1
00:00:33,666 --> 00:00:34,800
It's hard not to be impressed

2
00:00:34,802 --> 00:00:38,070
when you see entire houses being swept away

3
00:00:38,072 --> 00:00:39,938
by flood waters in the West

4
00:00:39,940 --> 00:00:41,640
Fires stretch from one end

5
00:00:41,642 --> 00:00:43,075
of Texas to the other.

6
00:00:43,077 --> 00:00:44,176
Tornadoes--

7
00:00:44,178 --> 00:00:47,446
a dozen tornadoes have already been spotted

8
00:00:47,448 --> 00:00:49,014
Liberals will say, well if it's cold,

9
00:00:49,016 --> 00:00:51,216
it's global warming, if it's
snowing it's global warming,

10
00:00:51,218 --> 00:00:53,152
if it's hot it's global
warming-- there's nothing

11
00:00:53,154 --> 00:00:55,087
that doesn't prove that
there's-- it's global warming.

12
00:00:55,089 --> 00:00:57,856
VO-- MSNBC The latest estimates
for rebuilding from Irene,

13
00:00:57,858 --> 00:00:59,691
already seven billion dollars.

14
00:00:59,693 --> 00:01:01,827
2011 is now on track

15
00:01:01,829 --> 00:01:06,365
to be the most expensive year
ever for weather related damage.

16
00:01:07,568 --> 00:01:09,935
A drought of historic proportions has hit Nepal.

17
00:01:09,937 --> 00:01:11,136
The horror

18
00:01:11,138 --> 00:01:13,439
of raging wildfires has
again returned to Russia.

19
00:01:13,441 --> 00:01:14,473
She say it was

20
00:01:14,475 --> 00:01:16,041
like nothing they've ever seen before.

21
00:01:16,043 --> 00:01:21,747
16 of the last 20 years
are the hottest on record.

22
00:01:21,749 --> 00:01:23,315
The science is not in

23
00:01:23,317 --> 00:01:24,583
It is in

24
00:01:24,585 --> 00:01:25,584
No

25
00:01:25,586 --> 00:01:26,251
Stuart quit saying that.

26
00:01:26,253 --> 00:01:27,453
The debate is over.

27
00:01:27,455 --> 00:01:28,487
No, the debate is not over

28
00:01:28,489 --> 00:01:29,321
The globe is actually cooling

29
00:01:29,323 --> 00:01:31,890
and has been cooling since 2002.

30
00:01:31,892 --> 00:01:34,693
The consensus is that there is no consensus.

31
00:01:34,695 --> 00:01:37,863
I mean how
do you not...global warming

32
00:01:37,865 --> 00:01:39,098
is real.

33
00:01:39,100 --> 00:01:40,365
You're about to self implode here.

34
00:01:40,367 --> 00:01:42,634
The ice caps, the poles, are not going

35
00:01:42,636 --> 00:01:45,204
to melt, the oceans are not
going to flood the coast --

36
00:01:45,206 --> 00:01:47,206
I promise you, 20 years from today,

37
00:01:47,208 --> 00:01:49,441
I'll be the one that's laughing.

38
00:02:07,427 --> 00:02:08,727
The worst that would happen is

39
00:02:08,729 --> 00:02:10,963
that I'd just get really wet
if I just stood in place.

40
00:02:10,965 --> 00:02:12,297
No.

41
00:02:12,299 --> 00:02:13,599
You fall, you try to run,
you bang your knee on a piece

42
00:02:13,601 --> 00:02:16,568
of ice, and you bust your knee.

43
00:02:16,570 --> 00:02:19,438
Ah, I just--
I have to get this picture.

44
00:02:19,440 --> 00:02:22,441
The first time I worked with James,

45
00:02:22,443 --> 00:02:25,777
It was obvious how he goes
about things, you know?

46
00:02:25,779 --> 00:02:27,513
Alright quickly!

47
00:02:27,515 --> 00:02:30,182
Cause this light won't last forever.

48
00:02:30,184 --> 00:02:32,618
He pushes
it-- he's looking for something.

49
00:02:32,620 --> 00:02:34,086
You do have rope in the car?

50
00:02:34,088 --> 00:02:35,287
Yeah.

51
00:02:35,289 --> 00:02:36,755
Go back and get whatever you have.

52
00:02:36,757 --> 00:02:38,323
Okay.

53
00:02:38,325 --> 00:02:39,324
Alright, I'm,

54
00:02:39,326 --> 00:02:42,060
I'm almost certain to get wet, Okay?

55
00:02:43,897 --> 00:02:46,265
In fact, I think I'm so certain to get wet,

56
00:02:46,267 --> 00:02:48,367
I'll take my boots off.

57
00:02:50,103 --> 00:02:51,503
And it was very interesting

58
00:02:51,505 --> 00:02:53,605
because it was his first real encounter

59
00:02:53,607 --> 00:02:56,441
at looking at ice in that way.

60
00:02:59,512 --> 00:03:01,813
He really did fall in love with it.

61
00:03:26,439 --> 00:03:28,874
There's this limitless Universe

62
00:03:28,876 --> 00:03:29,942
of forms out there...

63
00:03:29,944 --> 00:03:36,448
That is just, surreal, other worldly.

64
00:03:36,450 --> 00:03:38,350
Sculptural, architectural...

65
00:03:38,352 --> 00:03:44,990
insanely, ridiculously beautiful.

66
00:03:44,992 --> 00:03:50,195
And that's when I though,
okay, the story is in the ice.

67
00:03:50,197 --> 00:03:51,630
Somehow.

68
00:04:10,383 --> 00:04:15,087
I was umm, about 25 or so, I guess.

69
00:04:15,089 --> 00:04:19,191
And I was finishing my master's
degree in Geomorphology.

70
00:04:19,193 --> 00:04:23,028
And um, I loved the science,

71
00:04:23,030 --> 00:04:26,231
but I wasn't interested in being a scientist.

72
00:04:26,233 --> 00:04:29,334
The modern world of science
was all about statistics

73
00:04:29,336 --> 00:04:34,106
and computer modeling and that just wasn't me.

74
00:04:34,108 --> 00:04:37,342
I had no contacts in the photo world,

75
00:04:37,344 --> 00:04:39,177
I had no knowledge of the photo world.

76
00:04:39,179 --> 00:04:41,880
But, youthful brashness can take you a long way,

77
00:04:41,882 --> 00:04:43,982
make things happen, so, that's how it worked.

78
00:04:43,984 --> 00:04:52,891
I had this idea that the most powerful issue

79
00:04:52,893 --> 00:04:56,094
of our time was the interaction
of humans and nature.

80
00:04:56,096 --> 00:05:02,968
One of the subjects I started to
look at involved people hunting.

81
00:05:02,970 --> 00:05:05,971
But they were bloody, gory,
horrific pictures, hard to look

82
00:05:05,973 --> 00:05:07,639
at-- hard for me to
look at even today.

83
00:05:07,641 --> 00:05:13,845
And so, when I had this idea
to look at endangered wildlife,

84
00:05:13,847 --> 00:05:16,381
I realized that I needed to show these things

85
00:05:16,383 --> 00:05:19,051
in a more seductive fashion.

86
00:05:19,053 --> 00:05:20,452
I had to look at it in ways

87
00:05:20,454 --> 00:05:25,824
that would engage
people-- pull them in.

88
00:05:25,826 --> 00:05:28,093
He's always taken the big view.

89
00:05:28,095 --> 00:05:30,228
You know? He's not looking
at this little micro slice.

90
00:05:30,230 --> 00:05:33,398
He's really looking at what humanity is doing

91
00:05:33,400 --> 00:05:36,335
from a very large perspective.

92
00:05:36,337 --> 00:05:39,404
His books-- they force you
to regard nature in a way

93
00:05:39,406 --> 00:05:42,407
that you're not accustomed to looking at em.

94
00:05:42,409 --> 00:05:43,342
He's forcing you to think.

95
00:05:43,344 --> 00:05:44,476
He's forcing me to think.

96
00:05:44,478 --> 00:05:47,846
And that's what I love about James' work.

97
00:05:47,848 --> 00:05:50,515
You know, Ansel Adams was the father

98
00:05:50,517 --> 00:05:53,452
of all landscape photography
and he created a movement

99
00:05:53,454 --> 00:05:56,054
around wilderness that only images could do.

100
00:05:56,056 --> 00:06:00,025
And now you have James
with that same kind of eye.

101
00:06:00,027 --> 00:06:02,260
But being able to do more with the technology.

102
00:06:02,262 --> 00:06:05,163
It's not just the drive

103
00:06:05,165 --> 00:06:06,932
to climb mountains and hang off cliffs.

104
00:06:06,934 --> 00:06:12,204
He has the ability to capture
it in a way and communicate it.

105
00:06:12,206 --> 00:06:14,806
Observing it and knowing it
is one thing, but sharing it

106
00:06:14,808 --> 00:06:21,146
and sharing it effectively can change the world.

107
00:06:21,148 --> 00:06:22,481
I did a couple years of research

108
00:06:22,483 --> 00:06:23,882
on the climate change story,

109
00:06:23,884 --> 00:06:27,152
trying to find what you could
photograph about climate change

110
00:06:27,154 --> 00:06:28,987
that would make interesting photographs.

111
00:06:28,989 --> 00:06:33,692
And I eventually realized that
the only thing that-- to me--

112
00:06:33,694 --> 00:06:34,993
sounded right, was ice.

113
00:06:34,995 --> 00:06:39,631
He came with us with a proposal

114
00:06:39,633 --> 00:06:42,968
to do a profile of one glacier in Iceland.

115
00:06:42,970 --> 00:06:44,703
We essentially countered
to him, we said, well look,

116
00:06:44,705 --> 00:06:48,740
why don't we just do a bigger story.

117
00:06:48,742 --> 00:06:51,943
It was on the cover of the magazine.

118
00:06:51,945 --> 00:06:57,382
Most popular, most wellread
story in the last five years.

119
00:06:57,384 --> 00:06:58,550
As I was shooting that story,

120
00:06:58,552 --> 00:07:00,752
I started to get the very strong sense

121
00:07:00,754 --> 00:07:04,022
that this was a scouting mission
for something much bigger,

122
00:07:04,024 --> 00:07:08,126
and much longer-term
that was about to unfold.

123
00:07:10,596 --> 00:07:13,899
The Solheim Glacier, the
Sunhouse Glacier in translation,

124
00:07:13,901 --> 00:07:16,601
is where I really first got it.

125
00:07:17,970 --> 00:07:21,273
That glacier had been receding
several hundred feet a year;

126
00:07:21,275 --> 00:07:23,708
which is a lot.

127
00:07:23,710 --> 00:07:26,678
You normally have a little bit
of advance in the winter time,

128
00:07:26,680 --> 00:07:28,914
a little bit of retreat in the summer time;

129
00:07:28,916 --> 00:07:31,283
but when you see huge amounts of change,

130
00:07:31,285 --> 00:07:34,319
that's outside of normal behavior.

131
00:07:36,756 --> 00:07:40,492
There was a real sense of the
glacier just coming to an end;

132
00:07:40,494 --> 00:07:44,329
and like this old, decrepit man, just, you know,

133
00:07:44,331 --> 00:07:45,897
falling into the earth and dying.

134
00:07:45,899 --> 00:07:49,568
It was very evocative, very emotional.

135
00:07:54,307 --> 00:07:56,007
As a guy who's been mountaineering

136
00:07:56,009 --> 00:07:59,511
for basically my whole adult
life, uh, someone whose trained

137
00:07:59,513 --> 00:08:01,980
in the earth sciences, I never imagined

138
00:08:01,982 --> 00:08:05,350
that you could see features
this big disappearing

139
00:08:05,352 --> 00:08:08,186
in such a short period of time.

140
00:08:10,590 --> 00:08:14,826
But when I did-- when I saw
that-- and I realized, my God,

141
00:08:14,828 --> 00:08:17,529
there's a powerful piece
of history that's unfolding

142
00:08:17,531 --> 00:08:21,933
in these pictures and I have
to go back to those same spots.

143
00:08:23,402 --> 00:08:25,737
So, I set up a whole bunch of camera positions

144
00:08:25,739 --> 00:08:27,572
around that glacier where I would just go back

145
00:08:27,574 --> 00:08:29,307
and shoot a single frame.

146
00:08:29,309 --> 00:08:31,476
You know, one in April, one in October,

147
00:08:31,478 --> 00:08:40,519
and we would just see how the
glacier changed in six months.

148
00:08:41,721 --> 00:08:43,021
Right there where Svav is.

149
00:08:43,023 --> 00:08:43,955
Right there.

150
00:08:43,957 --> 00:08:46,791
That's exactly where the ice was.

151
00:08:46,793 --> 00:08:47,559
Right there.

152
00:08:47,561 --> 00:08:48,760
Right? Over.

153
00:08:48,762 --> 00:08:50,061
Uhh, correct, this is where...

154
00:08:50,063 --> 00:08:52,631
That glacier had changed so much, that,

155
00:08:52,633 --> 00:08:55,467
I'm not kidding, for like
three hours, we stood there,

156
00:08:55,469 --> 00:08:57,836
looking at the prints of six months ago,

157
00:08:57,838 --> 00:08:59,771
looking at the glacier going, we must be wrong,

158
00:08:59,773 --> 00:09:01,306
we can't be in the right places.

159
00:09:01,308 --> 00:09:04,242
They appear to be from over there.

160
00:09:38,210 --> 00:09:40,812
And when I saw those, the lights when off

161
00:09:40,814 --> 00:09:43,481
for me, I realized, the
public doesn't wanna hear

162
00:09:43,483 --> 00:09:46,918
about more statistical
studies, more computer models,

163
00:09:46,920 --> 00:09:51,323
more projections-- what
they need is a believable,

164
00:09:51,325 --> 00:09:53,825
understandable piece
of visual evidence--

165
00:09:53,827 --> 00:09:57,028
something that grabs them in the gut.

166
00:10:01,033 --> 00:10:06,037
So I created this project called
the Extreme Ice Survey-- or EIS.

167
00:10:06,039 --> 00:10:07,205
The initial goal was to put

168
00:10:07,207 --> 00:10:09,908
out twenty five cameras for three years.

169
00:10:09,910 --> 00:10:13,345
And they would shoot every hour
as long as it was daylight.

170
00:10:13,347 --> 00:10:15,780
We would download those cameras every so often

171
00:10:15,782 --> 00:10:19,050
and turn those individual
frames into video clips

172
00:10:19,052 --> 00:10:22,487
that would show you how
the landscape was changing.

173
00:10:22,489 --> 00:10:25,123
I thought that basically,

174
00:10:25,125 --> 00:10:28,326
you could just buy all this time
lapse equipment off the shelf,

175
00:10:28,328 --> 00:10:31,329
slam it together and put it out there.

176
00:10:31,331 --> 00:10:33,498
I was so naive about that.

177
00:10:33,500 --> 00:10:36,568
Uh, there was a custom
computer that needed to be built

178
00:10:36,570 --> 00:10:39,804
and there were a thousand little
engineering details that needed

179
00:10:39,806 --> 00:10:41,640
to be worked out and a lot of trial and error,

180
00:10:41,642 --> 00:10:43,808
because people hadn't built this stuff before.

181
00:10:43,810 --> 00:10:52,884
And it was clear to me, it
would have to be a team effort.

182
00:10:54,086 --> 00:10:55,420
I wasn't that into photography,

183
00:10:55,422 --> 00:10:58,456
but I talked him into me coming
up here and having a look.

184
00:10:58,458 --> 00:11:01,026
Cause I was curious and I really
wanted to do whatever I could

185
00:11:01,028 --> 00:11:03,428
to get my foot in the door.

186
00:11:03,430 --> 00:11:05,630
Svav is the field assistant in Iceland.

187
00:11:05,632 --> 00:11:07,198
You ready?

188
00:11:07,200 --> 00:11:09,000
As ready as I can be.

189
00:11:09,002 --> 00:11:10,068
These are more attractive

190
00:11:10,070 --> 00:11:11,436
because I think they're more pictureeqse,

191
00:11:11,438 --> 00:11:13,371
and they're still big glaciers.

192
00:11:13,373 --> 00:11:15,907
Jason has a deep, deep well of experience

193
00:11:15,909 --> 00:11:19,177
about Greenland's glaciers,
about Greenland logistics,

194
00:11:19,179 --> 00:11:21,579
about what the glaciers were doing.

195
00:11:21,581 --> 00:11:24,482
Tad's a glaciologist he's
really the grandfather,

196
00:11:24,484 --> 00:11:29,020
the Godfather the knowledge base
about those glaciers in Alaska.

197
00:11:29,022 --> 00:11:31,022
The scope and the scale of EIS is bigger

198
00:11:31,024 --> 00:11:34,025
than any other project since I've known him.

199
00:11:34,027 --> 00:11:36,628
They would work all day, in our little,

200
00:11:36,630 --> 00:11:38,963
what used to be our garage,
turned into a workshop--

201
00:11:38,965 --> 00:11:42,434
until sometimes, 11, 12 o'clock at night.

202
00:11:42,436 --> 00:11:44,569
James sent me a gear list of things

203
00:11:44,571 --> 00:11:47,439
that I had never heard-- I
mean Ice axes and crampons--

204
00:11:47,441 --> 00:11:48,807
all of this technical climbing gear

205
00:11:48,809 --> 00:11:50,675
that I had never used before.

206
00:11:50,677 --> 00:11:54,713
I remember thinking that I
never want to do ice climbing

207
00:11:54,715 --> 00:11:58,683
or ice related stuff, it's
dangerous, I'm gonna die,

208
00:11:58,685 --> 00:12:02,687
but of course, I still
went with James to Iceland.

209
00:12:08,928 --> 00:12:11,262
Jeez...

210
00:12:11,264 --> 00:12:12,964
What?

211
00:12:12,966 --> 00:12:16,334
I'm just saying Jesus Christ.

212
00:12:16,336 --> 00:12:18,203
I'm just emphasizing how bad the

213
00:12:18,205 --> 00:12:19,738
weather is.

214
00:12:19,740 --> 00:12:21,840
Yeah, I don't need it.

215
00:12:22,942 --> 00:12:24,442
I get it.

216
00:12:27,046 --> 00:12:29,080
The essence of the camera systems is based

217
00:12:29,082 --> 00:12:31,182
on putting really delicate electronics

218
00:12:31,184 --> 00:12:34,419
in the harshest conditions on the planet.

219
00:12:34,421 --> 00:12:37,122
They have to withstand hurricane force winds.

220
00:12:37,124 --> 00:12:38,923
Negative 40 degree temperatures.

221
00:12:38,925 --> 00:12:40,892
It's not the nicest environment

222
00:12:40,894 --> 00:12:45,330
for technology to be sitting out in.

223
00:13:15,327 --> 00:13:16,995
Whatever the dangers of that boulder are,

224
00:13:16,997 --> 00:13:19,264
that's a better spot than this is.

225
00:13:19,266 --> 00:13:21,266
Well we found a place to hide the camera;

226
00:13:21,268 --> 00:13:22,634
that's the good news.

227
00:13:22,636 --> 00:13:25,537
The bad news is we've got a
major engineering project to try

228
00:13:25,539 --> 00:13:27,939
and get that thing anchored and supported.

229
00:13:27,941 --> 00:13:29,207
This thing is loose.

230
00:13:29,209 --> 00:13:32,443
Look how soft this stuff is.

231
00:13:32,445 --> 00:13:40,218
Yeah it's gotta be this section right here.

232
00:13:40,220 --> 00:13:40,985
Uh... The other way around.

233
00:13:40,987 --> 00:13:48,626
Rock! This is fantastic.

234
00:13:48,628 --> 00:13:51,162
Look at this.

235
00:13:51,164 --> 00:13:53,398
It's exactly what we wanted.

236
00:13:53,400 --> 00:13:57,669
Okay.. Well, here we go.

237
00:13:57,671 --> 00:14:01,439
The first eyeballs on
the glacier-- finally.

238
00:14:01,441 --> 00:14:10,081
Let's uh, see what a couple years brings to us.

239
00:14:10,083 --> 00:14:11,649
We installed five cameras

240
00:14:11,651 --> 00:14:14,052
in total on that trip.

241
00:14:14,054 --> 00:14:16,688
After that, we went on to Greenland.

242
00:14:44,350 --> 00:14:46,851
When glaciers break these gigantic icebergs

243
00:14:46,853 --> 00:14:51,289
off into the ocean it's
called calving c-a-l-v-i-n-g.

244
00:14:57,897 --> 00:15:00,965
Ever since glaciers have entered
the ocean, hundreds of thousands

245
00:15:00,967 --> 00:15:04,669
of years ago, ice has always calved off.

246
00:15:06,038 --> 00:15:11,075
But what we're seeing now is the
Greenland ice sheet thinning out

247
00:15:11,077 --> 00:15:21,119
and dumping out ever more
ice and water into the ocean.

248
00:15:21,121 --> 00:15:27,058
and dumping out ever more
ice and water into the ocean.

249
00:15:29,628 --> 00:15:30,328
Okay good.

250
00:15:30,330 --> 00:15:32,263
Yep. Right up here.

251
00:15:45,445 --> 00:15:48,146
It's sort of like doing a portrait of people.

252
00:15:48,148 --> 00:15:49,881
You know, uh, Richard Avendan

253
00:15:49,883 --> 00:15:54,218
and Irving Penn spent their
entire careers doing portraits

254
00:15:54,220 --> 00:15:57,355
of faces essential, and found endless variation

255
00:15:57,357 --> 00:16:00,191
and endless beauty and endless
magic in those faces and for me,

256
00:16:00,193 --> 00:16:03,594
that's the same thing as what's going on here.

257
00:16:06,732 --> 00:16:11,436
You know you feel this
tension between this huge,

258
00:16:11,438 --> 00:16:16,274
enduring power of these
glaciers and their fragility.

259
00:16:16,276 --> 00:16:19,077
You know, they came from
a great, impassive place,

260
00:16:19,079 --> 00:16:21,346
and they're just, they're crumbling

261
00:16:21,348 --> 00:16:24,682
into these tiny little blocks
of ice going off into the ocean.

262
00:16:24,684 --> 00:16:27,218
It's crazy.

263
00:16:38,330 --> 00:16:40,164
My first trip to Greenland, We were setting

264
00:16:40,166 --> 00:16:42,166
up one of the cameras at Store Glacier.

265
00:16:42,168 --> 00:16:44,102
We got there, we saw this really,

266
00:16:44,104 --> 00:16:46,070
bizarre looking peninsula.

267
00:16:46,072 --> 00:16:48,773
Just kind of perched out at the
front of this-- the calving face

268
00:16:48,775 --> 00:16:50,608
of the glacier, where the glacier ends.

269
00:16:50,610 --> 00:16:52,944
This thing is gonna
break off all summer long man.

270
00:16:52,946 --> 00:16:54,145
Look at this.

271
00:16:54,147 --> 00:16:56,748
Those peninsulas are, are
just a matter of days--

272
00:16:56,750 --> 00:16:58,783
at most, a couple weeks.

273
00:16:58,785 --> 00:17:00,018
It was huge.

274
00:17:00,020 --> 00:17:02,787
It was five football fields
long-- 1,500 feet long.

275
00:17:02,789 --> 00:17:05,957
And about 300 feet above
the surface of the water.

276
00:17:05,959 --> 00:17:09,994
As we're setting up the cameras,
we also set up a video camera,

277
00:17:09,996 --> 00:17:12,430
and had it pointed right
there, at that peninsula,

278
00:17:12,432 --> 00:17:13,765
and we just had it rolling.

279
00:17:13,767 --> 00:17:18,269
Just in case.

280
00:17:18,271 --> 00:17:26,044
Oh my God, a giant crack just formed.

281
00:17:29,048 --> 00:17:32,950
See that whole island, it's going away.

282
00:17:32,952 --> 00:17:35,552
There it goes man.

283
00:18:07,252 --> 00:18:08,219
We were there

284
00:18:08,221 --> 00:18:10,955
for just a one hour period of time.

285
00:18:10,957 --> 00:18:14,959
And, absurdly, somehow
fortunately captured an event

286
00:18:14,961 --> 00:18:20,698
that seldom is caught on film.

287
00:18:20,700 --> 00:18:23,000
There is this really big stuff happening right

288
00:18:23,002 --> 00:18:26,204
under our noses, happening right now.

289
00:18:26,206 --> 00:18:27,972
But I feel like time is clicking, you know.

290
00:18:27,974 --> 00:18:30,808
And we need to get these cameras out here.

291
00:19:00,873 --> 00:19:02,907
Okay.
Onward.

292
00:19:02,909 --> 00:19:03,741
The logistics

293
00:19:03,743 --> 00:19:05,843
of things are just like, crazy.

294
00:19:05,845 --> 00:19:10,114
It reminds you how far he's
willing to take an idea.

295
00:19:10,116 --> 00:19:11,782
Heads up!

296
00:19:11,784 --> 00:19:13,451
Heads up!

297
00:19:20,559 --> 00:19:23,227
Tight, tight tight.

298
00:19:53,825 --> 00:19:54,825
This is tonight's dinner,

299
00:19:54,827 --> 00:20:00,698
I just found out.

300
00:20:03,602 --> 00:20:04,569
Eight.

301
00:20:04,571 --> 00:20:07,905
Seven. Six, Five.

302
00:20:27,326 --> 00:20:28,326
Ah!

303
00:20:28,328 --> 00:20:35,199
This is the way to travel, my friend.

304
00:20:43,408 --> 00:20:46,877
We ended up installing about
a dozen cameras in Greenland,

305
00:20:46,879 --> 00:20:51,816
five in Iceland, five in
Alaska and two in Montana.

306
00:20:51,818 --> 00:20:53,884
Frankly, I can't believe we actually managed

307
00:20:53,886 --> 00:20:55,720
to pull this off.

308
00:21:04,196 --> 00:21:05,730
You know, about 20 years ago,

309
00:21:05,732 --> 00:21:08,899
I was a skeptic about climate change.

310
00:21:08,901 --> 00:21:10,735
I thought is was based on computer models,

311
00:21:10,737 --> 00:21:12,670
I thought maybe there was a lot of hyperbole

312
00:21:12,672 --> 00:21:17,108
that was turning this into an activist cause.

313
00:21:17,110 --> 00:21:21,212
But most importantly, I didn't
think that humans were capable

314
00:21:21,214 --> 00:21:24,115
of changing the basic physics and chemistry

315
00:21:24,117 --> 00:21:26,751
of this entire huge planet.

316
00:21:26,753 --> 00:21:29,954
It didn't seem probable,
it didn't seem possible.

317
00:21:31,957 --> 00:21:36,727
And then I learned about the
record that's in the ice cores.

318
00:21:36,729 --> 00:21:38,696
The history of ancient climate

319
00:21:38,698 --> 00:21:41,532
that was embedded in those cores.

320
00:21:41,534 --> 00:21:46,070
And the story that the glaciers were telling.

321
00:21:46,072 --> 00:21:47,305
The Greenland

322
00:21:47,307 --> 00:21:49,573
and Antarctic ice sheets
are these giant domes of ice

323
00:21:49,575 --> 00:21:53,377
that preserve climate records,
very much like tree rings.

324
00:21:53,379 --> 00:21:57,982
Snow is added to the top, turns into ice,

325
00:21:57,984 --> 00:22:02,687
and ice core scientist can drill
holes through the ice sheets

326
00:22:02,689 --> 00:22:06,624
and pull out a core and
examine, not only the ice,

327
00:22:06,626 --> 00:22:11,862
but also bubbles of ancient air
that are trapped in the ice.

328
00:22:11,864 --> 00:22:14,532
By looking at the chemistry
of the ice, we can learn

329
00:22:14,534 --> 00:22:17,034
about past temperature,
and by looking at the air,

330
00:22:17,036 --> 00:22:19,904
we can actually measure
the carbon dioxide content.

331
00:22:19,906 --> 00:22:22,707
One of the things that we
learn, is that past temperature

332
00:22:22,709 --> 00:22:24,375
and carbon dioxide vary together.

333
00:22:24,377 --> 00:22:27,511
They go up together, they go down together.

334
00:22:27,513 --> 00:22:32,917
And over the last 800,000 years or so,

335
00:22:32,919 --> 00:22:35,086
atmospheric carbon dioxide was never higher

336
00:22:35,088 --> 00:22:38,756
that about 280 parts per million.

337
00:22:38,758 --> 00:22:43,294
Until we started adding carbon
dioxide to the atmosphere.

338
00:22:43,296 --> 00:22:45,596
And now it's about 390 parts per million.

339
00:22:45,598 --> 00:22:48,532
And that's about 40 percent higher than it was

340
00:22:48,534 --> 00:22:52,036
when carbon dioxide was only
varying for natural reasons.

341
00:22:52,038 --> 00:22:55,272
But now we're heading for 500
parts per million or more.

342
00:22:55,274 --> 00:22:59,577
That pace is a 100 to 1000 times greater

343
00:22:59,579 --> 00:23:01,379
than the pace at which things have changed

344
00:23:01,381 --> 00:23:02,980
by themselves, naturally.

345
00:23:02,982 --> 00:23:06,016
The amazing thing to me is that
we're already seeing impacts

346
00:23:06,018 --> 00:23:08,285
because the change already
has been so small, right?

347
00:23:08,287 --> 00:23:10,087
It's been .8 degrees C,

348
00:23:10,089 --> 00:23:13,457
about 1.5 degrees
Farenheit since 1850 or so.

349
00:23:13,459 --> 00:23:16,894
And yet we've seen so much stuff...

350
00:23:16,896 --> 00:23:18,195
crazy stuff going on already.

351
00:23:18,197 --> 00:23:24,368
What counts to me more than the notion

352
00:23:24,370 --> 00:23:28,005
of the climate changing, is
that the air is changing.

353
00:23:28,007 --> 00:23:31,675
The air that we live in,
the air that sustains us,

354
00:23:31,677 --> 00:23:35,112
the basic physics and chemistry
of that air is changing.

355
00:23:35,114 --> 00:23:40,017
This is about the stuff that you and I breath.

356
00:23:40,019 --> 00:23:42,720
And that effects everything in the agriculture

357
00:23:42,722 --> 00:23:47,992
and the water supply of all the
plants and animals around us.

358
00:23:47,994 --> 00:23:48,993
Plants

359
00:23:48,995 --> 00:23:50,461
and animals are already going extinct.

360
00:23:50,463 --> 00:23:52,763
They're going extinct a 100 times faster now

361
00:23:52,765 --> 00:23:54,165
than they did 1000 years ago.

362
00:23:54,167 --> 00:23:57,501
And as the climate continues to
warm, we're going to loose more

363
00:23:57,503 --> 00:23:59,336
and more, and more species because we're going

364
00:23:59,338 --> 00:24:01,305
to have more suppresses happening.

365
00:24:01,307 --> 00:24:03,741
We're going to have a mass extinction event

366
00:24:03,743 --> 00:24:06,444
that could happen within
the next 200 to 300 years.

367
00:24:06,446 --> 00:24:09,580
Mass extinction event means that we loose half,

368
00:24:09,582 --> 00:24:12,283
or maybe three quarters of the number of species

369
00:24:12,285 --> 00:24:14,785
that we have on the planet.

370
00:24:14,787 --> 00:24:18,122
Are we going to be loosing the
plants that clean our water?

371
00:24:18,124 --> 00:24:20,424
The plants that clean our air?

372
00:24:20,426 --> 00:24:22,626
If there's no pollinators
out there to pollinate,

373
00:24:22,628 --> 00:24:24,295
then we're going to have to do it by hand.

374
00:24:24,297 --> 00:24:26,831
And they're already doing that
in China-- having to go out

375
00:24:26,833 --> 00:24:33,771
and pollinate their crops by hand.

376
00:24:33,773 --> 00:24:36,173
In the last 20 years, we have lost,

377
00:24:36,175 --> 00:24:39,743
close to 20 percent of the forest area

378
00:24:39,745 --> 00:24:41,178
in Arizona-New Mexico.

379
00:24:41,180 --> 00:24:46,083
And that's a high mortality
in those forest areas.

380
00:24:46,085 --> 00:24:49,119
We have seen an increasing in
the length of the fire season

381
00:24:49,121 --> 00:24:51,622
by more than two
months; larger fires

382
00:24:51,624 --> 00:24:53,924
in the Western United
States in the last 20 years;

383
00:24:53,926 --> 00:24:58,596
and we've seen hotter fires
- more extreme fires burning.

384
00:24:58,598 --> 00:25:01,966
It's not just by chance that
I'm seeing many rare events

385
00:25:01,968 --> 00:25:04,401
happening all in sequence, you know.

386
00:25:04,403 --> 00:25:05,703
There's a reason for that.

387
00:25:05,705 --> 00:25:14,211
We're seeing extraordinary
changes in our environment.

388
00:25:14,213 --> 00:25:16,814
Munich Re is the world's largest

389
00:25:16,816 --> 00:25:19,984
re-insurance company and
our business model is

390
00:25:19,986 --> 00:25:23,487
to provide insurance for
the insurance companies.

391
00:25:23,489 --> 00:25:29,426
As Munich Re is a major
reinsurer for natural perils,

392
00:25:29,428 --> 00:25:31,562
natural catastrophes; we need

393
00:25:31,564 --> 00:25:36,767
to know the risks as best as we can.

394
00:25:36,769 --> 00:25:40,137
We have discovered some trends in the number

395
00:25:40,139 --> 00:25:44,074
and in the losses natural perils have caused.

396
00:25:44,076 --> 00:25:47,077
And, interestingly, for
the weather related events,

397
00:25:47,079 --> 00:25:51,015
our activities-- primarily
greenhouse gas emissions--

398
00:25:51,017 --> 00:25:55,853
are contributing to more
intense and more events.

399
00:25:55,855 --> 00:25:58,489
It cannot be acclaimed by just better reporting,

400
00:25:58,491 --> 00:26:00,991
it has to be explained by changes

401
00:26:00,993 --> 00:26:05,729
in the atmospheric conditions.

402
00:26:05,731 --> 00:26:07,665
Imagine a base ball player on steroids

403
00:26:07,667 --> 00:26:10,000
who steps up to the plate and hits a home run.

404
00:26:10,002 --> 00:26:14,538
Can you attribute that home
run to his taking steroids?

405
00:26:14,540 --> 00:26:16,840
Well steroids occur naturally
in very small amounts

406
00:26:16,842 --> 00:26:19,376
in your system, but by adding just a little bit

407
00:26:19,378 --> 00:26:21,612
of those steroids, you can
change your background physical

408
00:26:21,614 --> 00:26:24,114
state and increase your
chances for enhanced performance

409
00:26:24,116 --> 00:26:26,216
and that's exactly what
happens in the climate system.

410
00:26:26,218 --> 00:26:29,153
Greenhouse gases occur in very
small amounts but by increasing

411
00:26:29,155 --> 00:26:31,589
that just a little bit, you
change the background state

412
00:26:31,591 --> 00:26:38,629
of the system and make it much more susceptible

413
00:26:38,631 --> 00:26:39,997
to increased extremes.

414
00:26:39,999 --> 00:26:41,231
If you had an abcess in your tooth,

415
00:26:41,233 --> 00:26:43,467
would you keep going to dentist after dentist

416
00:26:43,469 --> 00:26:45,536
until you found a dentist that said,

417
00:26:45,538 --> 00:26:46,737
ahhh, don't worry about it.

418
00:26:46,739 --> 00:26:47,871
Leave that rotten tooth in.

419
00:26:47,873 --> 00:26:50,174
Or would you pull it out because more

420
00:26:50,176 --> 00:26:52,409
of the other dentists told
you you had a problem?

421
00:26:52,411 --> 00:26:57,214
That's sort of what we're
doing with Climate Change.

422
00:26:57,216 --> 00:27:01,652
We'll be arguing about this for centuries.

423
00:27:01,654 --> 00:27:04,788
We're still arguing about a
minor thing called evolution,

424
00:27:04,790 --> 00:27:07,257
a minor thing about whether man
actually walked on the moon.

425
00:27:07,259 --> 00:27:14,164
We don't have time.

426
00:27:33,918 --> 00:27:35,352
We have low oil pressure

427
00:27:35,354 --> 00:27:36,787
in engine number two.

428
00:27:36,789 --> 00:27:40,224
So I've shut down engine number two.

429
00:27:43,962 --> 00:27:48,799
We cannot hover with one engine.

430
00:27:48,801 --> 00:27:51,235
You look out that window at that sea water

431
00:27:51,237 --> 00:27:53,904
with icebergs floating around in
there and you realize if we go

432
00:27:53,906 --> 00:27:57,841
in that, we'll have five
minutes of physical function

433
00:27:57,843 --> 00:28:03,213
and in 10 minutes we're dead.

434
00:28:03,215 --> 00:28:04,982
The fire brigade will be on standby

435
00:28:04,984 --> 00:28:07,418
in case we need their help.

436
00:28:08,353 --> 00:28:11,989
RADIO CHATTER

437
00:28:40,652 --> 00:28:42,853
He needs to do his adventures.

438
00:28:42,855 --> 00:28:44,788
That's what makes him who he is.

439
00:28:44,790 --> 00:28:47,057
That's who the man is, that's who I married.

440
00:28:47,059 --> 00:28:52,196
Do I wish sometimes that it was closer

441
00:28:52,198 --> 00:28:54,398
and he would come home at five o'clock?

442
00:28:54,400 --> 00:28:55,499
As a wife, yes.

443
00:28:55,501 --> 00:29:03,807
As a human being, it needs to continue, so.

444
00:29:03,809 --> 00:29:05,743
He's on this never ending quest

445
00:29:05,745 --> 00:29:09,046
for something.

446
00:29:09,048 --> 00:29:12,616
He's just going and hoping that something

447
00:29:12,618 --> 00:29:15,819
that he's doing is taking
him in the right direction

448
00:29:15,821 --> 00:29:17,688
and I think that EIS is it.

449
00:29:17,690 --> 00:29:24,762
He's looking to make a global, worldwide impact.

450
00:29:24,764 --> 00:29:28,832
I've never seen him so passionate

451
00:29:28,834 --> 00:29:31,434
about a project before.

452
00:29:46,351 --> 00:29:48,185
Alright, this way.

453
00:29:48,187 --> 00:29:50,420
It's my job to go out there every couple

454
00:29:50,422 --> 00:29:52,589
of months to visit the cameras.

455
00:29:52,591 --> 00:29:55,459
To go over is everything is okay.

456
00:29:57,128 --> 00:30:02,032
There was always a possibility
that this would happen.

457
00:30:03,768 --> 00:30:05,803
This just-- this whole
piece must have cracked off

458
00:30:05,805 --> 00:30:10,340
in one part; flew off
into whoever knows where.

459
00:30:10,342 --> 00:30:14,077
The rock obviously did not read our warning.

460
00:30:14,079 --> 00:30:15,746
It's only shot eight pictures

461
00:30:15,748 --> 00:30:20,484
in the past 24 hours which is somewhat weird.

462
00:30:20,486 --> 00:30:27,357
In fact it's very weird.

463
00:30:27,359 --> 00:30:28,892
It--
It could still shoot.

464
00:30:28,894 --> 00:30:30,561
Come on, please.

465
00:30:30,563 --> 00:30:31,595
Please work.

466
00:30:31,597 --> 00:30:32,996
It's dead.

467
00:30:32,998 --> 00:30:33,864
It has to be dead.

468
00:30:33,866 --> 00:30:36,466
Okay, so...

469
00:30:36,468 --> 00:30:40,337
Everything we're trying is getting thwarted.

470
00:30:45,978 --> 00:30:50,547
Again.
Zebras again.

471
00:30:50,549 --> 00:30:53,116
Ohhhhh.

472
00:30:53,118 --> 00:30:54,418
We've had numerous,

473
00:30:54,420 --> 00:30:57,721
numerous timer failures.

474
00:30:57,723 --> 00:31:01,758
We've had cameras buried
under 15 or 20 feet of snow.

475
00:31:01,760 --> 00:31:03,293
Ewwww.

476
00:31:03,295 --> 00:31:04,661
Oh my.

477
00:31:04,663 --> 00:31:07,564
We've had Plexiglas windows sand blasted.

478
00:31:07,566 --> 00:31:10,801
We've had batteries explode
inside the camera boxes.

479
00:31:10,803 --> 00:31:12,402
I think it's a bird just kind

480
00:31:12,404 --> 00:31:13,737
of pecking away at it.

481
00:31:13,739 --> 00:31:17,107
This is what a fox does to your cables

482
00:31:17,109 --> 00:31:18,375
when you're not looking.

483
00:31:18,377 --> 00:31:20,611
He had
spent a lot of many-- grants,

484
00:31:20,613 --> 00:31:23,380
personal money, getting to
Alaska, getting to Greenland

485
00:31:23,382 --> 00:31:25,215
and when you go out there, you want it to work,

486
00:31:25,217 --> 00:31:28,585
and when something doesn't work,
you feel so far from anything

487
00:31:28,587 --> 00:31:31,421
and anyone that can help you.

488
00:31:31,423 --> 00:31:35,893
I think It's in that voltage regulator.

489
00:31:42,500 --> 00:31:45,469
All of that obsession means absolutely nothing

490
00:31:45,471 --> 00:31:49,706
if a little electronic
piece that big doesn't work.

491
00:31:50,909 --> 00:31:53,110
If I don't have pictures, I don't have anything.

492
00:31:53,112 --> 00:31:55,879
You know, everything is a failure.

493
00:31:55,881 --> 00:31:57,648
No, it's dead, it's not working.

494
00:31:57,650 --> 00:32:00,784
Period, flat out, just dead.

495
00:32:00,786 --> 00:32:02,219
It's dead.

496
00:32:03,388 --> 00:32:04,721
God, after all this!

497
00:32:04,723 --> 00:32:07,658
After all this, it just it makes me insane!

498
00:32:07,660 --> 00:32:10,627
It makes me fucking insane!

499
00:32:12,597 --> 00:32:17,401
It's so disappointing.

500
00:32:17,403 --> 00:32:25,776
It's hard to see somebody that you love chase

501
00:32:25,778 --> 00:32:27,678
after something that...

502
00:32:27,680 --> 00:32:30,113
might not ever happen.

503
00:33:08,219 --> 00:33:10,153
See that white dot down there...

504
00:33:10,155 --> 00:33:11,355
There's a white dot on the...

505
00:33:11,357 --> 00:33:15,993
Something's happening inside the timer.

506
00:33:15,995 --> 00:33:18,161
After months of trouble shooting,

507
00:33:18,163 --> 00:33:20,063
we realized that the core problem was

508
00:33:20,065 --> 00:33:23,066
in the voltage regulator and
in this little computer timer--

509
00:33:23,068 --> 00:33:27,437
this custom made computer that
told the cameras when to fire.

510
00:33:27,439 --> 00:33:28,472
We worked with these guys

511
00:33:28,474 --> 00:33:30,640
at National Geographic, and we sat down

512
00:33:30,642 --> 00:33:32,209
and re-designed the controllers.

513
00:33:32,211 --> 00:33:35,178
We switched to an entirely different kind

514
00:33:35,180 --> 00:33:38,815
of a circuit that used less
power and is a lot more reliable

515
00:33:38,817 --> 00:33:43,320
because it has a simpler
electronic circuitry inside it.

516
00:33:43,322 --> 00:33:45,055
That was the turning point

517
00:33:45,057 --> 00:33:47,791
for the whole system.

518
00:33:47,793 --> 00:33:49,826
We had to replace all the old timers.

519
00:33:49,828 --> 00:33:53,597
And had to wait for a whole
season to check on them again

520
00:33:53,599 --> 00:33:56,099
and make sure they were working.

521
00:34:46,851 --> 00:34:49,586
We gotta be getting close.

522
00:34:49,588 --> 00:34:50,554
We are.

523
00:34:50,556 --> 00:34:56,927
We'll be able to see it from up here.

524
00:34:56,929 --> 00:34:58,061
Yeah.

525
00:35:01,599 --> 00:35:02,866
Okay.

526
00:35:02,868 --> 00:35:10,273
Alright. This is
the big one; Okay.

527
00:35:13,010 --> 00:35:13,977
Here it goes.

528
00:35:13,979 --> 00:35:15,545
Playback.

529
00:35:20,818 --> 00:35:21,952
March.

530
00:35:21,954 --> 00:35:24,554
11, 2008. It just shot!

531
00:35:29,995 --> 00:35:33,463
It's been working all winter!

532
00:35:33,465 --> 00:35:35,132
Ahhh man. Hello!

533
00:35:35,134 --> 00:35:37,234
I can't believe that worked.

534
00:35:37,236 --> 00:35:39,669
Do you know how cold it's
been out here, for how long?

535
00:35:39,671 --> 00:35:41,872
I'm unbelievably surprised.

536
00:35:41,874 --> 00:35:45,108
We have over 2,300 frames.

537
00:35:45,110 --> 00:35:45,842
Since June?

538
00:35:45,844 --> 00:35:48,145
Let me see.

539
00:35:48,147 --> 00:35:50,447
And everything's working.

540
00:36:14,906 --> 00:36:17,140
It's been shooting the entire time...

541
00:36:17,142 --> 00:36:22,212
Fantastic.

542
00:36:22,214 --> 00:36:24,347
Here's the memory of the
camera and this is-- actually,

543
00:36:24,349 --> 00:36:25,982
that's an interesting thought.

544
00:36:25,984 --> 00:36:28,051
This is the memory of the landscape.

545
00:36:28,053 --> 00:36:29,786
That landscape is gone.

546
00:36:29,788 --> 00:36:32,322
It may never be seen again in
the history of civilization

547
00:36:32,324 --> 00:36:36,126
and it's stored right here.

548
00:36:46,204 --> 00:36:48,905
In 1984, the glacier was
down there, 11 miles away.

549
00:36:48,907 --> 00:36:51,074
And today, it's back here.

550
00:36:51,076 --> 00:36:53,610
It receded 11 miles.

551
00:36:53,612 --> 00:36:56,246
The glacier's retreating,

552
00:36:56,248 --> 00:36:58,114
but it's also thinning at the same time.

553
00:36:58,116 --> 00:36:59,816
It's like the air being let out of a balloon.

554
00:36:59,818 --> 00:37:02,686
You can see what's
called the trim line--

555
00:37:02,688 --> 00:37:06,957
it's the high water mark of the glacier in 1984.

556
00:37:06,959 --> 00:37:09,926
That vertical change is the height

557
00:37:09,928 --> 00:37:12,928
of the Empire State Building.

558
00:37:25,209 --> 00:37:29,613
You know, we're really in the
midst of geologic scale change.

559
00:37:29,615 --> 00:37:33,149
You know our brains are programed to think

560
00:37:33,151 --> 00:37:35,719
that geology is something
that happened a long time ago

561
00:37:35,721 --> 00:37:37,887
or it will happen a long time in the future.

562
00:37:37,889 --> 00:37:40,991
And we don't think that can
happen during these little years

563
00:37:40,993 --> 00:37:43,126
that we each live on this planet.

564
00:37:43,128 --> 00:37:46,463
But the reality is that it does.

565
00:37:46,465 --> 00:37:48,932
That things can happen very, very very quickly.

566
00:37:48,934 --> 00:37:51,368
We're living through one of those moments

567
00:37:51,370 --> 00:37:54,271
of epochal geologic change right now.

568
00:37:54,273 --> 00:37:57,073
And we humans are causing it.

569
00:38:30,174 --> 00:38:32,842
Up and down the edges of the ice sheet,

570
00:38:32,844 --> 00:38:35,478
there's this zone called the melt zone.

571
00:38:35,480 --> 00:38:40,183
This is where the sheet is
melting and that stored water

572
00:38:40,185 --> 00:38:43,420
from the ice sheet is running out to sea.

573
00:38:55,466 --> 00:38:58,168
I have to wrap my knees
for the day's festivities.

574
00:38:58,170 --> 00:39:01,638
This knee has had two surgeries on it already

575
00:39:01,640 --> 00:39:04,708
and it really could use a third.

576
00:39:07,111 --> 00:39:09,612
It's like the surface of the moon.

577
00:39:09,614 --> 00:39:12,649
Look at those holes.

578
00:39:24,228 --> 00:39:25,495
Oh my gosh, look at this stuff!

579
00:39:25,497 --> 00:39:28,098
I had no idea it was so thick in here.

580
00:39:28,100 --> 00:39:31,601
This stuff, this cryoconite,
it's made from a combination

581
00:39:31,603 --> 00:39:33,903
of natural dust that blows in from the deserts

582
00:39:33,905 --> 00:39:38,908
of central Asia, mixed with
little flakes of carbon,

583
00:39:38,910 --> 00:39:43,646
Fine particles of soot that come
from wildfires, diesel exhaust

584
00:39:43,648 --> 00:39:45,181
and coal-fired power plants.

585
00:39:45,183 --> 00:39:48,451
And on top of it, there's algae
that grows out here and all

586
00:39:48,453 --> 00:39:51,154
of that stuff accumulates in these little holes,

587
00:39:51,156 --> 00:39:54,724
and because it's black, it
absorbs the sun's heat more

588
00:39:54,726 --> 00:39:56,226
than the surrounding ice does.

589
00:39:56,228 --> 00:39:58,495
And all over the surface of the ice sheet,

590
00:39:58,497 --> 00:40:00,830
there's literally billions

591
00:40:00,832 --> 00:40:03,833
of these little cryoconite holes melting away

592
00:40:03,835 --> 00:40:05,668
and filling up with water.

593
00:40:05,670 --> 00:40:08,271
And when you look down at those holes,

594
00:40:08,273 --> 00:40:10,607
what you can actually see
is these little bubbles

595
00:40:10,609 --> 00:40:19,682
of ancient air being released
as the ice sheet melts.

596
00:40:22,620 --> 00:40:24,788
The part of Greenland that's melting,

597
00:40:24,790 --> 00:40:26,623
is out on the edges of the ice sheet.

598
00:40:26,625 --> 00:40:30,026
And that area is growing, and it's moving higher

599
00:40:30,028 --> 00:40:31,261
up onto the ice sheet.

600
00:40:31,263 --> 00:40:34,764
As the climate changes in
that part of the world.

601
00:40:34,766 --> 00:40:37,167
You see, all this water, melting

602
00:40:37,169 --> 00:40:39,669
down through these swiss cheese
holes, you see it melting

603
00:40:39,671 --> 00:40:41,104
down through the channels,

604
00:40:41,106 --> 00:40:42,705
from little channels into big channels.

605
00:40:42,707 --> 00:40:45,909
And eventually, everything drops vertically,

606
00:40:45,911 --> 00:40:49,312
down through these big Moulin caverns.

607
00:40:49,314 --> 00:40:51,014
Goes down to the bottom of the ice sheet

608
00:40:51,016 --> 00:40:53,049
and out into the ocean.

609
00:40:56,353 --> 00:40:57,320
Ordinarily,

610
00:40:57,322 --> 00:40:58,621
if you make climate a little warmer,

611
00:40:58,623 --> 00:41:00,256
the glacier shrinks a little bit.

612
00:41:00,258 --> 00:41:02,125
If you make the climate a little colder,

613
00:41:02,127 --> 00:41:03,359
the glacier grows a little bit.

614
00:41:03,361 --> 00:41:07,430
And those two things kind
of work to maintain balance.

615
00:41:07,432 --> 00:41:09,732
But if it gets too warm,
and the ice gets too thin,

616
00:41:09,734 --> 00:41:13,837
it doesn't just respond just a
little bit, the volume drops.

617
00:41:13,839 --> 00:41:16,773
You cross that tipping point,
climate no longer matters.

618
00:41:16,775 --> 00:41:20,410
It's irreversible-- it's
just gonna keep going.

619
00:41:20,412 --> 00:41:23,046
The sea level rise that will happen

620
00:41:23,048 --> 00:41:26,115
in my daughter's lifetimes,
will be somewhere between a foot

621
00:41:26,117 --> 00:41:27,450
in a half and a half and three feet.

622
00:41:27,452 --> 00:41:30,653
Minimum. That doesn't sound
like a lot if you live

623
00:41:30,655 --> 00:41:33,957
in the Rocky Mountains, but if
you live down in Chesapeake Bay,

624
00:41:33,959 --> 00:41:36,125
along the Gulf Coast of the United States,

625
00:41:36,127 --> 00:41:38,862
in the Ganges flood plane that matters a lot.

626
00:41:38,864 --> 00:41:42,065
It matters in China, it matters in Indonesia.

627
00:41:42,067 --> 00:41:46,469
A minimum of 150 million
people will be displaced--

628
00:41:46,471 --> 00:41:49,239
that's like approximately half
the size of the United States.

629
00:41:49,241 --> 00:41:51,975
And all of those people are
going to be flushed out and have

630
00:41:51,977 --> 00:41:54,410
to move somewhere else.

631
00:41:54,412 --> 00:41:58,548
It also intensifies the impact
of hurricanes and typhoons.

632
00:41:58,550 --> 00:42:01,651
It means that there's a lot
more high water along the coast

633
00:42:01,653 --> 00:42:03,887
lines, so when these big storms come,

634
00:42:03,889 --> 00:42:07,824
it pushes that much more water
that much further inland.

635
00:42:08,959 --> 00:42:10,393
That's where our story

636
00:42:10,395 --> 00:42:12,328
of Greenland Climate Change is expressed,

637
00:42:12,330 --> 00:42:15,131
it's in that melt water,
rushing out to the ocean.

638
00:42:15,133 --> 00:42:18,001
That's what we're photographing;
that's what I've been

639
00:42:18,003 --> 00:42:21,104
up there trying to document.

640
00:42:54,238 --> 00:42:56,539
You know, I've seen this thing from your photos

641
00:42:56,541 --> 00:42:58,975
and sat pictures, but to
be here, it's incredible.

642
00:42:58,977 --> 00:43:03,046
It's all becoming a little more real.

643
00:43:03,048 --> 00:43:05,748
While we're heading over, why don't I walk over

644
00:43:05,750 --> 00:43:07,417
and give you some scale?

645
00:43:07,419 --> 00:43:08,785
Sure.

646
00:43:08,787 --> 00:43:11,688
Just be careful, don't get too
close to the edge, alright?

647
00:43:11,690 --> 00:43:13,790
Stay up where it's flat.

648
00:43:15,259 --> 00:43:18,294
This is really something.

649
00:43:18,296 --> 00:43:21,698
This is terrifying.

650
00:43:21,700 --> 00:43:24,267
This isn't a 10 foot little hole in the ground,

651
00:43:24,269 --> 00:43:28,271
it's 100 feet deep into an abyss.

652
00:43:28,273 --> 00:43:31,107
If you don't have that,
that little dot of a person

653
00:43:31,109 --> 00:43:33,943
for scale, then it's lost.

654
00:43:33,945 --> 00:43:35,812
That is fabulous.

655
00:43:35,814 --> 00:43:38,414
This is a reasonable route right here.

656
00:43:38,416 --> 00:43:39,382
Look at that.

657
00:43:39,384 --> 00:43:40,350
Oh yeah.

658
00:43:40,352 --> 00:43:41,451
That's like a gift.

659
00:43:41,453 --> 00:43:42,218
This is the danger spot.

660
00:43:42,220 --> 00:43:43,019
Yeah.

661
00:43:43,021 --> 00:43:44,153
For sure.

662
00:43:44,155 --> 00:43:45,188
Well, and the other danger is

663
00:43:45,190 --> 00:43:46,623
that the whole thing suddenly implodes

664
00:43:46,625 --> 00:43:47,924
and the entire thing collapses,

665
00:43:47,926 --> 00:43:50,627
but I don't think that's very likely.

666
00:43:53,063 --> 00:43:56,299
This moulin is one of thousands of moulins all

667
00:43:56,301 --> 00:43:58,635
over the melt zone in Greenland and everyday,

668
00:43:58,637 --> 00:44:00,370
the ice is cooking down,

669
00:44:00,372 --> 00:44:02,739
and water is pouring into the ice sheet.

670
00:44:02,741 --> 00:44:04,540
It's enormous, you can't wrap your head

671
00:44:04,542 --> 00:44:09,712
around how much water is coming off this place.

672
00:44:09,714 --> 00:44:14,217
You got it.

673
00:44:14,219 --> 00:44:22,592
Adam, have you ever done something

674
00:44:22,594 --> 00:44:24,694
like this before?

675
00:44:24,696 --> 00:44:27,030
No.
Not at all.

676
00:44:38,075 --> 00:44:39,909
It's all calculated risks.

677
00:44:39,911 --> 00:44:42,011
It's not like we're just going out there

678
00:44:42,013 --> 00:44:50,119
and playing Russian Roulette.

679
00:44:50,121 --> 00:44:52,188
Piece o'cake.

680
00:44:52,190 --> 00:44:59,262
Ohhh, there's all sorts of curios crinkling

681
00:44:59,264 --> 00:45:01,798
and crunching effects in my knee.

682
00:45:07,104 --> 00:45:09,572
Just not what the doctor ordered.

683
00:45:11,375 --> 00:45:15,945
Alright. Look down!

684
00:45:21,785 --> 00:45:22,985
Look down?

685
00:45:22,987 --> 00:45:24,487
Look!
Down!

686
00:45:24,489 --> 00:45:30,026
It's just bottomless...

687
00:45:30,028 --> 00:45:33,429
Oh my God.

688
00:45:33,431 --> 00:45:36,966
I do not want to go any lower than this.

689
00:45:36,968 --> 00:45:39,402
I'm going out here on this broken fin.

690
00:45:39,404 --> 00:45:44,107
Okay? And I don't, I
assume it won't collapse.

691
00:45:59,723 --> 00:46:00,623
Okay.

692
00:46:00,625 --> 00:46:02,058
All done!

693
00:46:02,060 --> 00:46:04,360
Oh thank God!

694
00:46:04,362 --> 00:46:06,962
Fantastic!

695
00:46:18,742 --> 00:46:23,246
There were audible chunks
of gravel like substances

696
00:46:23,248 --> 00:46:25,848
that I could feel rolling around in there.

697
00:46:25,850 --> 00:46:28,184
The bionic man.

698
00:46:28,186 --> 00:46:31,354
I was covering up the soreness
with anti-inflammatories

699
00:46:31,356 --> 00:46:33,689
and pain killers so that I
could function in the field

700
00:46:33,691 --> 00:46:36,125
and I would think, ah, that's
pretty good-- not so bad.

701
00:46:36,127 --> 00:46:39,128
Not realizing that the drugs
were masking the symptoms way

702
00:46:39,130 --> 00:46:41,664
more than I had realized.

703
00:46:42,666 --> 00:46:43,366
Bye babe.

704
00:46:43,368 --> 00:46:44,734
I love you.

705
00:46:44,736 --> 00:46:48,738
I love you too.

706
00:46:59,616 --> 00:47:00,850
More

707
00:47:00,852 --> 00:47:02,351
and more people are becoming
increasingly skeptical

708
00:47:02,353 --> 00:47:04,353
about the existence of climate change.

709
00:47:04,355 --> 00:47:06,622
These so called climate scientists are

710
00:47:06,624 --> 00:47:08,825
hoodwinking the entire world community.

711
00:47:08,827 --> 00:47:11,093
There is no consensus, this is a myth.

712
00:47:11,095 --> 00:47:12,628
The notion that man made gas,

713
00:47:12,630 --> 00:47:16,232
this anthropogenic gas, this C02
cause global warming is probably

714
00:47:16,234 --> 00:47:18,000
the greatest hoax ever perpetrated

715
00:47:18,002 --> 00:47:19,068
on the American people.

716
00:47:20,471 --> 00:47:28,277
All of this garbage science has
been a total fraud and a fake!

717
00:47:31,048 --> 00:47:32,849
Jim was told after his surgery

718
00:47:32,851 --> 00:47:34,984
that hiking is not a form of exercise

719
00:47:34,986 --> 00:47:37,220
that they want him to pursue anymore.

720
00:47:37,222 --> 00:47:46,262
I'm not sure that's sunken in quite yet.

721
00:47:48,365 --> 00:47:51,300
I think, when we started out,

722
00:47:51,302 --> 00:47:53,169
the glacier was approximately right here.

723
00:47:53,171 --> 00:47:55,371
It might of been there, it might of been here;

724
00:47:55,373 --> 00:47:57,940
but it's in this zone somewhere.

725
00:48:02,946 --> 00:48:04,513
Look. Look at this.

726
00:48:04,515 --> 00:48:08,618
In '05, you couldn't even look
into the canyon back there,

727
00:48:08,620 --> 00:48:10,853
look, it was all filled up to that point.

728
00:48:10,855 --> 00:48:14,757
And look how, look how low it is now.

729
00:48:22,933 --> 00:48:24,933
Beautiful.

730
00:48:29,440 --> 00:48:35,111
And that's 2007--
that isn't even 2005.

731
00:48:35,113 --> 00:48:39,582
In 2007, just two years
ago, you couldn't see any

732
00:48:39,584 --> 00:48:41,417
of that mountain ridge over there.

733
00:48:41,419 --> 00:48:43,953
The thing has deflated tremendously, I mean,

734
00:48:43,955 --> 00:48:46,989
I don't know what the number
of feet is, but, it's a lot.

735
00:48:46,991 --> 00:48:51,093
If I hadn't seen it in the pictures,

736
00:48:51,095 --> 00:48:53,296
I wouldn't believe it at all.

737
00:49:15,085 --> 00:49:19,088
When I saw that glacier dying, it was like, wow.

738
00:49:19,090 --> 00:49:20,189
You know we, uh...

739
00:49:20,191 --> 00:49:23,926
If a glacier that's been here for 30,000 years,

740
00:49:23,928 --> 00:49:28,097
or 100,000 years is literally
dying in front of my eyes,

741
00:49:28,099 --> 00:49:36,772
you're very aware of the fact that...

742
00:49:36,774 --> 00:49:41,978
You know, sometime you um...

743
00:49:41,980 --> 00:49:52,021
sometime you go out over the
horizon and you don't come back.

744
00:49:52,023 --> 00:49:57,226
sometime you go out over the
horizon and you don't come back.

745
00:50:01,098 --> 00:50:04,367
James is now doing exactly what his doctors

746
00:50:04,369 --> 00:50:07,737
said he shouldn't be doing.

747
00:50:13,777 --> 00:50:14,677
Lower.

748
00:50:22,619 --> 00:50:25,021
Oh, man.

749
00:50:25,023 --> 00:50:27,957
A little more...

750
00:50:27,959 --> 00:50:28,691
Okay...

751
00:50:33,130 --> 00:50:35,197
Yes...there you go.

752
00:50:47,177 --> 00:50:49,678
It feels worse this morning

753
00:50:49,680 --> 00:50:53,149
than it has any day since the surgery.

754
00:50:53,151 --> 00:50:55,885
It felt better the three days after the surgery

755
00:50:55,887 --> 00:50:57,787
than it feels right now.

756
00:50:57,789 --> 00:51:03,592
I think that the best that
can be said about this is,

757
00:51:03,594 --> 00:51:05,361
ah I'm a safety liability.

758
00:51:05,363 --> 00:51:09,131
Well, you can maybe limp your way up, but...

759
00:51:09,133 --> 00:51:10,966
you can't go down that.

760
00:51:10,968 --> 00:51:12,168
Unless you're in a wheelchair.

761
00:51:12,170 --> 00:51:15,771
I mean,
we need to go up there--

762
00:51:15,773 --> 00:51:18,407
check on the camera, and all of that, but...

763
00:51:18,409 --> 00:51:20,676
but you don't necessarily need to do it.

764
00:51:20,678 --> 00:51:22,511
I mean, that's more of a climb

765
00:51:22,513 --> 00:51:24,480
than we did in the past two days.

766
00:51:24,482 --> 00:51:26,382
I have a hard time letting ideas go, you know?

767
00:51:26,384 --> 00:51:28,384
Well here's another thing.

768
00:51:28,386 --> 00:51:29,885
That's why your knee's like this.

769
00:51:29,887 --> 00:51:31,287
Okay.

770
00:51:31,289 --> 00:51:34,223
I'm inclined to think that you
guys should at least go and look

771
00:51:34,225 --> 00:51:35,991
at one of the cameras get it downloaded,

772
00:51:35,993 --> 00:51:37,827
get the computer changed today.

773
00:51:37,829 --> 00:51:38,561
Okay?

774
00:51:38,563 --> 00:51:39,261
Yep.

775
00:51:39,263 --> 00:51:43,132
Enough

776
00:51:46,870 --> 00:51:48,870
See the route?

777
00:52:02,919 --> 00:52:04,086
Okay.

778
00:52:04,088 --> 00:52:13,462
Hold on. See if you
can get in there.

779
00:52:13,464 --> 00:52:15,531
That's it!

780
00:52:20,937 --> 00:52:24,006
Let's get out of here.

781
00:52:30,747 --> 00:52:32,047
Every once in a while,

782
00:52:32,049 --> 00:52:34,016
I get this thing in the back of my head saying,

783
00:52:34,018 --> 00:52:35,718
what were you thinking?

784
00:52:35,720 --> 00:52:38,988
Maybe that office job wasn't so bad.

785
00:52:40,290 --> 00:52:41,557
But...

786
00:52:41,559 --> 00:52:43,192
The sandwiches are better here.

787
00:52:43,194 --> 00:52:44,260
The after the sandwich,

788
00:52:44,262 --> 00:52:46,495
I'm totally happy to be here.

789
00:52:46,497 --> 00:52:48,664
This project is...

790
00:52:48,666 --> 00:52:50,966
now we're two years in.

791
00:52:50,968 --> 00:52:53,903
We have like, hundreds of thousands of images.

792
00:52:53,905 --> 00:52:55,037
It feels like, yeah,

793
00:52:55,039 --> 00:52:56,906
he goes to that point where he can't anymore

794
00:52:56,908 --> 00:52:59,141
and sometimes you even feel
he's going even further.

795
00:52:59,143 --> 00:53:01,043
Yeah and he speaks about it, he says, well,

796
00:53:01,045 --> 00:53:03,846
so I'll just do a fourth knee surgery, you know?

797
00:53:03,848 --> 00:53:07,216
Like, however many it takes to keep him going.

798
00:53:07,218 --> 00:53:09,718
Like most people say, I'm
going to get knee surgery

799
00:53:09,720 --> 00:53:11,187
to fix me, kind of, you know?

800
00:53:11,189 --> 00:53:12,354
It's to make it better.

801
00:53:12,356 --> 00:53:15,090
But for him, it's to make
it better so he can keep

802
00:53:15,092 --> 00:53:18,027
on pushing it, destroying it, basically,

803
00:53:18,029 --> 00:53:27,102
and then maybe he'll just have to do it again.

804
00:53:31,341 --> 00:53:38,147
Okay Svav, you ready for another exposure?

805
00:53:38,149 --> 00:53:42,518
Do it exactly as you just did it, okay?

806
00:53:42,520 --> 00:53:43,886
You ready?

807
00:53:43,888 --> 00:53:45,554
So as quick as I can, I, I cover it.

808
00:53:45,556 --> 00:53:46,855
That's right.

809
00:53:46,857 --> 00:53:48,691
Way back, early in my career,

810
00:53:48,693 --> 00:53:51,060
I discovered that there was
really something special

811
00:53:51,062 --> 00:53:55,264
about photographing at
night, that places your mind

812
00:53:55,266 --> 00:54:03,939
on the surface of a planet.

813
00:54:03,941 --> 00:54:06,308
You're no longer just a human being walking

814
00:54:06,310 --> 00:54:07,576
around in the regular world.

815
00:54:07,578 --> 00:54:12,881
You are a human animal,
striding around on the surface

816
00:54:12,883 --> 00:54:18,921
of the planet that's out in
the middle of the galaxy.

817
00:54:18,923 --> 00:54:21,190
We as a culture--
we're forgetting

818
00:54:21,192 --> 00:54:23,792
that we are actually natural organisms

819
00:54:23,794 --> 00:54:26,195
and that we have this very, very deep connection

820
00:54:26,197 --> 00:54:27,930
and contact with, and contact with nature.

821
00:54:27,932 --> 00:54:31,467
You can't divorce civilization from nature.

822
00:54:31,469 --> 00:54:36,005
We totally depend on it.

823
00:55:14,778 --> 00:55:15,911
Shortly after that,

824
00:55:15,913 --> 00:55:19,715
he sent us on this month long, massive trip,

825
00:55:19,717 --> 00:55:23,152
to a place that's really hard to get to,

826
00:55:23,154 --> 00:55:27,489
to get a shot that's is just--
it was such a shot in the dark.

827
00:55:28,858 --> 00:55:33,228
The idea sprung from this
one glacier called Store.

828
00:55:33,230 --> 00:55:36,265
That event was so spectacular, we decided,

829
00:55:36,267 --> 00:55:39,601
okay we got to go back,
and go to the big glacier,

830
00:55:39,603 --> 00:55:42,871
Ilulissat glacier and sit.

831
00:55:42,873 --> 00:55:46,475
And wait. We're going
to try to catch some...

832
00:55:46,477 --> 00:55:48,844
some big calving events.

833
00:55:48,846 --> 00:55:52,781
You know, kilometer wide pieces of ice coming

834
00:55:52,783 --> 00:55:56,819
of this massive, massive, glacier.

835
00:55:59,155 --> 00:56:00,622
The Ilulissat glacier in Greenland is kind

836
00:56:00,624 --> 00:56:02,358
of-- like the mother
of all glaciers.

837
00:56:02,360 --> 00:56:04,460
It is the most productive glacier

838
00:56:04,462 --> 00:56:05,861
in the Norther Hemisphere.

839
00:56:05,863 --> 00:56:08,831
It's rumored that this is the
glacier that put out the iceberg

840
00:56:08,833 --> 00:56:09,732
that sank the titanic.

841
00:56:09,734 --> 00:56:13,936
It flows at 130 feet every day.

842
00:56:18,375 --> 00:56:24,346
This is a really, really huge fjord of ice,

843
00:56:24,348 --> 00:56:33,122
and it's about five miles wide.

844
00:56:34,424 --> 00:56:37,226
That is massive.

845
00:56:37,228 --> 00:56:39,561
I totally lost him.

846
00:56:39,563 --> 00:56:40,929
You see him still?

847
00:56:40,931 --> 00:56:42,231
He's going--
he's, he's about to turn on go

848
00:56:42,233 --> 00:56:44,066
in front of the peninsula
that we think's going to go.

849
00:56:44,068 --> 00:56:45,134
Oh, I see him.

850
00:56:45,136 --> 00:56:47,736
He's at the base of it.

851
00:56:55,678 --> 00:56:57,112
What's up?

852
00:56:57,114 --> 00:56:59,648
My boots are frozen.

853
00:56:59,650 --> 00:57:01,116
And I'm really tired.

854
00:57:01,118 --> 00:57:04,520
And nothing happens.

855
00:57:04,522 --> 00:57:08,891
For days and days and days.

856
00:57:08,893 --> 00:57:10,759
We called it glacier watching.

857
00:57:10,761 --> 00:57:12,194
Because literally, it was just,

858
00:57:12,196 --> 00:57:17,699
me and Adam, for three weeks, watching ice.

859
00:57:31,314 --> 00:57:33,148
Photography
for me has been--

860
00:57:33,150 --> 00:57:37,052
as much as anything-- about
a raising of awareness.

861
00:57:37,054 --> 00:57:39,988
Through that camera, you
know, we become vehicles

862
00:57:39,990 --> 00:57:43,959
to raise awareness outside my own experience.

863
00:57:43,961 --> 00:57:50,365
And in this case, we're the messengers.

864
00:58:02,879 --> 00:58:03,846
He is a visionary,

865
00:58:03,848 --> 00:58:06,782
and his works are like sacred objects.

866
00:58:06,784 --> 00:58:08,217
I present James Balog.

867
00:58:08,219 --> 00:58:12,454
Thank you so much.

868
00:58:12,456 --> 00:58:14,623
Can we dim the house lights a little bit more?

869
00:58:14,625 --> 00:58:16,024
That's it, better.

870
00:58:16,026 --> 00:58:19,161
Okay. What I'm here
to do tonight is bring

871
00:58:19,163 --> 00:58:23,298
to you tangible, visual
evidence of the immediacy

872
00:58:23,300 --> 00:58:25,300
of climate change itself.

873
00:58:25,302 --> 00:58:28,303
Glaciers matter because they're the canary

874
00:58:28,305 --> 00:58:29,671
in the global coal mine.

875
00:58:29,673 --> 00:58:32,040
It's the place where you can
see climate change happening.

876
00:58:32,042 --> 00:58:33,909
And without further adieu,

877
00:58:33,911 --> 00:58:36,445
let me tell you what we've
been seeing out there.

878
00:58:36,447 --> 00:58:39,114
This is a glacier called the Solheim Glacier,

879
00:58:39,116 --> 00:58:40,148
we're looking down on it.

880
00:58:40,150 --> 00:58:44,019
Now we turn on our time lapse.

881
00:58:52,529 --> 00:58:54,096
You can see the terminus retreating,

882
00:58:54,098 --> 00:58:55,731
you can see this river being formed,

883
00:58:55,733 --> 00:58:59,801
you can see it deflating.

884
00:58:59,803 --> 00:59:02,337
You go back a couple years, in time...

885
00:59:02,339 --> 00:59:03,338
That's where it started.

886
00:59:03,340 --> 00:59:06,842
That's where it ended a few months ago.

887
00:59:06,844 --> 00:59:11,013
Now down onto the side of the glacier,

888
00:59:11,015 --> 00:59:16,518
looking across the terminus.

889
00:59:16,520 --> 00:59:17,252
This is what we see.

890
00:59:17,254 --> 00:59:18,253
Look at this.

891
00:59:18,255 --> 00:59:19,688
You'll see deflation happening here

892
00:59:19,690 --> 00:59:21,323
as heat takes away the surface

893
00:59:21,325 --> 00:59:23,158
of the glacier, the surface drops.

894
00:59:23,160 --> 00:59:25,928
At the same time, a stream is undercutting it

895
00:59:25,930 --> 00:59:28,430
from a glacier that's melting faster up valley,

896
00:59:28,432 --> 00:59:31,032
washing this thing away.

897
00:59:40,343 --> 00:59:44,446
The vast majority of glaciers
in the world are retreating.

898
00:59:44,448 --> 00:59:47,149
Glacier National Park
Montana will need a new name.

899
00:59:47,151 --> 00:59:50,152
We'll be calling it glacier-less
national park by the middle

900
00:59:50,154 --> 00:59:54,122
of the century because all
the glaciers will be gone.

901
00:59:54,124 --> 00:59:56,525
There's such a strange, bizarre fascination

902
00:59:56,527 --> 00:59:58,961
in seeing these things you don't normally get

903
00:59:58,963 --> 01:00:01,897
to see-- - come alive.

904
01:00:08,972 --> 01:00:12,207
We're up at the Columbia glacier
in Alaska, this is a view

905
01:00:12,209 --> 01:00:13,442
of what's called a calving face.

906
01:00:13,444 --> 01:00:15,677
This is what one of our cameras saw

907
01:00:15,679 --> 01:00:22,618
over a course of a few months.

908
01:00:22,620 --> 01:00:25,654
The action at Columbia is in part,

909
01:00:25,656 --> 01:00:27,289
due to local glacier dynamics

910
01:00:27,291 --> 01:00:31,627
and in part due to climate change.

911
01:00:31,629 --> 01:00:33,428
Here's another time-laps
shot of Columbia.

912
01:00:33,430 --> 01:00:36,965
And everybody says well don't
they advance in the wintertime?

913
01:00:36,967 --> 01:00:38,767
No, it was retreating through the winter

914
01:00:38,769 --> 01:00:41,136
because it's an unhealthy glacier.

915
01:00:41,138 --> 01:00:46,174
We realized it was retreating
so far we had to turn the camera

916
01:00:46,176 --> 01:00:47,809
up stream to follow the retreat.

917
01:00:47,811 --> 01:00:50,811
Then, we had to pivot it again.

918
01:01:05,261 --> 01:01:08,363
And then, when we went back
this past August, it was so far

919
01:01:08,365 --> 01:01:11,066
out of frame we had to turn
the camera one more time

920
01:01:11,068 --> 01:01:14,970
so that we could still see the glacier.

921
01:01:21,477 --> 01:01:23,912
So that's where we started three
years ago way out on the left,

922
01:01:23,914 --> 01:01:26,248
that's where we were a few
months ago last time we were

923
01:01:26,250 --> 01:01:30,018
into Columbia.

924
01:01:46,335 --> 01:01:47,335
We're going to have

925
01:01:47,337 --> 01:01:50,138
to collapse it ---
put rocks over it.

926
01:01:50,140 --> 01:01:51,239
It's ripping too.

927
01:01:51,241 --> 01:01:54,476
We got to collapse it now.

928
01:02:01,084 --> 01:02:03,151
James Balog is documenting the melting

929
01:02:03,153 --> 01:02:05,120
of glaciers around the world.

930
01:02:05,122 --> 01:02:08,190
The most visible manifestations
of climate change on the planet.

931
01:02:08,192 --> 01:02:12,194
And he's making it possible
for scientists to watch too.

932
01:02:12,196 --> 01:02:13,562
James Balog is founder

933
01:02:13,564 --> 01:02:16,031
and director of the Extreme
Ice Survey he's joining us now

934
01:02:16,033 --> 01:02:17,933
from Denver, James, thanks for being with us.

935
01:02:17,935 --> 01:02:19,267
My pleasure, thank you.

936
01:02:19,269 --> 01:02:21,069
BRIAN WILLIAMS We'll also have
more on our special report

937
01:02:21,071 --> 01:02:24,039
on a man who lets his pictures do the talking

938
01:02:24,041 --> 01:02:26,174
As a photographer, it's exciting

939
01:02:26,176 --> 01:02:28,677
to see this stuff, but as
a citizen of the world,

940
01:02:28,679 --> 01:02:30,378
you go, this is horrible.

941
01:02:30,380 --> 01:02:31,980
And consider who NASA is sending

942
01:02:31,982 --> 01:02:34,916
as a delegate to the climate
change summit in Copenhagen.

943
01:02:34,918 --> 01:02:38,820
Jim Balog, a photographer with
the group Extreme Ice Survey.

944
01:02:38,822 --> 01:02:39,988
Prior to '06--

945
01:02:39,990 --> 01:02:42,958
This glacier had retreated 10, 11 miles.

946
01:02:42,960 --> 01:02:46,261
And, now we've added just in the past few years,

947
01:02:46,263 --> 01:02:48,964
another two and a half miles.

948
01:02:48,966 --> 01:02:50,065
One of the things you often hear

949
01:02:50,067 --> 01:02:52,000
in the debate about glacier change is

950
01:02:52,002 --> 01:02:53,635
that there are glaciers around the world

951
01:02:53,637 --> 01:02:55,003
which are also getting bigger

952
01:02:55,005 --> 01:02:57,205
and advancing, so, how can that be?

953
01:02:57,207 --> 01:03:01,376
How can that be a response
to a global warming signal?

954
01:03:01,378 --> 01:03:03,812
What we've done recently on the
Yukon territory in Canada ---

955
01:03:03,814 --> 01:03:08,049
where we looked at the change in
glacier area from 1958 to 2008.

956
01:03:08,051 --> 01:03:11,720
And what we found was, of the
1,400 glaciers that were there

957
01:03:11,722 --> 01:03:14,856
in 1958, four got bigger.

958
01:03:14,858 --> 01:03:19,261
Over 300 disappeared completely, and almost all

959
01:03:19,263 --> 01:03:21,930
of the rest got smaller.

960
01:03:21,932 --> 01:03:24,766
Yes, there is a component of natural variability

961
01:03:24,768 --> 01:03:28,904
in the climate change we
observe, but, it's not enough

962
01:03:28,906 --> 01:03:31,206
to explain the full signal.

963
01:03:31,208 --> 01:03:33,975
So there has to be a
greenhouse gas element to it.

964
01:03:33,977 --> 01:03:37,712
Up to the Ilulissat Glacier calving face.

965
01:03:37,714 --> 01:03:40,148
A little helicopter is shown for scale.

966
01:03:40,150 --> 01:03:43,151
The Atlantic Ocean is on
the left side of the frame,

967
01:03:43,153 --> 01:03:44,853
covered with icebergs so thick,

968
01:03:44,855 --> 01:03:52,561
that you could walk across the ocean...

969
01:03:53,696 --> 01:03:55,230
I'm on the phone with Jim,

970
01:03:55,232 --> 01:03:59,668
on one of our regular check-ins,
Jim, just, nothing's happening.

971
01:03:59,670 --> 01:04:01,870
Hey Jim!

972
01:04:01,872 --> 01:04:03,238
Uh... it's going well.

973
01:04:03,240 --> 01:04:06,508
We had some serious bouts of wind.

974
01:04:06,510 --> 01:04:11,947
But other than that, things
are fairly well set up here.

975
01:04:11,949 --> 01:04:14,015
We've got some continuous time lapse going.

976
01:04:14,017 --> 01:04:14,850
It's starting Adam, I think.

977
01:04:14,852 --> 01:04:15,884
Adam it's starting.

978
01:04:15,886 --> 01:04:16,818
Oh wait, Jim, Jim...

979
01:04:16,820 --> 01:04:19,254
The big piece is starting to calve.

980
01:04:19,256 --> 01:04:20,722
Let me call you back.

981
01:04:20,724 --> 01:04:22,490
Call him back.

982
01:04:22,492 --> 01:04:23,925
Okay.
Bye.

983
01:04:23,927 --> 01:04:26,428
Is it still going?

984
01:04:26,430 --> 01:04:27,262
Yeah.

985
01:04:27,264 --> 01:04:29,431
In that V-section right there.

986
01:04:31,067 --> 01:04:34,536
Holy shit, look at that big berg rolling.

987
01:04:34,538 --> 01:04:35,937
All four are running, right?

988
01:04:35,939 --> 01:04:38,139
Yeah...
Look at that!

989
01:04:41,210 --> 01:04:42,277
Do you see how...

990
01:04:42,279 --> 01:04:44,312
look at the whole thing!

991
01:06:20,077 --> 01:06:24,145
The calving face was 300
sometimes 400 feet tall.

992
01:06:24,147 --> 01:06:25,246
Pieces of ice were shooting

993
01:06:25,248 --> 01:06:29,050
out of the ocean 600 feet and then falling.

994
01:06:29,052 --> 01:06:38,159
The only way you can try to put it into scale

995
01:06:39,428 --> 01:06:43,331
with human reference is
if you imagine Manhattan.

996
01:06:43,333 --> 01:06:47,068
All the sudden, all those
buildings just start to rumble

997
01:06:47,070 --> 01:06:50,071
and quake and peel off and just fall over,

998
01:06:50,073 --> 01:06:52,273
fall over and roll around.

999
01:06:53,376 --> 01:06:57,245
This whole massive city, just breaking apart

1000
01:06:57,247 --> 01:06:59,847
in front of your eyes.

1001
01:07:08,491 --> 01:07:09,624
We're just observers.

1002
01:07:09,626 --> 01:07:12,694
These two little dots on
the side of the mountain

1003
01:07:12,696 --> 01:07:16,197
and we watched and recorded the largest,

1004
01:07:16,199 --> 01:07:19,901
witnessed calving event ever caught on tape.

1005
01:07:23,305 --> 01:07:25,440
So how big was this calving event

1006
01:07:25,442 --> 01:07:26,508
that we just looked at?

1007
01:07:26,510 --> 01:07:28,243
We'll resort to some illustrations again

1008
01:07:28,245 --> 01:07:29,577
to give you a sense of scale.

1009
01:07:29,579 --> 01:07:37,452
It's as if the entire lower
tip of Manhattan broke off,

1010
01:07:37,454 --> 01:07:41,856
except that, the thickness--
the height of it-- is equivalent

1011
01:07:41,858 --> 01:07:43,425
to buildings that are two and a half

1012
01:07:43,427 --> 01:07:52,500
or three times higher than they are.

1013
01:08:01,110 --> 01:08:05,346
That's a magical, miraculous,
horrible, scary thing.

1014
01:08:05,348 --> 01:08:08,917
I don't know that anybody's
really seen the miracle

1015
01:08:08,919 --> 01:08:13,755
and horror of that.

1016
01:08:13,757 --> 01:08:15,423
It took a hundred years for it

1017
01:08:15,425 --> 01:08:19,094
to retreat eight miles from 1900 to 2000.

1018
01:08:19,096 --> 01:08:22,931
From 2000 to 2010, it retreated nine miles.

1019
01:08:22,933 --> 01:08:25,333
So in 10 years, it retreated more

1020
01:08:25,335 --> 01:08:29,938
than it had in the previous 100.

1021
01:08:29,940 --> 01:08:31,139
It's real.

1022
01:08:31,141 --> 01:08:33,608
The changes are happening;
they're very visible,

1023
01:08:33,610 --> 01:08:36,211
they're photographable, they're measurable.

1024
01:08:36,213 --> 01:08:39,848
There's no significant
scientific dispute about that.

1025
01:08:39,850 --> 01:08:42,684
And the great irony and tragedy
of our time is that a lot

1026
01:08:42,686 --> 01:08:44,018
of the general public thinks

1027
01:08:44,020 --> 01:08:46,554
that science is still arguing about that.

1028
01:08:46,556 --> 01:08:48,323
Science is not arguing about that.

1029
01:08:48,325 --> 01:08:50,525
One of the really troubling things

1030
01:08:50,527 --> 01:08:54,062
about climate change is that almost all

1031
01:08:54,064 --> 01:08:57,699
of the world's prestigious
climatologist are much more

1032
01:08:57,701 --> 01:09:00,268
frightened about all this than the public is.

1033
01:09:00,270 --> 01:09:03,438
People have a hard time understanding

1034
01:09:03,440 --> 01:09:05,940
when we talk about climate change.

1035
01:09:05,942 --> 01:09:09,210
What for me is so powerful
and actually unprecedented

1036
01:09:09,212 --> 01:09:12,981
in the work that he is doing,
is visualizing the change

1037
01:09:12,983 --> 01:09:19,187
that allows us to actually see
what was and what is become.

1038
01:09:19,189 --> 01:09:21,990
I actually saw his work last spring

1039
01:09:21,992 --> 01:09:25,894
and that kind of changed my
life in the sense that I had

1040
01:09:25,896 --> 01:09:29,030
to quit what I was doing,
which was working for Shell,

1041
01:09:29,032 --> 01:09:35,103
and get involved in this debate
in a much more profound way.

1042
01:09:35,105 --> 01:09:36,604
The Extreme Ice Survey will go

1043
01:09:36,606 --> 01:09:40,108
down in history as this is the evidence

1044
01:09:40,110 --> 01:09:44,045
that we knew what was going on.

1045
01:09:44,047 --> 01:09:46,647
You can't deny it!

1046
01:09:51,922 --> 01:09:54,022
We don't have a problem with economics,

1047
01:09:54,024 --> 01:09:56,157
technology and public policy.

1048
01:09:56,159 --> 01:09:57,992
We have a problem with perception.

1049
01:09:57,994 --> 01:10:01,129
Because not enough people really get it yet.

1050
01:10:01,131 --> 01:10:03,565
I believe we really have
an opportunity right now.

1051
01:10:03,567 --> 01:10:06,234
We are nearly on the edge of a crisis,

1052
01:10:06,236 --> 01:10:10,605
but we still have an opportunity
to face the greatest challenge

1053
01:10:10,607 --> 01:10:13,308
of our generation, and in fact, of our century.

1054
01:10:13,310 --> 01:10:15,810
Thank you.

1055
01:10:41,337 --> 01:10:45,273
When my daughters, Simone and
Emily, look at me 25 or 30 years

1056
01:10:45,275 --> 01:10:50,211
from now and say, what were
you doing when, when...

1057
01:10:50,213 --> 01:10:51,779
global warming was happening

1058
01:10:51,781 --> 01:10:54,682
and you guys knew what was coming down the road.

1059
01:10:54,684 --> 01:10:56,384
I want to be able to say, guys,

1060
01:10:56,386 --> 01:10:59,454
I was doing everything I knew how to do.