All language subtitles for frozen6

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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
killing 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 explosive 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.

The Open University has produced
a poster exploring how animals adapt

to life in the world's
coldest environments.

To order your free copy,
please call 0300 303 0553

or go to bbc.co.uk/frozenplanet2

and follow the links to
the Open University.