All language subtitles for Antarctica.On.the.Edge.2014.1080p.BluRay.x264.DTS-HD.MA.5.1-SWTYBLZ

Antarctica
lives in our imagination

as the most remote,

the most forbidding,

the coldest place
on planet earth.

Though it appears to be
tough and invulnerable,

sheathed in ice and
surrounded by frozen ocean,

the Southern continent
can also be a fragile place.

Backlit by spectacular
24-hour sunlight,

surrounded by the
kind of sculpture

only nature can produce.

Locked up and buried
in the antarctic ice,

three miles at its thickest,

are clues to the planet's
future health.

Join us as we travel
to a storied land

veiled by ice and mystery.

Writer and filmmaker
Jon bowermaster's

introduction to
Antarctica in 1989

was also his first assignment
for national geographic.

Jon bowermasteri that 220 day,

3,741 mile expedition

was the longest in
antarctic history.

It was organized by two
modern day polar legends,

American will steger

and frenchman
Jean-Louis etienne.

It focused attention
on the frozen continent

at an important
moment in history,

when the treaty that governs
it was being renegotiated.

It was also the last expedition
on the continent by dogsled.

I have been to
Antarctica many times,

to both its high cold interior

and along its
900-mile peninsula,

traveling by
sailboat and kayak.

My goal has been to bring
back eyewitness reports

of how Antarctica
is faring today.

My 10-person team and I sail
from the tip of south America

to the antarctic peninsula on
a 74-foot ice-worthy sailboat.

The crossing of the Drake
passage takes five days.

It is renowned as one of
the windiest places on earth,

and the seas can
whip to 40 feet.

The water temperature
here is 29 degrees.

Fall in and you'd have
just a few minutes to live.

You know
you're nearing Antarctica

when you spy
your first iceberg,

the continent's
most unique creations.

Carved off
centuries-old glaciers

they can be as big
as small islands,

20, 30 miles or longer.

The most impressive
are ghostly blue.

But you're only
seeing the tip,

since 90% of an iceberg exists
below the ocean's surface.

No one goes to Antarctica
without careful consideration.

If you get in
trouble down here,

you must be able
to rescue yourself.

There is no Navy
or coast guard.

No 911 to call.

So I choose my travel
companions carefully.

Skip novak, American born,
based in South Africa,

has been sailing to the antarctic
peninsula for 20 years.

Competitor in several
around-the-world sailing races,

he knows the peninsula
as well as anyone alive.

Graham Charles is one of new
Zealand's best-known adventurers.

His reputation was earned by
bold exploits by kayak

on some of the coldest
seas on the planet.

The biggest adventures
to be had along the peninsula

are by sea kayak.

It is perhaps the best way
to see this part of the world,

because you're separated from the
environment by less than an inch of plastic

and Antarctica really has a good shot
at showing you what it's made of.

But Antarctica has not always
been about cold and ice.

It makes me think that clues
to the continent's future

may lie in its past.

More than
200 million years ago,

the land beneath
all of today's ice

was part of a supercontinent
known as gondwanaland.

The landmass that would
eventually become Antarctica

broke off from south America
and South Africa

and slowly drifted to its
current home at the south pole.

Not so long ago in
geological terms,

about one hundred
million years ago,

Antarctica was covered
by tropical rainforest.

It was home to dinosaurs
that could see in the dark.

Necessary, since the continent is bathed
in darkness more than half the year.

And the early
relatives of penguins,

which grew to six
feet tall and could fly.

As the earth continued
to revolve and evolve,

about 45 million years ago,

the continent
began to grow colder,

ultimately becoming home
to most of the planet's ice.

Today, it is a huge
kingdom of ice.

The United States could easily
fit inside its borders.

Like a giant ice cube fixed
at the bottom of the world,

the frozen continent

ultimately helps set the tempo
of the planet's weather.

Earth's great
annual climate cycle

is centered here.

With Antarctica
serving as the engine

that drives the circulation
of ocean currents,

redistributes the sun's heat,

and regulates global climate.

During its eight
months of winter,

the continent doubles in size,

as seven million
square miles of ocean

freeze around its edges.

Each Southern summer, much
of that ice begins to thaw,

breaks off and drifts away.

This annual growing
and shrinking

acts like a pump,

turning Antarctica into
the planet's beating heart.

It's hard to imagine
the vastness of all that ice.

The ice sheet frozen
atop the continent

contains 61% of all the
freshwater on the planet.

Much of its interior is
off-limits to man or animal

because of the cold
and remoteness.

How cold?

The coldest
temperature on earth

was recently recorded on a high
plateau in eastern Antarctica,

135.8 degrees below zero.

There's no wildlife
in the interior of Antarctica

because there is no food.

But along the edges of the
continent, it's a different story.

More than 14 million penguins
call Antarctica home.

As do many millions of seals,

and 15 species of whales,

including humpbacks, minkes, orcas
and blues,

and the tiny
all-important krill

that are the basis of
the food chain here.

Graham and I spent many days
exploring the coastline by zodiac and kayak,

scouting for wildlife,
hoping for an up-close look.

We spy plenty of penguins, which
never cease to entertain,

whether on land
or in the water.

Thousand-pound leopard seals
pay us little attention.

Near the top of
the food chain,

they rest unperturbed
on floating chunks of ice,

rolling over only to yawn.

Jon and his
team's curiosity about

and desire to
explore Antarctica

put them in good company.

The icy continent
and its mysteries

fascinated some of the greatest
names in exploration history.

This corner of the planet

was among the last places
to be discovered by man.

As sailors first
roamed the globe,

they would occasionally spy icebergs
in the deep Southern reaches,

suggesting there was a frozen
land down there, somewhere.

In 1773, captain James cook

was the first to sail
across the antarctic circle,

though he never
actually saw land.

It wasn't until 1820,

when three expeditions,

Russian, American and British

claimed to be the first to lay
eyes on the icy continent

within a few months
of each other.

The very next year,

the first man stepped
foot on antarctic ice,

an American seal
hunter named John Davis.

What is now known as the heroic
age of antarctic exploration

didn't get underway until
decades later, in the 1890's.

The years that followed made
household names of explorers like

Ernest shackleton,

whose endurance was
crushed in the ice,

all of his men surviving an
arduous eighteen-month odyssey.

Australian Douglas mawson,

who had almost been the first
to reach the south pole,

barely struggling back to safety
during a later expedition

after losing his two
partners along the way.

And Norwegian roald amundsen,

who in 1912,

became the first to reach
the south pole by dogsled.

In an ill-fated
race that same year,

englishman Robert f. Scott

also attempted to
reach the south pole,

first using horses,
then by ski.

Tragically, the cold and ice
conspired against Scott

and four of his teammates, who all
died on the return from the pole.

Another kind of
antarctic explorer

began arriving in
the late eighteenth century.

These were hunters seeking
seal furs and whale oil,

both then easy to find all
along the antarctic peninsula.

Inside the caldera of a long dormant
volcano on deception island,

whalers set up sophisticated
processing plants

for reducing blubber to oil,

and packing it in barrels to
be shipped back to Europe,

the United States and Russia.

At one time, hundreds of men
worked on these beaches,

in wooden buildings,

and ships anchored
in the shallow waters.

Today, the one-of-a-kind international
treaty that governs Antarctica

forbids hunting
of any species.

The agreement,
signed by 48 nations,

was first adopted in 1961.

It commits all of
Antarctica to science,

and states there
can be no prospecting

for fossil fuels
and precious minerals

or any military activity.

This commitment to science

brings several thousand
researchers each summer.

There are 70 scientific bases,

administered by 30
different countries.

The U.S. base, called McMurdo,

is the largest
science station.

During the summer months,
it is home to more than 1500,

turning it into the planet's
most remote small town.

It is a truly
international scene.

The U.S. operates
the base at the south pole

while the Argentineans oversee
Antarctica's oldest base.

And the Chinese recently
opened its newest.

In an isolated
cove along the peninsula,

we sail into the U.S.'s
Palmer station,

home to just 60 scientists and staff
at the height of the summer season.

Each November, a handful of researchers
and support crew are dropped off by boat.

And picked up again in march.

Kim Bernard studies krill,

the fingernail-sized
crustaceans

that are the basis of the
food chain in Antarctica.

Which requires
venturing out onto the sea

in all kinds of conditions.

Travis miles and his team
from rutgers university

deploy this self-propelled submarine into
the deepest parts of the Southern ocean,

where it collects samples
of seawater and krill.

Bill Fraser has been coming to
Palmer for more than 30 years,

and is regarded
one of the world's

most knowledgeable
penguin scientists.

In recent years,

he's been focused on how the
continent's penguin populations

have been impacted
by warming temperatures.

Several species
of penguins live along its edge,

including gentoos,

adélies,

emperors,

and chinstraps.

In one of the clearest
examples of how

warming temperatures
are impacting the continent,

the numbers of certain
species are shifting.

Emperors are
considered threatened.

Chinstrap populations
have declined,

and gentoos are on the rise.

Along the peninsula,

where less ice is forming

and the summers are
longer and longer,

millions of adélies
are disappearing

at the rate of 12
to 20% each year.

The biggest threat
is the loss of krill,

which have declined
in the Southern ocean

by 80% since the 1970s

due to warming waters
and overfishing.

Bill Fraser estimates
that by 2021,

it's likely there will be no more adélies
at all living along the peninsula.

Where are all
the adelies going?

Further south, perhaps,
where it's colder?

Or they're dying off.

In the past 50 years,

average air temperatures
along the peninsula

have risen by four to nine
degrees fahrenheit,

making it one of the fastest
warming regions on earth.

The temperature of the
ocean is warming, too,

which means less sea ice,

more evaporation
and more rain.

The result is that ice along
the edges of the peninsula

is disappearing.

In some places, very fast.

Nearly three decades ago,

scientists predicted that
the effect of global warming

would be felt first
in the polar regions.

They warned that one of the first
signs of human-caused climate change

would be the collapse of the
antarctic peninsula's bordering ice,

which is exactly
what is happening today.

There are 10
massive ice shelves

scattered
around the continent.

In the past 30 years,

two along the peninsula
have vanished completely.

In march 2002,

scientists watched the 500
billion-ton Larsen ice shelf

shatter into thousands
of tiny icebergs.

And in march 2008,

a sheet of ice
the size of Manhattan,

broke off the Wilkins shelf.

Each summer season,

cliffs covered by ice
for hundreds of centuries

are newly exposed.

As sea ice recedes,
new islands emerge.

On some rocks
along the coastline,

there is evidence of something
very, very foreign here.

Plants.

What is happening so
dramatically, so quickly,

to these shelves

suggests it is possible the
rest of the peninsula's ice

may deteriorate more rapidly
than anyone predicted.

Today, Antarctica's ice

and much of its marine
life are at some risk

as the edges of the continent
continue to adjust,

to evolve, to warm.

Bowermaster". Since man first set
eyes on the antarctic continent

nearly 200 years ago,

he's wondered
about its future.

Whether it would defeat
his efforts to conquer it

or succumb eventually to the
power and numbers of humankind.

We are now
learning the answers.

The remote continent with the
reputation as rugged and foreboding

turns out to be
a fragile ecosystem

that needs to be
watched and protected.

Antarctica's
ice and its treaty

have long prevented the exploitation of
the fossil fuels and precious minerals

that lie beneath it.

Some believe there may be
vast fields of coal,

iron ore, natural gas and oil,

even diamonds beneath its ice.

The treaty also says

that the national claims made
by seven countries

early in the twentieth century

are not to be recognized.

Yet today, some countries
are reasserting old claims

while others are
making new ones.

One day soon, there will be
lots of national competition

over exactly who owns
what in Antarctica,

just as we're seeing now in the
arctic as its ice disappears.

As we sail further
south along the peninsula,

the landscape
grows more dramatic.

This is frigid,
unforgiving Antarctica.

Big, rolling icebergs
are everywhere.

In the distance,
we spy a beautiful, rare,

200-foot-tall arch
carved by wind and wave

out of a giant iceberg.

Arches like this
are extremely rare.

None of us on the boat, long
experienced in Antarctica,

have ever seen
one quite like this,

and have never
witnessed one collapse.

To me, it is both
mesmerizing and touching.

An evocative symbol of how
Antarctica is changing forever.

Sea level is the best perspective
from which to ponder the future

of Antarctica's ice.

There is so much of it around, it
seems like the ice will last forever.

But along the coastline,

the glaciers the
sea ice helps protect

are receding, shrinking.

Whenever I leave Antarctica, I am
filled with both joy and regret.

The latter is made endurable

because I know
i will keep coming back

to this very special and
spectacular corner of our planet.

As a scene of adventure,

the white continent
has no parallel.

It is truly
a one-of-a-kind place.

My hope is that as its
edges continue to change,

to warm,

we will keep
a close eye on them.

So that the
continent's evolution

will not result in its demise,

and that the number of
Antarctica's ambassadors

and protectors will grow.