Original subtitles

*

The Arctic: a vast forbidding wildernes

Few regions in the wor have inspired greater a

than its iciest reac

*

Devon Island is such a place:

a cold desert at the top of the worl

On the sea ice, predat and prey have battled h

for thousands of year

*

But their battlegrou is melting.

*

An ice-bound sanctuary Arctic creatures

is under threat.

*

Devon Island is remot from the world most of us

But what happens here affects us al

*

This is a voyage o exploration

through an island of

*

*

*

*

*

Devon Island, in the Canadian Arct

archipelago, is the world's larg

uninhabited island

*

It appears barren, and i harsh for most life fo

*

But not for the Arct apex predator,

supremely adapted to this landscape

*

The ice itself is a creature -

developing, transformi and perishing.

*

Its darkest corners stories of the forces

have formed our plane and how we are forming it

*

For nine months of the y Devon Island's weathe

is far below freezing.

Temperatures hover above freezing,

in what passes for summer here.

*

Most of its surface frost-fractured roc

*

Few creatures or plan can survive here.

*

Devon Island is so bar and hostile that NASA h

used its blasted terr to mimic the

exploration of Mars

*

*

An ice cap tops th island's mountainous pe

*

The core of this massi dome formed 100,000 years a

Now it spreads over five a half thousand square mi

*

It has grown from accumulated snow,

increasing in densit becoming compacted,

and hardening into ic

*

In places, the ic reaches 2,900 feet dee

*

There may be an abundance of frozen water,

but Devon Island is a de

It rarely snows an rainfall is comparabl

the Gobi desert.

*

What little fall freezes,

and keeps adding to the ic

*

From the ice cap flo fourteen glaciers

which slide down the isla rocky terrain towards the

*

The glaciers reach t island's edge,

thrusting onwards.

Massive blocks of ic break off and topple i

the Arctic ocean as icebergs.

*

For six months of th year, darkness dominate

this frozen land

*

During winter the surrounding sea is cove

in continuous, solid

*

When the sun returns in spring

it won't set for four m

*

The unrelenting lig warms this frozen dese

The ice begins to mov

*

Shifting sea ice on the

ruptures with long cra called leads.

Prevailing winds an currents determine whe

the leads will form, o in the same area every y

*

These leads shape avenue for seals to come up for

*

It's spring; the se don't have to work as h

to maintain thei breathing holes.

In fall, when the ic thin, the seals cut h

with the sharp claw on their foreflippe

*

The harp seal uses as ma as fifteen holes, swimm

between them and pushin its head through

to keep them open.

Now it's spring and the sun is up,

they can bask on the i

But they stay aler for polar bears.

*

The polar bear has roam the sea ice in darkne

all winter.

Greenland Inuit call polar bear Pisugtooq

The Great Wanderer.

*

Pausing only to slee it stays on the pro

in an unceasing search for seals.

In this region a po bear's home territo

can cover 23,000 square miles.

This stretch of sea along Devon Island i

called the Polar Bea Highway, where about

sixteen hundred travel back and fort

*

Scanning the horizon it's not unusual to

up to ten stalking for

*

A pregnant female stay put over the winte

nestling in a den on l

*

In spring she and he cub emerge, ravenous.

*

For over four months a has only known the war

huddle of the den an its mother's milk

Now the world opens up a the mother will teac

to survive in th Arctic expanse.

Winds and currents gather and grow stronge

(waves crashing)

(shifting ice)

The clash of gigantic sheets forces up ridg

Underneath is air and open water.

Seals have a lifeline for brea

*

And polar bears have a avenue for their hun

*

A polar bear can scent seal up to 10 miles aw

It can target a seal beneath three feet of s

*

And it's powerful enou to break through the thic

*

Seals must emerge to breathe every fifteen min

When the hunting is goo a polar bear will only

a seal's blubber and s

It can eat a hundred pou of blubber in one sit

*

This bear could lur around a promising

breathing hole for da

*

Devon Island doesn't se like a place humans wou

like to visit.

*

But scientists are arr

from the Universit of Alberta, Canada.

*

It's taken fourteen mon to plan this trip

prepare, for the difficulties Devon Is

will present.

They visit at th start of summer,

when the 24-hour days are brightest

(indistinct chatt

In a couple of month the accumulated warmth

the relentless, glaring sunlight on sn

will stir up fo

And on the heights o the ice cap,

the sun can trigger avalanche.

*

In the early spring 2015 two Dutch researche

collecting data on s ice nearby fell thro

an unexpectedly thi patch and died.

*

Earth and Atmospheric scientist Dr Martin Sh

and graduate student Ashley Dubnick are here

examine one of nature laboratories for

processing water and i

(indistinct chatt

What they study here h worldwide implication

Glaciers are probably most important control

the average level the global oceans

They represent a lar storage of water on

continents...and if melt then that water end

in the ocean and se level rises so big c

like New York wit millions of peopl

vulnerable to rising levels. It's such a

problem probably over hundred million peop

live within a trave of current sea level ele

And trillions o dollars of infrastru

are located in the same region.

It's a problem we' gonna have to confron

I guess there's tw ways to look at th

you can either let it happ figure out how you deal w

Or you think it might better to stop it happe

*

If the Devon Islan ice cap were to melt compl

it would raise the levels of all

world's seas by almost half an inch

It doesn't sound like m but this is one frac

of the Arctic's meltin

The ice cap here has be steadily shrinking since

shedding its water into the world's ocea

By the end of this cent

sea level is expecte to rise by two fee

Hundreds of millions homes would disappear,

and great cities, such Mumbai or downtown New Yor

would be in grave danger of flooding

Martin and his team pl to visit the underbel

one of the glacier flowing from the ice c

They want to examine bas ice - at the foundatio

a glacier, where interacts with the gro

beneath, and meltwater gathers.

*

They have a two-hour journey across a landsca

slashed by deep crevass that crack into the

as the glacier moves downhill.

*

In summer, water fro melting snow and ice

courses down these crevasses running to t

bottom of the glacie

*

Then it streams alon channels between bedroc

and ice, following t glacier's course to the

*

Martin and his team w be traveling over unev

slippery terrain unpredictable weather

It's a risky ventu

They'll plot their co with satellite imag

aerial photography and GPS.

*

Technology can guide the but they'll still ha

pick their way around the hazards.

*

The difficulty and r seem less important

in the magnificence t surrounds them.

*

I certainly feel affinity to glaci

and ice sheets.

I've worked on them most of my life.

I think they're remark places to spend time

partly because of the isolation..

*

A chance to think

that you don't ge where everything's very ru

I just think they'r important part

of the global environm

I think we have ou responsibilities a

community to protect a preserve all of tho

parts of the global system.

*

*

*

*

*

Martin and Ashley arri at the underside of the g

*

They're not sure what they'll fin

*

They follow a passage down...

which leads to an ice cave.

This has been carved b meltwater streaming dow

and dissolving the edge of the glacie

*

In late summer, chunks ice tumble down and

their meltwater flo into these caves.

*

At summer's end, torren of water flood throu

making it too dangerous to visit

*

This channel reveal a cross section of t

glacial wall ove 30 feet high.

The bands in the curvi wall of ice

were formed in different

They are lighter or da according to how much

debris was in the meltwater that flowed do

here and then froze aga

*

The glacier's underbe tells a traveller's

of ten thousand year

*

Some years, the glaci scraped over rough terr

captured rocks, and dragged them along wit

*

But there's more: they find bird feath

mosses, and the shells marine mollusks

caught in the ice

Look at that; you see the striati

on the surface of the s

The shells are remnants a brief warm period

nine thousand years ag

The warm weather melted the lower reaches

of the ice cap.

The Arctic Ocean the deluged Devon Island's val

*

When the climate chill again, the sea retrea

and the glaciers advanced down the islan

overriding the shel

*

The team discovers another, more fragil

relic from the same warm period.

A blade of grass.

*

When the sea flooded the valleys, lush vegetat

flourished on the hillsides of Devon Isl

*

The returning glacie crushed the plants an

swept them along.

*

A blade of grass nin thousand years old wou

not normally be found a damp stem like thi

*

*

*

Martin and Ashley ventu deeper into the cave

*

Wow...wow... - It's pretty amazi

*

(Indistinct conversat

Ice crystals, formed by condensation

cover the walls.

This incredible arra crystal structures on

surface...perfec hexagonal ice crystal

which is just, you kn breathtaking.

Like you're walking thro world of crystal

I've never seen anyth like it anywhere el

*

Ice crystals form arou particles of grit or

Water vapor attaches to and freezes in facets

reflect the structu of the water molecul

Then the crystal grow from the edges in branch

just like a snowfla

*

*

Martin and Ashley move deeper under the glaci

Here, the ice above th heads is more than

fifty feet thic

*

*

*

*

They're now about a thousand feet in

alien territory, fu than they've ever bee

*

*

It is dripping he

There is actuall water there.

Martin is surprised find water originating

Heat rising from th earth's crust

has warmed the cavern.

*

In the late 1980'

the sort of mantr was that it's col

dark, and that ther no life there.

There always seemed to a scientist in t

back of the room who'd say,

"well, there's g to be microbes,"

and I thought well re we ought to have a lo

When this water is analyzed it confirm

Martin's suspicions

It houses as many microb as ordinary surface wa

anywhere on earth.

Microbes are single-c organisms, the world

oldest lifeform.

There are as many on person's hand as

there are people in the w

But most scientists di think they could

live in a glacie

*

The microbes don't a come from the surface

Generations of them hav lived in the glaci

for thousands of year

Surviving, mostly, feeding on the burie

decaying vegetation th included the blade of gr

*

Martin and Ashley's find confirms a growi

understanding that glaciers contain man

living microorganism

*

This frozen ecosystem is constantly in moti

The massive glacier for its way to the edg

of the island.

*

Here, it finally coll into the ocean in one

nature's greatest spectacles...

the calving of iceber

(thunderous crashing

(thunderous crashing

(thunderous crashing

(thunderous crashing

(waves crashing)

*

This berg from Devon Island begins its lo

journey by slipping i the shifting contours

an Arctic marvel.

It enters a remarkab body of water that

baffles scientists - North Water Polynya.

*

It's an expanse of t Arctic Ocean, between

Canada and Greenland, that stays free of ice a

even in the darkest coldest months of wint

*

The phenomenon is mysterious.

Theories include swi surface currents an

cyclones that pul ice away from the sea

The polynya provides haven for creatures

rest and feed in a s otherwise locked in by

(bird calls)

*

Thousands of thick-bil murres gather here i

summer to nest and rai their young

on precipitous ledge

*

(chirping)

The female lays one eg in a breeding season

It's pointed at one e which stops it rollin

a cliff edge.

Instead, it spin on the spot.

(chirping)

Murres dance around th cliff face with ea

But their most natur element is the sea

*

Murres dive deeper tha almost any other bird

seize their prey and stay underwater

for four minutes.

*

By the end of summer, wh the chicks have fledge

the cliff-face colony is deserted

The murres migrate sout and spend all winte

in the North Atlant

*

Bowhead whales find a sanctuary in the

polynya for breeding

For three hundred year commercial whalers

inflicted mass slaughter on bowheads

The devastation was greatest in th

northeastern Arctic Oce

The whaling industry end a century ago when the

were so few bowheads left, it was no lon

profitable to pursue t

*

Populations in other par the Arctic have recover

Around this region thou they were feared to

still be irreparably dam

*

Scientists have bee pleased to find the num

of bowheads here finally growing.

*

The sociable walrus congregates here too

*

These mammals may lumber on land, but they sw

elegantly underwater where they can stay f

thirty minutes befo surfacing for ai

*

A mother gives birth a calf in seclusion,

soon rejoins the her cradling her baby

as a human mother would

As polar ice thins walruses lose thei

floating staging pos where they can rest

launch a hunt.

They've been congregati in unusual numbers on

shorelines, far from their prey.

Inuit say that walr can predict weather

One elder said: "The walrus will go

when there is going to strong winds blowing soo

In every herd of walrus one will act as look

for predators, braying an alarm.

(growls)

*

Polar bears stalk t waters of the polyny

looking for seals and birds.

*

They're powerful and dauntless.

*

The bear is not th only hunter here.

A group of Inuit ha crossed the sea ice

Devon from neighboring Cornwallis Island

in search of seal to feed their communit

following a hunting traditio

thousands of years ol

Mark Amarualik has bee coming to Devon Islan

since he was a chil

Good way to find out size of a polar be

you put your boot prin it...that's about an

footer right there. a polar bear trac

*

Mark has learned throug generations

how to observe the polar

He's on the look out seal, but he must al

keep a wary eye for bea

*

*

Trying to get clos Sometimes it can take hou

females end up more round like that

*

(Laughs)

It took me about - clo two hours to get to hi

that's a lot of patience

Mark takes time to stu the polar bear's

hunting prowess.

*

He's got very good sens of smell, good heari

good eyesight...

Being close to a stalk polar bear, Mark and h

friends know seals are not far away.

*

*

Wily seals have surviv constant pursuit b

polar bears and are masters of escape.

Every time they pop th head up, I tell you

go down, sit down, watch for a litt

Mark's friend Joadame Iqaluk uses a traditi

Inuit blind, calle taluaqtuut to

approach the seal.

*

*

He's 130 feet away, but the seal is on to

*

(Laughs)

The seal is in its ele but out here Mark

has to be constantly aw of sudden weather change

It started to loo little like t

weather is picking u

Yeah.

All those ice cryst you see out there

that's indicating a st some wind picking up

Mark is tuned to th island's weather.

He understands how the ice behaves.

How it's affected b the winds and current

*

He can predict where leads will open.

And when he can walk ou on sea ice two-fingers

and still be safe

*

Nowadays, Mark hears ic cracking more often dur

his trips, and sees too thin to walk o

*

Mark wants to understan why the ice is changi

So he's guiding scient who want to navigate

Devon Island.

*

Today he's with Christ Haas, a professor of s

ice geophysics and electromagnetics at

York University in Toro

Yeah, the ice, ah.

Christian hopes to understand and predict

types of changes Mark has observed.

He and his scientific t are measuring the sea i

around Devon Island.

This is our electromagnetic ic

thickness sounder.

This method allows t measure the thickness

the ice as we travel along.

The sounder sends signa through the ice to t

seawater below, registering the ice's de

Christian can measure i thickness more than ha

the length of Devon Island in a day.

The amassed research o Christian Haas and oth

scientists shows that, average, sea ice acro

the Arctic has thinn by 13% since 1979.

*

In some regions Christ has documented changes

that are even more alarming.

At the North pole for example,

when I started my resea

the ice was 2.5 meters thick and now

only about a meter th anymore in the summer

So that is a lot of change we've se

There's another time-honored way to

detect thin ice on the polar sea.

(Dogs barking)

The traditional sled can sense and avoid i

(Whimpering)

Most Inuit travel snowmobiles nowadays, bu

they frequently st rely on their dogs

protection during a h or on long journeys

The breed is 4,000 yea old and is as much at ho

here as polar bears and seals.

*

A pack of dogs can fight off a polar b

*

And when the wind whips blinding white out

they can guide travel back home.

*

The Inuit could not ha survived here

without their dogs

*

*

Not long ago stranger came to these Arctic se

lacking the life-sav knowledge they needed.

*

For almost 400 years explorers searched the

waters for the Northwe Passage, a long sough

after trade rout between Europe and Asia

*

They came here on one doomed expedition after ano

*

They sailed in oak shi three inches thick w

iron bows, to forc through the ice,

but it crushed the hu

They brought new inventio such as canned food

but it was not enough to beat the Arc

*

They died from scurvy tuberculosis,

and the deep, unending cold.

*

Many explorers passed b Devon Island on their w

through the maze of Arc ice and uncharted lan

*

A passage was eventuall found a hundred years ag

but the route was s tortuous it had

no commercial use.

*

Now, their struggles wo be easier,

though still hazardou

*

During the summer the warming climate is open

permanent channels in the Arctic sea

Nations vie for th rights to these wate

*

Today's explorations se undersea riches of oil

gas around this have for polar bears.

*

This once-impenetrabl region has become vulnerab

*

Off the northern coast Devon Island an iceber

continues its journe moving south from th

North Water Polynya.

*

It's picked up by t Baffin Bay current a

floats south into t Atlantic, traveling

10 miles a day.

*

Some icebergs are glimps off the coast of t

United States befor they dissolve.

*

Icebergs are the ice c and glaciers

set loose into the oce

In recent years, mor have been sliding

into the polar sea

(crashing)

As glaciers recede they're calving gian

Between 2010 and 2011 an iceberg four times t

size of Manhattan roamed the Arctic ocea

*

With each ice berg floating free,

the sea level rise

*

Devon Island's ice on l and sea is

becoming more unpredictab

(Dogs barking)

The Inuit knowledge o ice in the Arctic, le

over thousands of year no longer applies.

*

*

Wildlife must adapt if it can.

*

From tiny drops of meltwater, to iceberg

to the oceans...

the effects of clim change cascade.

*

Research on Devon Islan reveals that the fra

Arctic ecosystem has become unbalanced.

*

The ice is dissolvi year after year,

at faster rates

*

As more icebergs ply th course South,

they carry this warni from the North.

*

*

*

*