♪
The Arctic: a vast,
forbidding wilderness.
Few regions in the world
have inspired greater awe
than its iciest reaches.
♪
Devon Island is
such a place:
a cold desert at
the top of the world.
On the sea ice, predator
and prey have battled here
for thousands of years.
♪
But their battleground
is melting.
♪
An ice-bound sanctuary for
Arctic creatures
is under threat.
♪
Devon Island is remote
from the world most of us know.
But what happens
here affects us all.
♪
This is a voyage of
exploration
through an island of ice.
♪
♪
Devon Island,
in the Canadian Arctic
archipelago,
is the world's largest
uninhabited island.
♪
It appears barren, and is too
harsh for most life forms.
♪
But not for the Arctic's
apex predator,
supremely adapted
to this landscape.
♪
The ice itself is like
a creature -
developing, transforming
and perishing.
♪
Its darkest corners tell
stories of the forces that
have formed our planet,
and how we are forming it now.
♪
For nine months of the year,
Devon Island's weather
is far
below freezing.
Temperatures hover
above freezing,
in what passes
for summer here.
♪
Most of its surface is
frost-fractured rock.
♪
Few creatures or plants
can survive here.
♪
Devon Island is so barren
and hostile that NASA has
used its blasted terrain
to mimic the
exploration of Mars.
♪
An ice cap tops the
island's mountainous peak.
♪
The core of this massive
dome formed 100,000 years ago.
Now it spreads over five and
a half thousand square miles.
♪
It has grown from
accumulated snow,
increasing in density,
becoming compacted,
and hardening into ice.
♪
In places, the ice
reaches 2,900 feet deep.
♪
There may be an abundance
of frozen water,
but Devon Island is a desert.
It rarely snows and
rainfall is comparable to
the Gobi desert.
♪
What little falls,
freezes,
and keeps adding to the ice cap.
♪
From the ice cap flow
fourteen glaciers,
which slide down the island's
rocky terrain towards the sea.
♪
The glaciers reach the
island's edge,
thrusting onwards.
Massive blocks of ice
break off and topple into
the Arctic ocean
as icebergs.
♪
For six months of the
year, darkness dominates
this frozen land.
♪
During winter the
surrounding sea is covered
in continuous, solid ice.
♪
When the sun
returns in spring,
it won't set for four months.
♪
The unrelenting light
warms this frozen desert.
The ice begins to move.
♪
Shifting sea ice on the water
ruptures with long cracks,
called leads.
Prevailing winds and
currents determine where
the leads will form, often
in the same area every year.
♪
These leads shape avenues
for seals to come up for air.
♪
It's spring; the seals
don't have to work as hard
to maintain their
breathing holes.
In fall, when the ice is
thin, the seals cut holes
with the sharp claws
on their foreflippers.
♪
The harp seal uses as many
as fifteen holes, swimming
between them and pushing
its head through
to keep them open.
Now it's spring
and the sun is up,
they can bask on the ice.
But they stay alert
for polar bears.
♪
The polar bear has roamed
the sea ice in darkness
all winter.
Greenland Inuit call the
polar bear Pisugtooq -
The Great Wanderer.
♪
Pausing only to sleep,
it stays on the prowl
in an unceasing
search for seals.
In this region a polar
bear's home territory
can cover 23,000
square miles.
This stretch of sea ice
along Devon Island is
called the Polar Bear
Highway, where about
sixteen hundred
travel back and forth.
♪
Scanning the horizon,
it's not unusual to see
up to ten stalking for prey.
♪
A pregnant female stays
put over the winter,
nestling in a den on land.
♪
In spring she and her
cub emerge, ravenous.
♪
For over four months a cub
has only known the warm
huddle of the den and
its mother's milk.
Now the world opens up and
the mother will teach it
to survive in the
Arctic expanse.
Winds and currents
gather and grow stronger.
(waves crashing)
(shifting ice)
The clash of gigantic ice
sheets forces up ridges.
Underneath is air
and open water.
Seals have a
lifeline for breath.
♪
And polar bears have an
avenue for their hunt.
♪
A polar bear can scent a
seal up to 10 miles away.
It can target a seal lair
beneath three feet of snow.
♪
And it's powerful enough
to break through the thick ice.
♪
Seals must emerge to
breathe every fifteen minutes.
When the hunting is good,
a polar bear will only eat
a seal's blubber and skin.
It can eat a hundred pounds
of blubber in one sitting.
♪
This bear could lurk
around a promising
breathing hole for days.
♪
Devon Island doesn't seem
like a place humans would
like to visit...
♪
But scientists are arriving
from the University
of Alberta, Canada.
♪
It's taken fourteen months
to plan this trip and
prepare, for the
difficulties Devon Island
will present.
They visit at the
start of summer,
when the 24-hour
days are brightest.
(indistinct chatter)
In a couple of months,
the accumulated warmth of
the relentless,
glaring sunlight on snow
will stir up fog.
And on the heights of
the ice cap,
the sun can trigger an
avalanche.
♪
In the early spring of
2015 two Dutch researchers
collecting data on sea
ice nearby fell through
an unexpectedly thin
patch and died.
♪
Earth and Atmospheric
scientist Dr Martin Sharp
and graduate student
Ashley Dubnick are here to
examine one of nature's
laboratories for
processing water and ice.
(indistinct chatter)
What they study here has
worldwide implications.
Glaciers are probably the
most important control on
the average level of
the global oceans.
They represent a large
storage of water on the
continents...and if they
melt then that water ends up
in the ocean and sea
level rises so big cities
like New York with
millions of people
vulnerable to rising sea
levels. It's such a big
problem probably over a
hundred million people
live within a traveling
of current sea level elevation.
And trillions of
dollars of infrastructure
are located in
the same region.
It's a problem we're
gonna have to confront.
I guess there's two
ways to look at this:
you can either let it happen and
figure out how you deal with it.
Or you think it might be
better to stop it happening.
♪
If the Devon Island
ice cap were to melt completely,
it would raise
the levels of all the
world's seas by
almost half an inch.
It doesn't sound like much,
but this is one fraction
of the Arctic's melting ice.
The ice cap here has been
steadily shrinking since 1985,
shedding its water
into the world's oceans.
By the end of this century,
sea level is expected
to rise by two feet.
Hundreds of millions of
homes would disappear,
and great cities, such as
Mumbai or downtown New York
would be in grave
danger of flooding.
Martin and his team plan
to visit the underbelly of
one of the glaciers
flowing from the ice cap.
They want to examine basal
ice - at the foundation of
a glacier, where it
interacts with the ground
beneath, and
meltwater gathers.
♪
They have a two-hour
journey across a landscape
slashed by deep crevasses
that crack into the ice
as the glacier
moves downhill.
♪
In summer, water from
melting snow and ice
courses down these
crevasses running to the
bottom of the glacier.
♪
Then it streams along
channels between bedrock
and ice, following the
glacier's course to the sea.
♪
Martin and his team will
be traveling over uneven,
slippery terrain in
unpredictable weather.
It's a risky venture.
They'll plot their course
with satellite images,
aerial photography,
and GPS.
♪
Technology can guide them,
but they'll still have to
pick their way
around the hazards.
♪
The difficulty and risks
seem less important
in the magnificence that
surrounds them.
♪
I certainly feel an
affinity to glaciers,
and ice sheets.
I've worked on them
most of my life.
I think they're remarkable
places to spend time...
partly because of
the isolation...
♪
A chance to think
that you don't get
where everything's very rushed.
I just think they're an
important part
of the global environment.
I think we have our
responsibilities as a
community to protect and
preserve all of those
parts of the
global system.
♪
Martin and Ashley arrive
at the underside of the glacier.
♪
They're not sure
what they'll find.
♪
They follow a
passage down...
which leads to
an ice cave.
This has been carved by
meltwater streaming down
and dissolving the
edge of the glacier.
♪
In late summer, chunks of
ice tumble down and
their meltwater flows
into these caves.
♪
At summer's end, torrents
of water flood through,
making it too
dangerous to visit.
♪
This channel reveals
a cross section of the
glacial wall over
30 feet high.
The bands in the curving
wall of ice
were formed in different years.
They are lighter or darker
according to how much
debris was in the
meltwater that flowed down
here and then froze again.
♪
The glacier's underbelly
tells a traveller's tale
of ten thousand years.
♪
Some years, the glacier
scraped over rough terrain,
captured rocks,
and dragged them along with it.
♪
But there's more:
they find bird feathers,
mosses, and the shells of
marine mollusks
caught in the ice.
Look at that;
you see the striation
on the surface of the shell.
The shells are remnants of
a brief warm period
nine thousand years ago.
The warm weather melted
the lower reaches
of the ice cap.
The Arctic Ocean then
deluged Devon Island's valleys.
♪
When the climate chilled
again, the sea retreated
and the glaciers
advanced down the island,
overriding the shells.
♪
The team discovers
another, more fragile,
relic from the
same warm period.
A blade of grass.
♪
When the sea flooded these
valleys, lush vegetation
flourished on the
hillsides of Devon Island.
♪
The returning glaciers
crushed the plants and
swept them along.
♪
A blade of grass nine
thousand years old would
not normally be found as
a damp stem like this.
♪
Martin and Ashley venture
deeper into the cave.
♪
Wow...wow...
- It's pretty amazing.
♪
(Indistinct conversation)
Ice crystals,
formed by condensation,
cover the walls.
This incredible array of
crystal structures on the
surface...perfect
hexagonal ice crystals...
which is just, you know,
breathtaking.
Like you're walking through a
world of crystal.
I've never seen anything
like it anywhere else.
♪
Ice crystals form around
particles of grit or earth.
Water vapor attaches to it
and freezes in facets that
reflect the structure
of the water molecule.
Then the crystal grows
from the edges in branches,
just like a snowflake.
♪
Martin and Ashley move
deeper under the glacier.
Here, the ice above their
heads is more than
fifty feet thick.
♪
They're now about a
thousand feet in -
alien territory, further
than they've ever been.
♪
It is dripping here.
There is actually
water there.
Martin is surprised to
find water originating here.
Heat rising from the
earth's crust
has warmed the cavern.
♪
In the late 1980's
the sort of mantra
was that it's cold,
dark, and that there's
no life there.
There always seemed to be
a scientist in the
back of the room
who'd say,
"well, there's got
to be microbes,"
and I thought well really,
we ought to have a look.
When this water is
analyzed it confirms
Martin's suspicions.
It houses as many microbes
as ordinary surface water
anywhere on earth.
Microbes are single-cell
organisms, the world's
oldest lifeform.
There are as many on a
person's hand as
there are people in the world.
But most scientists didn't
think they could
live in a glacier.
♪
The microbes don't all
come from the surface.
Generations of them have
lived in the glacier
for thousands of years.
Surviving, mostly, by
feeding on the buried,
decaying vegetation that
included the blade of grass.
♪
Martin and Ashley's
find confirms a growing
understanding that
glaciers contain many
living microorganisms.
♪
This frozen ecosystem
is constantly in motion.
The massive glacier forces
its way to the edge
of the island.
♪
Here, it finally collapses
into the ocean in one of
nature's greatest
spectacles...
the calving of icebergs.
(thunderous crashing)
(waves crashing)
♪
This berg from Devon
Island begins its long
journey by slipping into
the shifting contours of
an Arctic marvel.
It enters a remarkable
body of water that
baffles scientists - the
North Water Polynya.
♪
It's an expanse of the
Arctic Ocean, between
Canada and Greenland,
that stays free of ice all year,
even in the darkest,
coldest months of winter.
♪
The phenomenon
is mysterious.
Theories include swift
surface currents and
cyclones that pull
ice away from the sea.
The polynya provides a
haven for creatures to
rest and feed in a sea
otherwise locked in by ice.
(bird calls)
♪
Thousands of thick-billed
murres gather here in
summer to nest and raise
their young
on precipitous ledges.
♪
(chirping)
The female lays one egg
in a breeding season.
It's pointed at one end,
which stops it rolling off
a cliff edge.
Instead, it spins
on the spot.
(chirping)
Murres dance around the
cliff face with ease.
But their most natural
element is the sea.
♪
Murres dive deeper than
almost any other bird to
seize their prey and can
stay underwater
for four minutes.
♪
By the end of summer, when
the chicks have fledged,
the cliff-face
colony is deserted.
The murres migrate south
and spend all winter
in the North Atlantic.
♪
Bowhead whales find a
sanctuary in the
polynya for breeding.
For three hundred years,
commercial whalers
inflicted mass
slaughter on bowheads.
The devastation
was greatest in the
northeastern Arctic Ocean.
The whaling industry ended
a century ago when there
were so few bowheads
left, it was no longer
profitable to pursue them.
♪
Populations in other parts of
the Arctic have recovered.
Around this region though
they were feared to
still be irreparably damaged.
♪
Scientists have been
pleased to find the number
of bowheads here
finally growing.
♪
The sociable walrus
congregates here too.
♪
These mammals may lumber
on land, but they swim
elegantly underwater,
where they can stay for
thirty minutes before
surfacing for air.
♪
A mother gives birth to
a calf in seclusion, but
soon rejoins the herd,
cradling her baby
as a human mother would.
As polar ice thins,
walruses lose their
floating staging posts
where they can rest or
launch a hunt.
They've been congregating
in unusual numbers on
shorelines, far
from their prey.
Inuit say that walrus
can predict weather.
One elder said:
"The walrus will go,
when there is going to be
strong winds blowing soon."
In every herd of walruses,
one will act as lookout
for predators,
braying an alarm.
(growls)
♪
Polar bears stalk the
waters of the polynya
looking for
seals and birds.
♪
They're powerful
and dauntless.
♪
The bear is not the
only hunter here.
A group of Inuit has
crossed the sea ice to
Devon from neighboring
Cornwallis Island,
in search of seal
to feed their community...
following
a hunting tradition
thousands of years old.
Mark Amarualik has been
coming to Devon Island
since he was a child.
Good way to find out the
size of a polar bear,
you put your boot print in
it...that's about an 8, 9
footer right there...for
a polar bear track.
♪
Mark has learned through
generations
how to observe the polar bear.
He's on the look out for
seal, but he must also
keep a wary eye for bears.
♪
Trying to get close,
Sometimes it can take hours...
females end up
more round like that...
♪
(Laughs)
It took me about - close to
two hours to get to him...
that's a
lot of patience.
Mark takes time to study
the polar bear's
hunting prowess.
♪
He's got very good senses
of smell, good hearing,
good eyesight...
Being close to a stalking
polar bear, Mark and his
friends know seals
are not far away.
♪
Wily seals have survived
constant pursuit by
polar bears and are
masters of escape.
Every time they pop their
head up, I tell you to
go down, sit down,
watch for a little.
Mark's friend Joadamee
Iqaluk uses a traditional
Inuit blind, called a
taluaqtuut to
approach the seal.
♪
He's 130 feet away,
but the seal is on to him.
♪
(Laughs)
The seal is in its element,
but out here Mark
has to be constantly aware
of sudden weather changes.
It started to look a
little like the
weather is picking up.
Yeah.
All those ice crystals
you see out there,
that's indicating a storm or
some wind picking up.
Mark is tuned to the
island's weather.
He understands how
the ice behaves.
How it's affected by
the winds and currents.
♪
He can predict where
leads will open.
And when he can walk out
on sea ice two-fingers thick
and still be safe.
♪
Nowadays, Mark hears ice
cracking more often during
his trips, and sees ice
too thin to walk on.
♪
Mark wants to understand
why the ice is changing.
So he's guiding scientists
who want to navigate
Devon Island.
♪
Today he's with Christian
Haas, a professor of sea
ice geophysics and
electromagnetics at
York University in Toronto.
Yeah, the ice, ah...
Christian hopes to
understand and predict the
types of changes
Mark has observed.
He and his scientific team
are measuring the sea ice
around Devon Island.
This is our
electromagnetic ice
thickness sounder.
This method allows to
measure the thickness of
the ice as we
travel along.
The sounder sends signals
through the ice to the
seawater below,
registering the ice's density.
Christian can measure ice
thickness more than half
the length of Devon
Island in a day.
The amassed research of
Christian Haas and other
scientists shows that, on
average, sea ice across
the Arctic has thinned
by 13% since 1979.
♪
In some regions Christian
has documented changes
that are even
more alarming.
At the North pole,
for example,
when I started my research,
the ice was 2.5
meters thick and now it's
only about a meter thick
anymore in the summer.
So that is a
lot of change we've seen.
There's another
time-honored way to
detect thin ice
on the polar sea.
(Dogs barking)
The traditional sled dog
can sense and avoid it.
(Whimpering)
Most Inuit travel on
snowmobiles nowadays, but
they frequently still
rely on their dogs for
protection during a hunt
or on long journeys.
The breed is 4,000 years
old and is as much at home
here as polar
bears and seals.
♪
A pack of dogs can
fight off a polar bear.
♪
And when the wind whips up
blinding white outs,
they can guide travelers
back home.
♪
The Inuit could not have
survived here
without their dogs.
♪
♪
Not long ago strangers
came to these Arctic seas,
lacking the life-saving
knowledge they needed.
♪
For almost 400 years,
explorers searched the icy
waters for the Northwest
Passage, a long sought
after trade route
between Europe and Asia.
♪
They came here on one
doomed expedition after another.
♪
They sailed in oak ships,
three inches thick with
iron bows, to force
through the ice,
but it crushed the hulls.
They brought new inventions,
such as canned food -
but it was not
enough to beat the Arctic.
♪
They died from scurvy,
tuberculosis,
and the deep,
unending cold.
♪
Many explorers passed by
Devon Island on their way
through the maze of Arctic
ice and uncharted land.
♪
A passage was eventually
found a hundred years ago,
but the route was so
tortuous it had
no commercial use.
♪
Now, their struggles would
be easier,
though still hazardous.
♪
During the summer the
warming climate is opening
permanent channels
in the Arctic sea.
Nations vie for the
rights to these waters.
♪
Today's explorations seek
undersea riches of oil and
gas around this haven
for polar bears.
♪
This once-impenetrable
region has become vulnerable.
♪
Off the northern coast of
Devon Island an iceberg
continues its journey,
moving south from the
North Water Polynya.
♪
It's picked up by the
Baffin Bay current and
floats south into the
Atlantic, traveling over
10 miles a day.
♪
Some icebergs are glimpsed
off the coast of the
United States before
they dissolve.
♪
Icebergs are the ice caps
and glaciers
set loose into the ocean.
In recent years, more
have been sliding
into the polar seas.
(crashing)
As glaciers recede,
they're calving giants.
Between 2010 and 2011 an
iceberg four times the
size of Manhattan
roamed the Arctic ocean.
♪
With each ice berg
floating free,
the sea level rises.
♪
Devon Island's ice on land
and sea is
becoming more unpredictable.
(Dogs barking)
The Inuit knowledge of
ice in the Arctic, learned
over thousands of years,
no longer applies.
♪
Wildlife must adapt,
if it can.
♪
From tiny drops of
meltwater, to icebergs,
to the oceans...
the effects of climate
change cascade.
♪
Research on Devon Island
reveals that the fragile
Arctic ecosystem has
become unbalanced.
♪
The ice is dissolving,
year after year,
at faster rates.
♪
As more icebergs ply their
course South,
they carry this warning
from the North.
♪
