noticed a huge
change in the temperature?

Ah, yeah.

It is warm water.

Can you see it melt? Yes.
Like, what's going on there?

Because of climate change,

warmer seas directly beneath the
ice shelf are melting it from below.

So it's no longer a question of
IF this giant dam will disappear,

but when.

When the vast ice sheet behind
it spills into the ocean,

it could have catastrophic
consequences for global sea levels

over the coming centuries.

The amount of water that
Antarctica contains that could

go into the ocean is so huge.

This is a global problem.

The oceans are all
connected together,

so as soon as a glacier
puts water into the ocean

it rises all over the world.

If sea levels rise, as predicted,
by the year 2050 150 million people

could be displaced
from coastal areas.

And by 2070 cities, including
Miami, New York, Shanghai and Mumbai

will be at risk of
serious flooding.

How much water will Antarctica
contribute to sea level rise?

The biggest wild card in all
of that is how we as humans

affect climate.

Recently, at COP26, 120 nations
came together in an effort to limit

global warming to 1.5 degrees.

Well, a 1.5 degree rise
will still bring significant

changes with it.

To stand any chance of saving
what remains of our frozen planet

and saving ourselves from
the devastating consequences

of its loss, we must stick to
this commitment and honour it

no matter how
challenging it might be.

We know that climate
change is happening.

We know the main driver
of climate change

is human activities.

It's human emissions.

As a whole human species,

we are not recognising the impact
that we're having and the fact

that we do need to do something.

But the important
thing is that I believe

all of these processes
are reversible.

If everybody can make the
effort of doing just one thing,

reducing their carbon footprint.

Consume less. Think about what
we need, what we really want.

Think more sensibly about
the journeys we take,

about the food we eat,

how that's produced.

Figure out a lifestyle
that is sustainable.

And we're right at
the point where we can

generate all the power that
we need from renewable sources

like solar and wind.

To do that, you need to really
transform society as a whole.

We can speak to our
representatives to try and

reconsider energy policies.

If enough of us are educated
about the effects of carbon in

the atmosphere, even the most
poorly educated politician

will respond to what
their citizenry wants.

The awareness and the concern is
greater now than it ever has been.

So that gives us some hope.

It won't be easy.

But it's doable.

If you can do something
about it then do it,

instead of just
thinking about it.

If you can do something
about it, then do it.

We can do it.

It's within our power to do it.

We can do it.

We must do it.

Then there will be a
future for the planet.