Cold Rush 1 of 2 - Arctic Meltdown - BBC Our World Environmental Documentary

Cold Rush 1 of 2 - Arctic Meltdown - BBC Our World Environmental Documentary

David Shukman in Alaska discovers that the massive melt of arctic ice is opening up new opportunities to exploit the natural resources of this northern wilderness. But it's also raising fresh tensions over international boundaries in the arctic circle.

---

Closed Caption:

there's about 25 billion barrels up oil
to be discovered
in the Arctic region but the native
people fear losing their culture
oil or anything what about the human
being that leave appear
in
the with unsettled international
boundaries
as the threat of confrontation there's
always a risk
conflict especially where you do not
have established delineated
agreed-upon borders we've been to the
front line that these changes
to alaska to report on a new cold rock
our first glimpse of what the Arctic is
most famous for
this is one of the great sites have the
natural world
but it's the pick-up the milt sees the
ice
has vanished which can mean that polar
bears struggle
to find anything to eat this one comes
ashore to see what it can get
everything about the Arctic faces
upheaval the wildlife here happens to be
in the region that's the fastest warming
anywhere on the planet
and this is on a scale that few expected
pretty desolate here and wind-swept
this is the northernmost 4 the United
States the North Pole
it just thirteen hundred miles behind me
this is point Barrow named after John
Barrow
the Royal Navy official with the 19th
century you sent countless expedition to
the Arctic
to try to find the fabled Northwest
Passage well
he wouldn't believe on the Arctic is
changing
right now normally in the summer the ice
retreats
to within about 50 miles viscose
well right now the ice is 300
miles away the world
satellite pictures reveal what's
happening the ice cap shrinks every
summer
but now far beyond the average motivated
floating a massive ice that's now
retreating
and getting dinner so it's
disintegrating more easy this matters
because white ice reflects on life but
the darker
ocean absorbed so the warming it's
Ellery
this is a catastrophic retreat far
faster and quicker
and Morse extensive than what the models
predicted
2007 2008 the two lowest years summer
retreat device
ever two greatest retreats a vice and
I think we've got a trend here that the
very very concerning out on the tundra
this lonely outpost at Barrow is
America's northernmost climate the bar
tree a snowy owl appears a regular
this distant landscape here the
instruments have been measuring the
Arctic's changes
the rise in the greenhouse gas carbon
dioxide
and the retreat the ice the chief
scientist chose me round
what we're looking at here is our main
power for air inlet where we take our
sample
and pumped in from this power into the
station for analysis
I want to take a look inside in a second
but just before we go we know who the
cold
kinda has it if you pay stub yeah we've
seen polar bears out here
and have had to leave because it's
better to just let the polar bear
be litem litem take the course on
through and come back later
you gonna keep a close watch all the
time yes get inside
so then
this is where the samples have pumped
into it this the main room where the
analysis happened
the first thing that happens is the the
sample comes
in from outside and goes through a
chiller take all the water vapor out
water vapors are real problem for what
we're trying to do
panel I and wanted gone through the
dryer
go back to the various tombs to the
analyzers
worry major for CEO methane and co2
so what's to love: results to end up
with the end
well what we see is that the carbon
can vary over a short period of time
this is the actual data right here on
the screen
I am as carbon dioxide day by day
that carbon dioxide yes and overall
what kinda trends are you seeing what
we're seeing we can show you here
isn't increase over the last 35 years
min s incredibly clear in co2 there's no
doubt that it's increasing
we know that these data are accurate we
have several different comparison method
we use
to to make sure that the day the highest
quality we can have
you've been here 25 years in Barrow what
sort of changes have you seen in the
landscape
arm I've seen a lot of plant change
weeks i've seen. frost heaves row a
little bit here
above course the milder winters that
sort of thing
and we also see a change
in the ice cover I mean that's an
extraordinary retreat device that right
what we see what we're looking at here
is the
the blue and green are a result then ice
the white is a little bit thicker bear
was a course at the top of the screen
here
and we're seeing a melt back farther
than
them what we seen in the last twenty
years so
to what extent do you convince something
pretty big is going on here all I have
to do is look at this sort of thing in
and you know something is going on now
in people can argue about what
or why that sort of thing but nobody can
argue that this is not happen
one very big change it suddenly easier
to get at the Arctic's
oil and gas this is Prudhoe Bay
America's biggest oil p
there are miles apart the installations
along its shore
first got going in the sixties more
recently
has been a push official incentive oil
rigs the industry here
built entirely new Islands miles out in
the sea
but it has plans to do far more updates
with the new wave a project out in the
ocean
and along the Kurds
the Arctic is sitting on a treasure
trove a fossil fuel possibly
$25 billion barrels
this is just one of many pipelines
crossing this far
landscape beneath the grass is live
reserves
believed to be among the world's largest
we headin learned to european eyes this
terrain
is unimaginably lower it's called the
North Slope of Alaska
in fact it's incredibly flat and seems
endless
well ahead of us site want
of scampering away
into the best hail
it's amazing when you see the tundra you
think nothing can really live here
than this this great animal
obviously doing fine
really breaking about Alaska is it here
sign
7 take this pipeline thats budding
beside
Road mile are mile at it just
one of the shortest ones that got here
is simply carries gas
the gas field into but I love para
courts across the restive other a
pipeline
well literally thousand Mar
and the thinking is that there are some
River
voile and the guess beneath alaska
and of schools that some argue
that it's crazy not together
here
real baby drill late chanted at the
Republican Party convention
Alaska's Governor Sarah Palin candidate
for vice-president
called for her state resources to be
opened up
americans we need to produce more a bar
own oil and gas
and
yeah Bruno
the North Slope of Alaska we've got
locked the bold it's a message the oil
companies believe
is becoming far more popular I think the
American people are on our side and I
think you know what's been the real
tipping point has been the four dollar
in the US a four dollar gallon is really
really created a a whole CD changer
about a ball on this in in folks
recognize that we've gone to a point now
or importing sixty percent
our oil and thats in in in that's really
untenable
in people recognize its gonna only get
worse
so your work on a bit and now or never
stay
would respect the developing outer
continental shelf for offshore
developments in in there is there is
much more support than there was
three years ago so what about the wrist
the nightmare scenario would be an oil
spill
in the pristine waters at the art shell
sent us these pictures have a clean-up
exercise
Shell executives say they're confident
they have the latest technology to cope
bus
environmental scientists are worried
about the dangers
I think it's far too risky to do these
oil development
offshore in the Chukchi and Beaufort
seas off Alaska
oil industry says they can do it safely
there then
several major blowout offshore in
offshore rigs throughout the world the
exceeded the size of the Exxon Valdez
oil spill and also quite frankly
industry said before the Exxon Valdez
twenty years ago
it said don't worry relax we've got this
under control
we can do this we're not going to have a
major oil spill it happen
gonna be able to get clean it up that
obviously
was wishful thinking so twenty years old
memories if this bill still hold this
debate