WEBVTT - Polar Past, Present, and Future 0:00:02.120 --> 0:00:04.040 The Quest for the North Pole is a production of 0:00:04.040 --> 0:00:16.880 I Heart Radio and mental flaws. It's late morning on 0:00:16.920 --> 0:00:20.079 the polar ice when Eric Larson unzips his tent to 0:00:20.160 --> 0:00:24.960 find white out conditions obscuring everything from view. He's had 0:00:25.079 --> 0:00:29.720 just a few hours of sleep and he's still overslept. Today, 0:00:29.800 --> 0:00:33.480 he and his expedition partner, Ryan Waters are making their 0:00:33.520 --> 0:00:37.520 final push to the North Pole, less than four miles away. 0:00:38.240 --> 0:00:40.680 But the whipping wind is pushing the big ice flow 0:00:40.680 --> 0:00:44.080 where they set up camp southward, and every moment counts. 0:00:45.320 --> 0:00:48.360 At this point, the two veteran adventurers have spent fifty 0:00:48.400 --> 0:00:51.960 three days inching across the Arctic Sea ice, and today 0:00:51.960 --> 0:00:55.240 will be another slog through slushy leads and over hummocks. 0:00:56.520 --> 0:00:59.680 When they began planning this expedition, they expected it to 0:00:59.680 --> 0:01:03.200 be treacheras that was the point they wanted to show 0:01:03.200 --> 0:01:06.480 the world how climate change was already wreaking havoc on 0:01:06.520 --> 0:01:09.840 the North Pole. In fact, they're calling this the Last 0:01:09.920 --> 0:01:14.120 North Expedition. They predict that their method of reaching the 0:01:14.160 --> 0:01:20.880 Pole on foot will soon be impossible. Now it's the 0:01:21.040 --> 0:01:25.479 ice groans beneath them. They have to fight to gain 0:01:25.560 --> 0:01:28.880 ground in a landscape that wants to undermine their every step. 0:01:29.760 --> 0:01:33.440 The roaring wind pushes ice flows apart, revealing open water. 0:01:34.720 --> 0:01:36.440 If they're going to make it to the North Pole, 0:01:36.520 --> 0:01:39.240 they'll need to down their dry suits, jump in and 0:01:39.319 --> 0:01:46.279 start swimming. After eight hours, they're almost there. Larson whips 0:01:46.280 --> 0:01:49.440 out his camera waters begins to count down the meters. 0:01:50.960 --> 0:01:53.920 At last, the GPS shows the coordinates the two men 0:01:54.000 --> 0:01:58.440 have been longing to see, ninety degrees north. There's no 0:01:58.600 --> 0:02:02.040 flag waiting to greet them, no plaque denoting what is, 0:02:02.120 --> 0:02:05.400 to some explorers the most sought after spot on the map, 0:02:06.200 --> 0:02:09.240 just wind and ice and the knowledge that they may 0:02:09.280 --> 0:02:11.960 be the last two people to ever reach the North 0:02:12.000 --> 0:02:16.040 Pole this way. Once secure in their tent, they tuck 0:02:16.120 --> 0:02:19.200 into a tube of prinkles before indulging in a celebratory 0:02:19.240 --> 0:02:23.160 meal and sleeping for a solid thirty six hours. By 0:02:23.200 --> 0:02:26.040 the time they wake up, the ice has already drifted 0:02:26.120 --> 0:02:30.360 nine miles south. The North Pole, the place at the 0:02:30.400 --> 0:02:33.119 top of the World Bay and so many before them 0:02:33.160 --> 0:02:36.359 have battled to see, is once again out of reach. 0:02:38.080 --> 0:02:41.679 One hundred and twelve years after Perry and Henson allegedly 0:02:41.760 --> 0:02:44.959 laid claim to the pole and fifty three years after 0:02:45.080 --> 0:02:49.280 Ralph Pleistad drove a snowmobile to ninety degrees north. Where 0:02:49.320 --> 0:02:52.800 does the legacy of North Pole exploration fit into our world? 0:02:53.840 --> 0:02:56.800 And would the explorers of the past even recognize the 0:02:56.880 --> 0:03:13.520 Arctic today? We're about to find out from Mental Floss 0:03:13.520 --> 0:03:15.800 and I Heart Radio. This is the Quest for the 0:03:15.840 --> 0:03:19.840 North Pole. I'm your host Cat Long, science editor at 0:03:19.880 --> 0:03:33.200 Mental Floss, and this is our final episode the North Pole. Today. 0:03:35.400 --> 0:03:37.920 There is a real irony about our knowledge of the 0:03:37.960 --> 0:03:42.160 North Pole. People have spent more than four centuries attempting 0:03:42.160 --> 0:03:44.119 to get to the Pole to observe what was there. 0:03:45.000 --> 0:03:48.840 They faced incredibly difficult journeys through ice choked seas and 0:03:49.000 --> 0:03:53.400 over lands carved by massive glaciers. By the time they 0:03:53.400 --> 0:03:56.520 got close in the twentieth century, it was already changing 0:03:56.640 --> 0:04:01.720 dramatically because of human activity. Our idea of the North 0:04:01.760 --> 0:04:05.320 Pole as observed by the most daring explorers and history 0:04:05.880 --> 0:04:09.880 became obsolete and fewer than one hundred years and today, 0:04:10.000 --> 0:04:14.400 global warming is changing the Arctic in every way. The 0:04:14.480 --> 0:04:20.560 impacts of climate change are evident in its geography. It's oceans, lands, animals, 0:04:20.600 --> 0:04:24.560 and people. In our first episode, we said that an 0:04:24.560 --> 0:04:28.040 important goal of early Arctic exploration was to locate the 0:04:28.040 --> 0:04:32.400 magnetic north Pole. We always knew that the geographic north 0:04:32.440 --> 0:04:36.000 pole was at ninety degrees north latitude. That's just the 0:04:36.040 --> 0:04:39.359 spot on the map where all the meridians of longitude converge. 0:04:40.440 --> 0:04:43.880 But the magnetic north Pole is a different beast. Its 0:04:43.880 --> 0:04:48.320 location affects navigational instruments, and when explorers didn't know where 0:04:48.320 --> 0:04:52.400 the magnetic pole was, their navigational readings could be way off. 0:04:53.560 --> 0:04:56.880 During British explorer John Ross's four year odyssey in the 0:04:56.920 --> 0:05:01.960 Northwest Passage from eighteen thirty three, in the ship Victory, 0:05:02.320 --> 0:05:05.800 his nephew and crew member James Clark, Ross walked all 0:05:05.839 --> 0:05:10.320 over Boothia Peninsula looking for the magnetic north Pole. He 0:05:10.400 --> 0:05:13.560 carried a compass with a dipping needle, an instrument that 0:05:13.640 --> 0:05:17.359 responded to the proximity of magnetic north by pointing downward. 0:05:18.400 --> 0:05:21.400 Near Cape Adelaide, on the western edge of the peninsula, 0:05:22.200 --> 0:05:25.159 Ross saw the needle point straight down to the earth 0:05:25.839 --> 0:05:31.799 magnetic ground zero. The coordinates were approximately seventy degrees five 0:05:31.839 --> 0:05:36.120 minutes north ninety six degrees forty six minutes west, more 0:05:36.160 --> 0:05:39.960 than a thousand nautical miles south. Of the geographic North Pole, 0:05:41.160 --> 0:05:44.080 but the coordinates for the magnetic North Pole aren't set 0:05:44.080 --> 0:05:48.800 in stone or an ice. As of its coordinates were 0:05:48.839 --> 0:05:52.360 eighty six point five degrees north and one d sixty 0:05:52.360 --> 0:05:56.359 four point zero four degrees east, hundreds of nautical miles 0:05:56.400 --> 0:05:59.440 north of where it was when James Clark Ross discovered it. 0:06:01.240 --> 0:06:04.719 This change isn't unusual, because, as we mentioned in episode one, 0:06:05.160 --> 0:06:09.479 the location of magnetic north has always fluctuated. In the 0:06:09.520 --> 0:06:13.200 mid twentieth century, the magnetic North Pole shifted around nine 0:06:13.200 --> 0:06:17.400 miles per year, but in recent years it's changed much 0:06:17.400 --> 0:06:21.839 more rapidly. As of the early adds, magnetic North was 0:06:21.920 --> 0:06:26.440 galloping about thirty four miles per year. The Arctic is 0:06:26.520 --> 0:06:32.640 changing rapidly in more noticeable ways. On June, the temperature 0:06:32.680 --> 0:06:36.480 in the Siberian village of Verryansk hit one hundred point 0:06:36.520 --> 0:06:41.159 four degrees fahrenheit, about thirty degrees above normal. This was 0:06:41.200 --> 0:06:45.760 reportedly the hottest temperature ever recorded inside the Arctic Circle, 0:06:46.080 --> 0:06:49.840 and it was part of a larger trend. The Arctic 0:06:49.920 --> 0:06:54.680 is the warmest it's been in three million years. The 0:06:54.800 --> 0:06:57.839 region has warmed around two times faster than the rest 0:06:57.880 --> 0:07:02.080 of Earth. In the temperature was at least one point 0:07:02.160 --> 0:07:06.240 eight degrees fahrenheit above average in nine out of ten years. 0:07:07.960 --> 0:07:10.280 This may seem like a small amount, but it has 0:07:10.400 --> 0:07:16.119 massive consequences. It's forcing the region into a positive feedback loop, which, 0:07:16.240 --> 0:07:20.320 despite how it sounds, is actually a negative thing. Usually 0:07:20.440 --> 0:07:23.440 sea ice reflects up to eight of the sunlight that 0:07:23.520 --> 0:07:27.920 strikes it. But as the Arctic warms, ice is replaced 0:07:27.960 --> 0:07:32.160 by dark open water, which absorbs light and heat, and 0:07:32.240 --> 0:07:34.960 as that open water sucks in more heat from the sun, 0:07:35.400 --> 0:07:40.120 more ice melts, and the scary cycle continues. Over the 0:07:40.160 --> 0:07:42.280 course of hundreds of years, or you know, the hundreds 0:07:42.320 --> 0:07:45.680 of years of this podcast covers, the Arctic has definitely 0:07:45.960 --> 0:07:51.040 undergone fluctuations. There's been cold periods and warm periods. There's 0:07:51.160 --> 0:07:54.320 there's variability in the system, meaning some years are colder 0:07:54.320 --> 0:07:58.640 and summer warmer. That's Kristin Lydra a marine biologist at 0:07:58.680 --> 0:08:02.920 the University of Washington. She's been studying Arctic marine mammals 0:08:02.960 --> 0:08:06.400 around Greenland for about twenty years, looking at how mammal 0:08:06.440 --> 0:08:10.320 populations are adapting to climate change. But what we really 0:08:10.400 --> 0:08:13.360 started seeing in the nineteen hundreds, and you know, at 0:08:13.360 --> 0:08:17.120 the start of industry and and kind of human activity. 0:08:17.120 --> 0:08:21.240 Basically releasing greenhouse gases into the atmosphere is a distinct 0:08:21.800 --> 0:08:25.760 warming trend, and the unidirectional warming trend that is is 0:08:25.800 --> 0:08:30.360 caused by humans, so basically anthropogenic climate warming, and we've 0:08:30.360 --> 0:08:34.200 seen that really manifests itself very strongly. In the Arctic. 0:08:34.600 --> 0:08:38.400 The warming trends are are amplified. The Arctic is warming 0:08:38.640 --> 0:08:41.440 twice as fast as the rest of the planet, and 0:08:41.559 --> 0:08:43.480 you know, big part of that is because the Arctic 0:08:43.600 --> 0:08:46.320 is covered in in sea ice and not sea ice 0:08:46.440 --> 0:08:49.360 is smelting and breaking up early and really just changing 0:08:49.400 --> 0:08:52.680 the whole system for animals and for people that live there. 0:08:54.160 --> 0:08:57.640 Record high tempts have also led to record low snow cover, 0:08:58.120 --> 0:09:02.600 and that increases the risk for whild fires. Wildfire season 0:09:02.679 --> 0:09:06.800 also kicked off earlier than usual. The blazes might have 0:09:06.920 --> 0:09:11.200 been triggered by so called zombie fires, which are fires 0:09:11.200 --> 0:09:14.120 that's smolder in the dense layer of pete underneath the 0:09:14.160 --> 0:09:17.520 snow and ice. Pete lands happened to be the world's 0:09:17.559 --> 0:09:22.679 most important terrestrial ecosystem for carbon storage, and when they burn, 0:09:22.960 --> 0:09:27.520 tons of greenhouse gases are released into our atmosphere. Higher 0:09:27.520 --> 0:09:32.079 attempts are melting permafrost too. While this sometimes reveals cool 0:09:32.160 --> 0:09:36.520 fossils like mammoth bones, it also releases a ridiculous amount 0:09:36.559 --> 0:09:40.000 of carbon and methane, not to mention super bad stuff 0:09:40.040 --> 0:09:45.400 like anthrax, infectious viruses, and other dangerous microbes. And when 0:09:45.440 --> 0:09:49.120 permafrost becomes unstable, the ground doesn't hold together as well. 0:09:49.960 --> 0:09:54.440 Along Alaska's coast, the equivalent of thirty football fields of 0:09:54.559 --> 0:09:59.920 land disappear each year due to erosion. Though past explorer 0:10:00.120 --> 0:10:03.920 would definitely have appreciated less ice in their way, climate 0:10:03.960 --> 0:10:06.640 scientists cite the decrease in sea ice as one of 0:10:06.679 --> 0:10:10.760 the most worrying changes in the Arctic today. In two 0:10:10.760 --> 0:10:15.480 thousand seven, after a century of steadily warming temperatures, the 0:10:15.600 --> 0:10:20.200 Northwest Passage was completely ice free in summer for the 0:10:20.360 --> 0:10:24.720 first time in recorded history. The years since then have 0:10:24.840 --> 0:10:29.240 also seen ice free summers, and justice past February, a 0:10:29.280 --> 0:10:34.439 commercial ship successfully made a midwinter voyage across the Northeast 0:10:34.480 --> 0:10:38.319 Passage that winds around Russia and China, the same route 0:10:38.320 --> 0:10:43.720 that defeated William Barrens in the sixteenth century. Here's Andrea Pitzer, 0:10:43.920 --> 0:10:46.760 author of Ice Bound Shipwrecked at the Edge of the World, 0:10:47.080 --> 0:10:51.720 which tells the story of Barrens's three voyages. In she 0:10:51.800 --> 0:10:55.160 retraced Barrens's steps to his hut on Nova Zembla, where 0:10:55.160 --> 0:10:57.240 he and his men were forced to spend the winter 0:10:57.360 --> 0:11:01.880 in fifteen nine. When I sailed this in August, I 0:11:02.000 --> 0:11:04.520 faced no ice at all. We would get to some glaciers, 0:11:04.520 --> 0:11:06.679 but there were not icebergs floating out in the water. 0:11:07.400 --> 0:11:10.480 But within a week of when I was there is 0:11:10.520 --> 0:11:13.080 when they were frozen in more than four years ago. 0:11:13.360 --> 0:11:16.240 So that tells you that the entire terrain was ice. 0:11:16.840 --> 0:11:20.240 And now there was literally no ice in that region 0:11:20.480 --> 0:11:24.120 in August. Now they'll still be ice in the winter, 0:11:24.640 --> 0:11:25.920 and there'll be a lot of ice, and it will 0:11:25.960 --> 0:11:28.240 still be really difficult to navigate a lot of places. 0:11:28.600 --> 0:11:31.800 But there is an expectation that we will actually see 0:11:32.440 --> 0:11:34.079 an ice free North Pole a part of the year, 0:11:34.120 --> 0:11:37.360 which is really just staggering to think about. And I 0:11:37.600 --> 0:11:40.360 say in the book that this open polar see that 0:11:40.440 --> 0:11:44.839 Barns imagined came to exist. He just sailed four years 0:11:44.880 --> 0:11:49.559 too soon. In the best case scenarios, ice made navigation 0:11:49.679 --> 0:11:53.240 difficult for explorers of the past. In the worst cases, 0:11:53.640 --> 0:11:56.800 see ice would bash into their ships squeeze them until 0:11:56.840 --> 0:12:01.319 they sank or surround them in a solid mass. This 0:12:01.400 --> 0:12:03.920 might be less of an issue today because the sea 0:12:03.960 --> 0:12:08.800 ice extent, which the United States Environmental Protection Agency defines 0:12:08.920 --> 0:12:12.360 as the area of ocean where at least fifteen percent 0:12:12.360 --> 0:12:17.920 of the surfaces frozen, is dwindling. Those satellites have been 0:12:17.920 --> 0:12:22.040 tracking the conditions only since nineteen seventy nine. Century old 0:12:22.080 --> 0:12:24.680 ships log books reveal the sea ice used to be 0:12:24.800 --> 0:12:30.160 much more extensive. Satellites have captured drastic changes in the 0:12:30.240 --> 0:12:33.920 sea ice minimum. That's the point usually at the end 0:12:33.920 --> 0:12:37.440 of the summer when sea ice covers the smallest area 0:12:37.559 --> 0:12:41.600 for the whole year. Since nineteen seventy nine, its minimum 0:12:41.640 --> 0:12:46.320 has decreased by roughly thirty two thousand square miles every decade, 0:12:47.600 --> 0:12:51.679 according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. That's an 0:12:51.720 --> 0:12:57.000 area roughly four times the size of Maine. The lowest 0:12:57.160 --> 0:13:02.840 sea ice minimum ever recorded happened in sept and was 0:13:02.880 --> 0:13:08.760 the second lowest no ice escapes this cycle. Take the 0:13:08.840 --> 0:13:13.360 gigantic slabs of paleocristic ice that George strong Naires observed 0:13:13.400 --> 0:13:18.160 on his attempt at the North Pole. In These huge 0:13:18.200 --> 0:13:21.360 masses are important for seals which make their burrows in 0:13:21.400 --> 0:13:24.559 the ice, and polar bears, which hunt the seals for food. 0:13:25.920 --> 0:13:29.480 A current called the Beaufort Gyre sends the oldest, thickest 0:13:29.520 --> 0:13:34.079 ice churning towards Canada and Greenland's northern shore. It forms 0:13:34.080 --> 0:13:38.640 a protective dam across the Nares Strait, blocking older ice 0:13:38.679 --> 0:13:42.720 from drifting south to warmer waters. It's what Nears thought 0:13:42.760 --> 0:13:46.959 would forever block explorers progress to the north. It's a 0:13:47.040 --> 0:13:50.400 nook took name is to vat, which translates to the 0:13:50.440 --> 0:13:54.880 place where the ice never melts. But warmer temps make 0:13:54.920 --> 0:13:58.640 the barrier weaker, and more of the paleocristic ice, which 0:13:58.640 --> 0:14:01.960 we once took for granted would be permanently frozen, is 0:14:02.120 --> 0:14:06.880 escaping from the narrow strait and melting away. As a result, 0:14:06.960 --> 0:14:09.160 the sea route to the Pole that Nares in the 0:14:09.200 --> 0:14:14.240 Alert and Discovery found completely blocked is more open today, 0:14:14.679 --> 0:14:17.280 and the ice that remains throughout the year is thinner 0:14:17.320 --> 0:14:21.080 and more vulnerable than in the past. The well trodden 0:14:21.160 --> 0:14:25.320 American route blazed by Charles Francis Hall, Alicia kent Kine 0:14:25.400 --> 0:14:29.680 and Robert Peary in the nineteenth century now looks completely different. 0:14:30.720 --> 0:14:34.160 Here's Susan Kaplan, a professor of anthropology and director of 0:14:34.200 --> 0:14:38.360 the Pierry McMillan Arctic Museum at Boden College. We had 0:14:38.400 --> 0:14:43.520 been working on the centennial of Peri's North Pole expeditions 0:14:43.760 --> 0:14:46.720 and had read so many of the journals, and so 0:14:47.120 --> 0:14:53.000 we secured National Science Foundation funding and went to the 0:14:53.160 --> 0:14:58.080 northeast coast of Ellesmere Island, a place called Cape Sheridan, 0:14:58.720 --> 0:15:02.440 where Peery in nineteen o five oh six and nineteen 0:15:02.520 --> 0:15:07.040 o eight oh nine had taken the S. S. Roosevelt, 0:15:07.120 --> 0:15:11.760 which was his expedition vessel, and frozen it into the 0:15:12.000 --> 0:15:16.280 ice off of Cape Sheridan. That part of Elsmere Island 0:15:16.720 --> 0:15:22.160 is really a polar desert. It's very very little plant life, 0:15:23.080 --> 0:15:28.640 very few animals. When we got there, the coast was 0:15:28.800 --> 0:15:34.240 just choked full of ice that was not moving. We 0:15:34.320 --> 0:15:39.360 saw one fox, We saw a few geese. We saw 0:15:39.960 --> 0:15:42.480 a number of seals. Although it occurred to us that 0:15:42.520 --> 0:15:45.280 it was just one seal we saw repeatedly it was. 0:15:45.720 --> 0:15:50.640 We saw some polar bear tracks and one musk box. 0:15:51.520 --> 0:15:55.040 Do you get the sense that the amount of ice 0:15:55.160 --> 0:15:57.600 and the temperature and that kind of thing was similar 0:15:57.640 --> 0:16:01.120 to what Perry might have experienced, or do you have 0:16:01.160 --> 0:16:03.480 a sense that perhaps there's less ice now than what 0:16:03.640 --> 0:16:07.440 he might have seen. There's definitely less ice than what 0:16:07.640 --> 0:16:12.960 he would have experienced. We flew from Resolute to Cape Sheridan. 0:16:13.480 --> 0:16:16.440 This amazing pilot landed us on on a beach ridge. 0:16:17.000 --> 0:16:21.680 But as we flew over of that part of the Arctic, 0:16:22.400 --> 0:16:27.280 you could just sea water pouring away off of glaciers 0:16:27.440 --> 0:16:32.200 and there was almost no sea ice. And the amount 0:16:32.240 --> 0:16:35.440 of sea ice in that part of the Arctic is 0:16:35.560 --> 0:16:41.600 greatly diminished, and the temperatures are higher. And we know 0:16:41.800 --> 0:16:47.200 this because Puri had some of his crew taking temperature 0:16:47.280 --> 0:16:50.160 readings two and three times a day, and so you 0:16:50.200 --> 0:16:54.760 can compare them to the contemporary readings, and it's a 0:16:54.840 --> 0:16:59.680 transformed Arctic. A consequence of less ice is that more 0:17:00.000 --> 0:17:04.280 tips have an easier time getting around the Arctic. Between 0:17:04.320 --> 0:17:09.639 and shipping along the Northeast passage increased fifty eight percent. 0:17:10.760 --> 0:17:14.080 Not only does this mean more noise, pollution and traffic, 0:17:14.720 --> 0:17:17.760 but also invasive species that hitch a ride on the ships, 0:17:18.200 --> 0:17:22.600 more efforts to extract Arctic natural resources, and even commercial cruises. 0:17:24.080 --> 0:17:29.280 In a cruise traversed the Northwest passage, allowing rich tourists 0:17:29.320 --> 0:17:32.679 to browse the same places that explorers had fought tooth 0:17:32.720 --> 0:17:36.720 and nail to reach in previous centuries. And some tour 0:17:36.800 --> 0:17:39.680 operators really know how to sell the romance of it all. 0:17:40.320 --> 0:17:44.800 Tourists are expecting a certain experience. That's p J. Cappellotti, 0:17:45.000 --> 0:17:48.119 author of the Greatest Show in the Arctic, The American 0:17:48.200 --> 0:17:53.800 Exploration of Francios off Land to five, which recounts expeditions 0:17:53.840 --> 0:17:57.240 to these islands and the Russian Arctic. When he visited 0:17:57.280 --> 0:18:01.080 Nonsen and Johansen's dugout shelter on francio of Land, he 0:18:01.160 --> 0:18:04.560 started photographing some walrus bones next to the hut, thinking 0:18:04.600 --> 0:18:08.639 they had been left behind by the explorers in and 0:18:09.160 --> 0:18:12.920 one of the Russian guides took me aside and said, oh, yeah, 0:18:12.960 --> 0:18:14.440 we put those there a couple of years ago. Because 0:18:14.440 --> 0:18:16.359 the tourists are really disappointed that there were no walrus 0:18:16.400 --> 0:18:20.399 bones on the site. It wasn't enough that you were 0:18:20.400 --> 0:18:22.480 seeing one of the most sacred sites in the history 0:18:22.520 --> 0:18:25.320 of Arctic exploration, you know, they had to dress it up. 0:18:26.560 --> 0:18:29.760 Before that famous expedition, Nonsen and his hardy band of 0:18:29.800 --> 0:18:33.760 Norwegian comrades crossed the Greenland ice sheet, the largest in 0:18:33.800 --> 0:18:37.040 the northern Hemisphere, from its east to west coast. In 0:18:39.280 --> 0:18:42.080 Robert Pierry and Matthew Henson traversed the ice sheet from 0:18:42.080 --> 0:18:48.040 west to east in in Peery's case, they barely made 0:18:48.040 --> 0:18:52.600 it back alive. That ice sheet is melting faster than 0:18:52.640 --> 0:18:57.080 it has in the last twelve thousand years. Today it's 0:18:57.119 --> 0:18:59.639 losing ice seven times faster than it did in the 0:18:59.720 --> 0:19:03.919 ninety nineties, and this trend goes way beyond the Arctic lands. 0:19:04.840 --> 0:19:12.080 Between and seventeen, Earth lost twenty eight trillion tons of ice. 0:19:13.359 --> 0:19:16.360 It is really difficult to imagine how much twenty eight 0:19:16.359 --> 0:19:20.280 trillion tons actually is, but here's an attempt at a comparison. 0:19:21.320 --> 0:19:25.800 In one of the largest icebergs ever recorded broke off 0:19:25.920 --> 0:19:30.119 from Antarctica. It weighed about one trillion tons and it 0:19:30.240 --> 0:19:35.359 was a size of Delaware. In the last decade, Earth 0:19:35.440 --> 0:19:41.800 has lost a Delaware sized massive ice each year. All 0:19:41.840 --> 0:19:45.160 that melting ice gets dumped into the ocean, raising sea 0:19:45.240 --> 0:19:50.080 levels around the world. Melt water pouring off Greenland's ice 0:19:50.119 --> 0:19:53.480 sheet is one of the largest contributors to rising sea levels. 0:19:54.280 --> 0:19:58.359 All that fresh cold water is altering ocean currents, the 0:19:58.400 --> 0:20:01.000 type of thing that nonsense second an expedition in the 0:20:01.040 --> 0:20:24.480 from was meant to study, We'll be right back. Climate 0:20:24.560 --> 0:20:27.959 change is having a major impact on Arctic flora and fauna, 0:20:28.760 --> 0:20:32.240 and what would Arctic literature be without encounters with potentially 0:20:32.320 --> 0:20:36.880 lethal wildlife. From the polar bears that stalked William Barrens 0:20:36.920 --> 0:20:40.159 and the castaways on Nova Zembla, to the walruses and 0:20:40.280 --> 0:20:43.080 our walls hunted for their tusks, to the musk ox 0:20:43.200 --> 0:20:49.679 that saved Peary and Henson from starvation. Arctic animals provided sustenance, clothing, shelter, 0:20:49.840 --> 0:20:53.960 and fuel for every generation of polar explorer and the 0:20:54.000 --> 0:20:58.440 Inuit whose entire cultures depend on them. But climate change 0:20:58.480 --> 0:21:03.680 is challenging the animals survived vol polar bears, those ferocious 0:21:03.680 --> 0:21:07.920 carnivores that menaced explorers, are more often portrayed as victims 0:21:07.960 --> 0:21:12.399 of climate change today. The image of an emaciated polar 0:21:12.400 --> 0:21:16.760 bear swimming great distances between chunks of sea ice, shaggy 0:21:16.840 --> 0:21:21.240 white fur draping from two prominent ribs is a staple 0:21:21.280 --> 0:21:28.800 of environmental activism. Some scientists estimate that almost all of 0:21:28.840 --> 0:21:34.040 the nineteen polar bear subpopulations across the Arctic could disappear 0:21:34.320 --> 0:21:39.280 by the end of this century. Polar bears depend on 0:21:39.359 --> 0:21:42.399 sea ice for hunting seals, their main source of food. 0:21:43.440 --> 0:21:45.800 The bears need the energy they store from the fat 0:21:45.880 --> 0:21:48.840 seals to be able to survive during times when food 0:21:48.880 --> 0:21:53.639 is scarce. As more and more ice disappears, the bears 0:21:53.640 --> 0:21:56.639 are forced to retreat onto land, where the meals are 0:21:56.720 --> 0:22:01.280 few and far between. Fewer foods RUSS means the animals 0:22:01.359 --> 0:22:04.320 must go longer without it, and that hurts their ability 0:22:04.400 --> 0:22:09.160 to reproduce and raise cubs. Walruses also needs the ice. 0:22:10.280 --> 0:22:13.439 It's important for their mating and when they're not hunting food, 0:22:13.920 --> 0:22:17.160 these one ton mammals lounge on it in huge groups, 0:22:17.200 --> 0:22:20.680 soaking up the Arctic sun. But if there aren't enough 0:22:20.720 --> 0:22:24.480 flows to go around, walruses have to swim farther to gather. 0:22:24.560 --> 0:22:29.600 In these groups called haulouts. On land, hundreds of walruses 0:22:29.680 --> 0:22:33.680 pile onto one spot, which is not ideal when most 0:22:33.760 --> 0:22:36.040 of the walruses have a pair of up to three 0:22:36.040 --> 0:22:40.320 foot tusks sticking out of their mouths. As anyone who's 0:22:40.359 --> 0:22:43.439 ever found themselves stuck in a mosh pit knows, this 0:22:43.520 --> 0:22:48.520 type of situation can get very dangerous very fast. Sometimes 0:22:48.560 --> 0:22:52.359 these land based haulouts become so large and unwieldy the 0:22:52.400 --> 0:22:57.800 walruses trample each other. All of these marine mammals are 0:22:57.840 --> 0:23:00.480 closely tied to the sea ice for all the functions 0:23:00.520 --> 0:23:04.879 of their lives, as Kristen Lydra explains, for example, the 0:23:04.920 --> 0:23:07.800 ice dependent species like the polar bear, all of the 0:23:07.800 --> 0:23:10.800 ice seals, which includes the walrus, all of those species 0:23:10.840 --> 0:23:13.720 need ice to live. And so when we see this 0:23:13.840 --> 0:23:18.240 climate warming in the Arctic happening and increasingly basically making 0:23:18.240 --> 0:23:20.879 that ice platform go away or making it break up early, 0:23:21.080 --> 0:23:23.800 we see negative effects on all of those species that 0:23:23.880 --> 0:23:27.520 require that platform for their life. So they don't have 0:23:27.600 --> 0:23:32.119 the kind of foundation for bear and young for example, exactly, 0:23:32.200 --> 0:23:34.000 I mean you know they need you know, in the 0:23:34.000 --> 0:23:36.840 case of ice seal, they need see ice to make 0:23:36.920 --> 0:23:39.680 their dens, which are called layers where they give birth. 0:23:39.840 --> 0:23:43.640 They need ice to basically sit on top and nurse 0:23:43.680 --> 0:23:47.360 their young. They rest on the ice. Walrisk will actually 0:23:47.480 --> 0:23:50.400 passively use ice to be kind of transported around over 0:23:50.400 --> 0:23:53.280 shallow areas where they can dive for food. Polar bears 0:23:53.280 --> 0:23:56.000 do everything on the ice, including find their primary prey, 0:23:56.040 --> 0:23:58.200 which are these ice seals, so they need ice to 0:23:58.240 --> 0:24:02.120 walk around and hunt. Know, it's just basically a really 0:24:02.160 --> 0:24:05.440 important platform of life for for animals that are uniquely 0:24:05.440 --> 0:24:08.479 adapted to that system. It's an interesting thing to think 0:24:08.520 --> 0:24:12.239 about in terms of animal adaptation. They're completely dependent on 0:24:12.280 --> 0:24:15.680 the ice that a lot of European explorers or American 0:24:15.680 --> 0:24:18.240 explorers really just didn't want to have in their way, 0:24:18.320 --> 0:24:22.280 and yet it's so critical to the ecosystem there. I mean, 0:24:22.320 --> 0:24:25.960 the c ice is extremely harsh, you know, and very 0:24:26.080 --> 0:24:29.160 dynamic kind of structure, and you know, it is really 0:24:29.280 --> 0:24:32.000 animals that live in the Arctic and use the ice, 0:24:32.040 --> 0:24:35.159 they're they're really special. You know, they've really evolved to 0:24:35.280 --> 0:24:38.200 basically exploit that ice for everything that can give them. 0:24:38.480 --> 0:24:40.679 But there's no doubt that that ice is, you know, 0:24:40.720 --> 0:24:43.400 for humans, definitely a challenge. And of course the indigenous 0:24:43.440 --> 0:24:46.119 communities that have lived there for thousands of years have 0:24:46.280 --> 0:24:49.240 figured out how to use that ice for transportation and 0:24:49.320 --> 0:24:51.800 for hunting platforms and things like that. So it's it's 0:24:51.800 --> 0:24:54.560 really kind of many, many thousands of years of kind 0:24:54.560 --> 0:24:59.240 of learning how to use the ice best. Probably no 0:24:59.440 --> 0:25:03.160 animal is more associated with the North Pole than Santa's reindeer, 0:25:03.680 --> 0:25:08.000 but even these herbivores are in trouble. In recent years, 0:25:08.080 --> 0:25:12.639 reindeer populations have dropped by over fifty and the likely 0:25:12.720 --> 0:25:18.080 reasons are not pretty. For instance, longer summers give parasitic 0:25:18.119 --> 0:25:21.800 flies like bot flies, more opportunities to lay their eggs 0:25:21.840 --> 0:25:25.560 in the cariboos skin or its nose. As you might imagine, 0:25:25.600 --> 0:25:28.400 this forces the caribou to spend more time fending off 0:25:28.400 --> 0:25:32.120 flies and less time eating, which has a terrible effect 0:25:32.119 --> 0:25:36.840 on their populations. Losing caribou would be devastating for the 0:25:36.880 --> 0:25:40.240 indigenous people who have a deep cultural connection to them 0:25:40.280 --> 0:25:44.399 for food and skins, which are used to make clothing, tents, 0:25:44.440 --> 0:25:48.760 and other necessities. Arctic explorers of the past may not 0:25:48.800 --> 0:25:51.840 have relied on reindeer to travel Santa style across the ice, 0:25:52.320 --> 0:25:54.760 but like the peoples of the far North, they also 0:25:54.840 --> 0:25:59.200 relied on them for sustenance. Like the intrepid humans before them, 0:25:59.280 --> 0:26:02.920 some animals are extending their ranges northward as the planet warms. 0:26:04.240 --> 0:26:08.520 Red foxes, those wily canaids found across vast regions of 0:26:08.560 --> 0:26:13.280 the world, have begun their own Arctic expeditions. Their northern 0:26:13.320 --> 0:26:19.080 expansion is displacing the native Arctic fox. The opportunistic red 0:26:19.119 --> 0:26:22.840 foxes compete for dense sites and food sources and at 0:26:22.880 --> 0:26:28.040 times kill the native foxes. This trend is happening in 0:26:28.119 --> 0:26:32.679 marine environments too. Here's Kristin Lydra. The ice structures the 0:26:32.720 --> 0:26:35.919 whole ecosystem. It structures the plants that bloom in the 0:26:35.920 --> 0:26:38.960 water column and the dough plankton or small fish that 0:26:39.000 --> 0:26:41.880 basically can of form the base of the food chain. 0:26:42.119 --> 0:26:45.800 And so as we see the Arctic changing, it's looking 0:26:46.160 --> 0:26:48.080 less and less like the Arctic and more and more 0:26:48.160 --> 0:26:51.120 like the Subarctic or in some cases kind of temperate areas. 0:26:51.680 --> 0:26:54.240 And so what happens is as the ice breaks up early, 0:26:54.320 --> 0:26:58.160 it enables some of these Subarctic species to move into 0:26:58.160 --> 0:27:01.960 the Arctic sooner ice is extending further and further north, 0:27:02.000 --> 0:27:05.400 So those animals can extend their range northward and occupy 0:27:05.480 --> 0:27:08.440 areas that they otherwise would have been excluded when there 0:27:08.480 --> 0:27:10.960 was sea ice present, and they can basically stay for 0:27:11.080 --> 0:27:13.919 longer periods in the Arctic. And so what that means is, 0:27:14.600 --> 0:27:18.240 you know, we're seeing Subarctic species kind of move in 0:27:18.359 --> 0:27:22.560 and expand their ranges, possibly compete for resources with some 0:27:22.640 --> 0:27:26.560 of the Arctic species. In some cases they are directly 0:27:26.600 --> 0:27:28.879 a problem, like for example, killer whales that are moving 0:27:29.400 --> 0:27:32.440 further into the Arctic and they predate on small whales 0:27:32.480 --> 0:27:35.080 like blucas and our walls. So there's there's really a 0:27:35.080 --> 0:27:38.280