1 00:00:06,000 --> 00:00:12,074 Advertise your product or brand here contact www.OpenSubtitles.org today 2 00:00:45,600 --> 00:00:46,720 ABC NEWS ANCHOR (VO): It's hard not to be impressed 3 00:00:46,730 --> 00:00:50,010 when you see entire houses being swept away 4 00:00:50,030 --> 00:00:51,880 by flood waters in the West 5 00:00:51,890 --> 00:00:53,550 CBS EARLY (VO): Fires stretch from one end 6 00:00:53,560 --> 00:00:55,010 of Texas to the other. 7 00:00:55,020 --> 00:00:56,090 FEMALE REPORTER: Tornadoes-- 8 00:00:56,100 --> 00:00:59,390 a dozen tornadoes have already been spotted 9 00:00:59,400 --> 00:01:00,920 HANNITY: Liberals will say, well if it's cold, 10 00:01:00,930 --> 00:01:03,130 it's global warming, if it's snowing it's global warming, 11 00:01:03,140 --> 00:01:05,050 if it's hot it's global warming-- there's nothing 12 00:01:05,060 --> 00:01:07,010 that doesn't prove that there's-- it's global warming. 13 00:01:07,020 --> 00:01:09,760 VO-- MSNBC The latest estimates for rebuilding from Irene, 14 00:01:09,780 --> 00:01:11,590 already seven billion dollars. 15 00:01:11,600 --> 00:01:13,720 FEMALE REPORTER: CBS 2011 is now on track 16 00:01:13,730 --> 00:01:18,260 to be the most expensive year ever for weather related damage. 17 00:01:18,270 --> 00:01:19,460 FEMALE REPORTER (VO): 18 00:01:19,480 --> 00:01:21,840 A drought of historic proportions has hit Nepal. 19 00:01:21,850 --> 00:01:23,050 MALE REPORTER: The horror 20 00:01:23,060 --> 00:01:25,340 of raging wildfires has again returned to Russia. 21 00:01:25,350 --> 00:01:26,390 FEMALE REPORTER CHANNEL 5: The say it was 22 00:01:26,400 --> 00:01:27,930 like nothing they've ever seen before. 23 00:01:27,940 --> 00:01:33,630 FEMALE REPORTER: 16 of the last 20 years are the hottest on record. 24 00:01:33,640 --> 00:01:35,220 STUART MALE REPORTER: The science is not in 25 00:01:35,230 --> 00:01:36,470 ED BEGLEY JR: It is in 26 00:01:36,480 --> 00:01:37,470 STUART MALE REPORTER: No 27 00:01:37,480 --> 00:01:38,140 ED BEGLEY JR: Stuart quit saying that. 28 00:01:38,150 --> 00:01:39,340 The debate is over. 29 00:01:39,360 --> 00:01:40,380 STUART MALE REPORTER: No, the debate is not over 30 00:01:40,400 --> 00:01:41,210 MALE: The globe is actually cooling 31 00:01:41,220 --> 00:01:43,760 and has been cooling since 2002. 32 00:01:43,770 --> 00:01:46,550 GLEN BECK: The consensus is that there is no consensus. 33 00:01:46,560 --> 00:01:49,710 LEWIS BLACK: I mean how do you not...global warming 34 00:01:49,730 --> 00:01:50,960 is real. 35 00:01:50,970 --> 00:01:52,220 PIERS MORGAN: You're about to self implode here. 36 00:01:52,230 --> 00:01:54,510 JOHN COLEMAN: The ice caps, the poles, are not going 37 00:01:54,520 --> 00:01:57,050 to melt, the oceans are not going to flood the coast -- 38 00:01:57,060 --> 00:01:59,050 I promise you, 20 years from today, 39 00:01:59,070 --> 00:02:01,300 I'll be the one that's laughing. 40 00:02:19,270 --> 00:02:20,550 JAMES BALOG: The worst that would happen is 41 00:02:20,560 --> 00:02:22,800 that I'd just get really wet if I just stood in place. 42 00:02:22,810 --> 00:02:24,130 SVAV JONATANSSON: No. 43 00:02:24,140 --> 00:02:25,430 You fall, you try to run, you bang your knee on a piece 44 00:02:25,440 --> 00:02:28,390 of ice, and you bust your knee. 45 00:02:28,400 --> 00:02:31,260 JAMES BALOG: Ah, I just-- I have to get this picture. 46 00:02:31,270 --> 00:02:34,260 SVAV JONATANSSON: The first time I worked with James, 47 00:02:34,270 --> 00:02:37,600 It was obvious how he goes about things, you know? 48 00:02:37,610 --> 00:02:39,340 JAMES BALOG: Alright quickly! 49 00:02:39,360 --> 00:02:42,010 Cause this light won't last forever. 50 00:02:42,020 --> 00:02:44,430 SVAV JONATANSSON: He pushes it-- he's looking for something. 51 00:02:44,440 --> 00:02:45,890 JAMES BALOG: You do have rope in the car? 52 00:02:45,900 --> 00:02:47,100 SVAV JONATANSSON: Yeah. 53 00:02:47,110 --> 00:02:48,560 JAMES BALOG: Go back and get whatever you have. 54 00:02:48,570 --> 00:02:50,130 SVAV JONATANSSON: Okay. 55 00:02:50,150 --> 00:02:51,130 JAMES BALOG: Alright, I'm, 56 00:02:51,140 --> 00:02:53,880 I'm almost certain to get wet, Okay? 57 00:02:55,730 --> 00:02:58,060 In fact, I think I'm so certain to get wet, 58 00:02:58,070 --> 00:03:00,170 I'll take my boots off. 59 00:03:01,890 --> 00:03:03,300 SVAV JONATANSSON: And it was very interesting 60 00:03:03,310 --> 00:03:05,390 because it was his first real encounter 61 00:03:05,400 --> 00:03:08,220 at looking at ice in that way. 62 00:03:11,310 --> 00:03:13,590 He really did fall in love with it. 63 00:03:38,230 --> 00:03:40,630 JAMES BALOG: There's this limitless Universe 64 00:03:40,640 --> 00:03:41,720 of forms out there... 65 00:03:41,730 --> 00:03:48,220 That is just, surreal, other worldly. 66 00:03:48,230 --> 00:03:50,090 Sculptural, architectural... 67 00:03:50,100 --> 00:03:56,720 insanely, ridiculously beautiful. 68 00:03:56,730 --> 00:04:01,920 And that's when I though, okay, the story is in the ice. 69 00:04:01,930 --> 00:04:03,380 Somehow. 70 00:04:22,100 --> 00:04:26,800 I was umm, about 25 or so, I guess. 71 00:04:26,810 --> 00:04:30,880 And I was finishing my master's degree in Geomorphology. 72 00:04:30,890 --> 00:04:34,720 And um, I loved the science, 73 00:04:34,730 --> 00:04:37,930 but I wasn't interested in being a scientist. 74 00:04:37,940 --> 00:04:41,050 The modern world of science was all about statistics 75 00:04:41,060 --> 00:04:45,800 and computer modeling and that just wasn't me. 76 00:04:45,810 --> 00:04:49,050 I had no contacts in the photo world, 77 00:04:49,070 --> 00:04:50,880 I had no knowledge of the photo world. 78 00:04:50,890 --> 00:04:53,550 But, youthful brashness can take you a long way, 79 00:04:53,560 --> 00:04:55,680 make things happen, so, that's how it worked. 80 00:04:55,690 --> 00:05:04,550 I had this idea that the most powerful issue 81 00:05:04,560 --> 00:05:07,760 of our time was the interaction of humans and nature. 82 00:05:07,770 --> 00:05:14,640 One of the subjects I started to look at involved people hunting. 83 00:05:14,650 --> 00:05:17,640 But they were bloody, gory, horrific pictures, hard to look 84 00:05:17,650 --> 00:05:19,300 at-- hard for me to look at even today. 85 00:05:19,320 --> 00:05:25,510 And so, when I had this idea to look at endangered wildlife, 86 00:05:25,520 --> 00:05:28,060 I realized that I needed to show these things 87 00:05:28,070 --> 00:05:30,710 in a more seductive fashion. 88 00:05:30,720 --> 00:05:32,090 I had to look at it in ways 89 00:05:32,100 --> 00:05:37,470 that would engage people-- pull them in. 90 00:05:37,480 --> 00:05:39,710 LOUIS PSIHOYOS: He's always taken the big view. 91 00:05:39,730 --> 00:05:41,880 You know? He's not looking at this little micro slice. 92 00:05:41,890 --> 00:05:45,050 He's really looking at what humanity is doing 93 00:05:45,060 --> 00:05:47,970 from a very large perspective. 94 00:05:47,980 --> 00:05:51,050 His books-- they force you to regard nature in a way 95 00:05:51,060 --> 00:05:54,050 that you're not accustomed to looking at em. 96 00:05:54,060 --> 00:05:54,970 He's forcing you to think. 97 00:05:54,980 --> 00:05:56,090 He's forcing me to think. 98 00:05:56,100 --> 00:05:59,460 And that's what I love about James' work. 99 00:05:59,480 --> 00:06:02,130 KITTY BOONE: You know, Ansel Adams was the father 100 00:06:02,140 --> 00:06:05,050 of all landscape photography and he created a movement 101 00:06:05,060 --> 00:06:07,680 around wilderness that only images could do. 102 00:06:07,690 --> 00:06:11,630 And now you have James with that same kind of eye. 103 00:06:11,640 --> 00:06:13,880 But being able to do more with the technology. 104 00:06:13,890 --> 00:06:16,760 DR. SYLIA EARLE: It's not just the drive 105 00:06:16,770 --> 00:06:18,560 to climb mountains and hang off cliffs. 106 00:06:18,570 --> 00:06:23,800 He has the ability to capture it in a way and communicate it. 107 00:06:23,810 --> 00:06:26,390 Observing it and knowing it is one thing, but sharing it 108 00:06:26,400 --> 00:06:32,720 and sharing it effectively can change the world. 109 00:06:32,730 --> 00:06:34,050 JAMES BALOG: I did a couple years of research 110 00:06:34,060 --> 00:06:35,470 on the climate change story, 111 00:06:35,480 --> 00:06:38,720 trying to find what you could photograph about climate change 112 00:06:38,730 --> 00:06:40,550 that would make interesting photographs. 113 00:06:40,560 --> 00:06:45,260 And I eventually realized that the only thing that-- to me-- 114 00:06:45,270 --> 00:06:46,550 sounded right, was ice. 115 00:06:46,560 --> 00:06:51,220 DENNIS DIMICK: He came with us with a proposal 116 00:06:51,230 --> 00:06:54,550 to do a profile of one glacier in Iceland. 117 00:06:54,560 --> 00:06:56,260 We essentially countered to him, we said, well look, 118 00:06:56,270 --> 00:07:00,300 why don't we just do a bigger story. 119 00:07:00,310 --> 00:07:03,510 It was on the cover of the magazine. 120 00:07:03,520 --> 00:07:08,920 Most popular, most wellread story in the last five years. 121 00:07:08,940 --> 00:07:10,090 JAMES BALOG: As I was shooting that story, 122 00:07:10,100 --> 00:07:12,300 I started to get the very strong sense 123 00:07:12,310 --> 00:07:15,550 that this was a scouting mission for something much bigger, 124 00:07:15,560 --> 00:07:19,670 and much longer-term that was about to unfold. 125 00:07:22,140 --> 00:07:25,430 The Solheim Glacier, the Sunhouse Glacier in translation, 126 00:07:25,440 --> 00:07:28,140 is where I really first got it. 127 00:07:29,530 --> 00:07:32,800 That glacier had been receding several hundred feet a year; 128 00:07:32,810 --> 00:07:35,220 which is a lot. 129 00:07:35,230 --> 00:07:38,220 You normally have a little bit of advance in the winter time, 130 00:07:38,230 --> 00:07:40,420 a little bit of retreat in the summer time; 131 00:07:40,430 --> 00:07:42,800 but when you see huge amounts of change, 132 00:07:42,810 --> 00:07:45,840 that's outside of normal behavior. 133 00:07:48,270 --> 00:07:52,010 There was a real sense of the glacier just coming to an end; 134 00:07:52,020 --> 00:07:55,840 and like this old, decrepit man, just, you know, 135 00:07:55,850 --> 00:07:57,390 falling into the earth and dying. 136 00:07:57,400 --> 00:08:01,050 It was very evocative, very emotional. 137 00:08:05,810 --> 00:08:07,510 As a guy who's been mountaineering 138 00:08:07,520 --> 00:08:11,010 for basically my whole adult life, uh, someone whose trained 139 00:08:11,020 --> 00:08:13,470 in the earth sciences, I never imagined 140 00:08:13,480 --> 00:08:16,850 that you could see features this big disappearing 141 00:08:16,860 --> 00:08:19,670 in such a short period of time. 142 00:08:22,060 --> 00:08:26,300 But when I did-- when I saw that-- and I realized, my God, 143 00:08:26,310 --> 00:08:29,000 there's a powerful piece of history that's unfolding 144 00:08:29,020 --> 00:08:33,380 in these pictures and I have to go back to those same spots. 145 00:08:34,900 --> 00:08:37,220 So, I set up a whole bunch of camera positions 146 00:08:37,230 --> 00:08:39,050 around that glacier where I would just go back 147 00:08:39,070 --> 00:08:40,760 and shoot a single frame. 148 00:08:40,770 --> 00:08:42,930 You know, one in April, one in October, 149 00:08:42,940 --> 00:08:51,970 and we would just see how the glacier changed in six months. 150 00:08:53,190 --> 00:08:54,470 JAMES BALOG: (VO): Right there where Svav is. 151 00:08:54,480 --> 00:08:55,390 Right there. 152 00:08:55,400 --> 00:08:58,220 That's exactly where the ice was. 153 00:08:58,230 --> 00:08:59,000 Right there. 154 00:08:59,020 --> 00:09:00,210 Right? Over. 155 00:09:00,220 --> 00:09:01,510 JEFF ORLOWSKI: Uhh, correct, this is where... 156 00:09:01,520 --> 00:09:04,050 JAMES BALOG: That glacier had changed so much, that, 157 00:09:04,060 --> 00:09:06,890 I'm not kidding, for like three hours, we stood there, 158 00:09:06,900 --> 00:09:09,250 looking at the prints of six months ago, 159 00:09:09,270 --> 00:09:11,220 looking at the glacier going, we must be wrong, 160 00:09:11,230 --> 00:09:12,720 we can't be in the right places. 161 00:09:12,730 --> 00:09:15,680 They appear to be from over there. 162 00:09:49,600 --> 00:09:52,220 JAMES BALOG: And when I saw those, the lights when off 163 00:09:52,230 --> 00:09:54,890 for me, I realized, the public doesn't wanna hear 164 00:09:54,900 --> 00:09:58,310 about more statistical studies, more computer models, 165 00:09:58,320 --> 00:10:02,720 more projections-- what they need is a believable, 166 00:10:02,730 --> 00:10:05,220 understandable piece of visual evidence-- 167 00:10:05,230 --> 00:10:08,390 something that grabs them in the gut. 168 00:10:12,390 --> 00:10:17,390 So I created this project called the Extreme Ice Survey-- or EIS. 169 00:10:17,400 --> 00:10:18,550 The initial goal was to put 170 00:10:18,570 --> 00:10:21,260 out twenty five cameras for three years. 171 00:10:21,270 --> 00:10:24,720 And they would shoot every hour as long as it was daylight. 172 00:10:24,730 --> 00:10:27,140 We would download those cameras every so often 173 00:10:27,150 --> 00:10:30,380 and turn those individual frames into video clips 174 00:10:30,390 --> 00:10:33,840 that would show you how the landscape was changing. 175 00:10:33,850 --> 00:10:36,470 I thought that basically, 176 00:10:36,480 --> 00:10:39,670 you could just buy all this time lapse equipment off the shelf, 177 00:10:39,680 --> 00:10:42,680 slam it together and put it out there. 178 00:10:42,690 --> 00:10:44,840 I was so naive about that. 179 00:10:44,850 --> 00:10:47,890 Uh, there was a custom computer that needed to be built 180 00:10:47,900 --> 00:10:51,130 and there were a thousand little engineering details that needed 181 00:10:51,140 --> 00:10:52,970 to be worked out and a lot of trial and error, 182 00:10:52,980 --> 00:10:55,140 because people hadn't built this stuff before. 183 00:10:55,150 --> 00:11:04,220 And it was clear to me, it would have to be a team effort. 184 00:11:05,400 --> 00:11:06,720 ADAM LEWINTER: I wasn't that into photography, 185 00:11:06,730 --> 00:11:09,760 but I talked him into me coming up here and having a look. 186 00:11:09,780 --> 00:11:12,340 Cause I was curious and I really wanted to do whatever I could 187 00:11:12,350 --> 00:11:14,720 to get my foot in the door. 188 00:11:14,730 --> 00:11:16,930 JAMES BALOG: Svav is the field assistant in Iceland. 189 00:11:16,940 --> 00:11:18,510 You ready? 190 00:11:18,520 --> 00:11:20,300 SVAV JONATANSSON: As ready as I can be. 191 00:11:20,310 --> 00:11:21,380 DR. JASON BOX: These are more attractive 192 00:11:21,390 --> 00:11:22,720 because I think they're more pictureeqse, 193 00:11:22,730 --> 00:11:24,680 and they're still big glaciers. 194 00:11:24,690 --> 00:11:27,220 JAMES BALOG: Jason has a deep, deep well of experience 195 00:11:27,230 --> 00:11:30,460 about Greenland's glaciers, about Greenland logistics, 196 00:11:30,470 --> 00:11:32,880 about what the glaciers were doing. 197 00:11:32,890 --> 00:11:35,760 Tad's a glaciologist he's really the grandfather, 198 00:11:35,770 --> 00:11:40,300 the Godfather the knowledge base about those glaciers in Alaska. 199 00:11:40,310 --> 00:11:42,300 SUZANNE BALOG: The scope and the scale of EIS is bigger 200 00:11:42,310 --> 00:11:45,300 than any other project since I've known him. 201 00:11:45,310 --> 00:11:47,890 They would work all day, in our little, 202 00:11:47,900 --> 00:11:50,210 what used to be our garage, turned into a workshop-- 203 00:11:50,220 --> 00:11:53,720 until sometimes, 11, 12 o'clock at night. 204 00:11:53,730 --> 00:11:55,850 JEFF ORLOWSKI: James sent me a gear list of things 205 00:11:55,860 --> 00:11:58,710 that I had never heard-- I mean Ice axes and crampons-- 206 00:11:58,730 --> 00:12:00,050 all of this technical climbing gear 207 00:12:00,060 --> 00:12:01,920 that I had never used before. 208 00:12:01,930 --> 00:12:05,970 I remember thinking that I never want to do ice climbing 209 00:12:05,980 --> 00:12:09,920 or ice related stuff, it's dangerous, I'm gonna die, 210 00:12:09,930 --> 00:12:13,930 but of course, I still went with James to Iceland. 211 00:12:20,180 --> 00:12:22,510 Jeez... 212 00:12:22,520 --> 00:12:24,220 JAMES BALOG: What? 213 00:12:24,230 --> 00:12:27,560 SVAV JONATANSSON: I'm just saying Jesus Christ. 214 00:12:27,570 --> 00:12:29,420 SVAV JONATANSSON: I'm just emphasizing how bad the 215 00:12:29,430 --> 00:12:30,970 weather is. 216 00:12:30,980 --> 00:12:33,050 JAMES BALOG: Yeah, I don't need it. 217 00:12:34,190 --> 00:12:35,680 I get it. 218 00:12:38,270 --> 00:12:40,300 JEFF ORLOWSKI: The essence of the camera systems is based 219 00:12:40,310 --> 00:12:42,380 on putting really delicate electronics 220 00:12:42,390 --> 00:12:45,640 in the harshest conditions on the planet. 221 00:12:45,650 --> 00:12:48,350 ADAM LEWINTER: They have to withstand hurricane force winds. 222 00:12:48,360 --> 00:12:50,130 JEFF ORLOWSKI: Negative 40 degree temperatures. 223 00:12:50,140 --> 00:12:52,090 ADAM LEWINTER: It's not the nicest environment 224 00:12:52,100 --> 00:12:56,550 for technology to be sitting out in. 225 00:13:26,520 --> 00:13:28,180 JAMES BALOG: Whatever the dangers of that boulder are, 226 00:13:28,190 --> 00:13:30,420 that's a better spot than this is. 227 00:13:30,430 --> 00:13:32,430 Well we found a place to hide the camera; 228 00:13:32,440 --> 00:13:33,800 that's the good news. 229 00:13:33,810 --> 00:13:36,720 The bad news is we've got a major engineering project to try 230 00:13:36,730 --> 00:13:39,090 and get that thing anchored and supported. 231 00:13:39,110 --> 00:13:40,380 This thing is loose. 232 00:13:40,390 --> 00:13:43,590 Look how soft this stuff is. 233 00:13:43,600 --> 00:13:51,380 Yeah it's gotta be this section right here. 234 00:13:51,390 --> 00:13:52,130 Uh... The other way around. 235 00:13:52,140 --> 00:13:59,760 Rock! This is fantastic. 236 00:13:59,770 --> 00:14:02,300 Look at this. 237 00:14:02,310 --> 00:14:04,550 It's exactly what we wanted. 238 00:14:04,560 --> 00:14:08,800 Okay.. Well, here we go. 239 00:14:08,820 --> 00:14:12,550 The first eyeballs on the glacier-- finally. 240 00:14:12,560 --> 00:14:21,220 Let's uh, see what a couple years brings to us. 241 00:14:21,230 --> 00:14:22,760 JEFF ORLOWSKI: We installed five cameras 242 00:14:22,770 --> 00:14:25,180 in total on that trip. 243 00:14:25,190 --> 00:14:27,810 After that, we went on to Greenland. 244 00:14:55,440 --> 00:14:57,930 JAMES BALOG: When glaciers break these gigantic icebergs 245 00:14:57,940 --> 00:15:02,380 off into the ocean it's called calving c-a-l-v-i-n-g. 246 00:15:08,980 --> 00:15:12,050 Ever since glaciers have entered the ocean, hundreds of thousands 247 00:15:12,060 --> 00:15:15,720 of years ago, ice has always calved off. 248 00:15:17,110 --> 00:15:22,130 But what we're seeing now is the Greenland ice sheet thinning out 249 00:15:22,140 --> 00:15:38,100 and dumping out ever more ice and water into the ocean. 250 00:15:40,680 --> 00:15:41,380 Okay good. 251 00:15:41,390 --> 00:15:43,300 Yep. Right up here. 252 00:15:55,350 --> 00:15:56,470 JAMES BALOG (CONT'D): 253 00:15:56,480 --> 00:15:59,170 It's sort of like doing a portrait of people. 254 00:15:59,180 --> 00:16:00,880 You know, uh, Richard Avendan 255 00:16:00,890 --> 00:16:05,220 and Irving Penn spent their entire careers doing portraits 256 00:16:05,230 --> 00:16:08,390 of faces essential, and found endless variation 257 00:16:08,400 --> 00:16:11,220 and endless beauty and endless magic in those faces and for me, 258 00:16:11,230 --> 00:16:14,590 that's the same thing as what's going on here. 259 00:16:17,730 --> 00:16:22,430 You know you feel this tension between this huge, 260 00:16:22,440 --> 00:16:27,260 enduring power of these glaciers and their fragility. 261 00:16:27,270 --> 00:16:30,050 You know, they came from a great, impassive place, 262 00:16:30,060 --> 00:16:32,340 and they're just, they're crumbling 263 00:16:32,350 --> 00:16:35,680 into these tiny little blocks of ice going off into the ocean. 264 00:16:35,690 --> 00:16:38,210 It's crazy. 265 00:16:49,310 --> 00:16:51,130 JEFF ORLOWSKI: My first trip to Greenland, We were setting 266 00:16:51,140 --> 00:16:53,130 up one of the cameras at Store Glacier. 267 00:16:53,140 --> 00:16:55,050 We got there, we saw this really, 268 00:16:55,060 --> 00:16:57,050 bizarre looking peninsula. 269 00:16:57,060 --> 00:16:59,710 Just kind of perched out at the front of this-- the calving face 270 00:16:59,720 --> 00:17:01,550 of the glacier, where the glacier ends. 271 00:17:01,560 --> 00:17:03,890 JAMES BALOG: This thing is gonna break off all summer long man. 272 00:17:03,900 --> 00:17:05,090 Look at this. 273 00:17:05,100 --> 00:17:07,720 Those peninsulas are, are just a matter of days-- 274 00:17:07,730 --> 00:17:09,710 at most, a couple weeks. 275 00:17:09,720 --> 00:17:10,970 JEFF ORLOWSKI: It was huge. 276 00:17:10,980 --> 00:17:13,720 It was five football fields long-- 1,500 feet long. 277 00:17:13,730 --> 00:17:16,890 And about 300 feet above the surface of the water. 278 00:17:16,900 --> 00:17:20,920 As we're setting up the cameras, we also set up a video camera, 279 00:17:20,930 --> 00:17:23,380 and had it pointed right there, at that peninsula, 280 00:17:23,390 --> 00:17:24,720 and we just had it rolling. 281 00:17:24,730 --> 00:17:29,210 Just in case. 282 00:17:29,220 --> 00:17:36,970 JASON BOX (VO): Oh my God, a giant crack just formed. 283 00:17:39,970 --> 00:17:43,890 See that whole island, it's going away. 284 00:17:43,900 --> 00:17:46,470 There it goes man. 285 00:18:18,150 --> 00:18:19,090 JEFF ORLOWSKI: We were there 286 00:18:19,100 --> 00:18:21,840 for just a one hour period of time. 287 00:18:21,850 --> 00:18:25,850 And, absurdly, somehow fortunately captured an event 288 00:18:25,860 --> 00:18:31,550 that seldom is caught on film. 289 00:18:31,560 --> 00:18:33,890 JAMES BALOG: There is this really big stuff happening right 290 00:18:33,900 --> 00:18:37,060 under our noses, happening right now. 291 00:18:37,070 --> 00:18:38,840 But I feel like time is clicking, you know. 292 00:18:38,860 --> 00:18:41,670 And we need to get these cameras out here. 293 00:19:11,730 --> 00:19:13,720 JAMES BALOG: Okay. Onward. 294 00:19:13,730 --> 00:19:14,550 SVAV JONATANSSON: The logistics 295 00:19:14,560 --> 00:19:16,680 of things are just like, crazy. 296 00:19:16,690 --> 00:19:20,920 It reminds you how far he's willing to take an idea. 297 00:19:20,930 --> 00:19:22,590 JAMES BALOG: Heads up! 298 00:19:22,600 --> 00:19:24,260 Heads up! 299 00:19:31,390 --> 00:19:34,050 Tight, tight tight. 300 00:20:04,600 --> 00:20:05,600 JAMES BALOG: This is tonight's dinner, 301 00:20:05,610 --> 00:20:11,470 I just found out. 302 00:20:14,400 --> 00:20:15,350 DR. JASON BOX: Eight. 303 00:20:15,360 --> 00:20:18,670 Seven. Six, Five. 304 00:20:38,070 --> 00:20:39,050 JAMES BALOG: Ah! 305 00:20:39,060 --> 00:20:45,930 This is the way to travel, my friend. 306 00:20:54,150 --> 00:20:57,600 We ended up installing about a dozen cameras in Greenland, 307 00:20:57,610 --> 00:21:02,550 five in Iceland, five in Alaska and two in Montana. 308 00:21:02,560 --> 00:21:04,590 Frankly, I can't believe we actually managed 309 00:21:04,600 --> 00:21:06,430 to pull this off. 310 00:21:14,900 --> 00:21:16,430 You know, about 20 years ago, 311 00:21:16,440 --> 00:21:19,590 I was a skeptic about climate change. 312 00:21:19,600 --> 00:21:21,420 I thought is was based on computer models, 313 00:21:21,430 --> 00:21:23,380 I thought maybe there was a lot of hyperbole 314 00:21:23,390 --> 00:21:27,810 that was turning this into an activist cause. 315 00:21:27,820 --> 00:21:31,880 But most importantly, I didn't think that humans were capable 316 00:21:31,890 --> 00:21:34,800 of changing the basic physics and chemistry 317 00:21:34,810 --> 00:21:37,430 of this entire huge planet. 318 00:21:37,440 --> 00:21:40,630 It didn't seem probable, it didn't seem possible. 319 00:21:42,640 --> 00:21:47,390 And then I learned about the record that's in the ice cores. 320 00:21:47,400 --> 00:21:49,380 The history of ancient climate 321 00:21:49,390 --> 00:21:52,220 that was embedded in those cores. 322 00:21:52,230 --> 00:21:56,720 And the story that the glaciers were telling. 323 00:21:56,730 --> 00:21:57,960 DR. TAD PFEFFER: The Greenland 324 00:21:57,980 --> 00:22:00,220 and Antarctic ice sheets are these giant domes of ice 325 00:22:00,230 --> 00:22:04,050 that preserve climate records, very much like tree rings. 326 00:22:04,060 --> 00:22:08,630 Snow is added to the top, turns into ice, 327 00:22:08,650 --> 00:22:13,340 and ice core scientist can drill holes through the ice sheets 328 00:22:13,350 --> 00:22:17,260 and pull out a core and examine, not only the ice, 329 00:22:17,270 --> 00:22:22,510 but also bubbles of ancient air that are trapped in the ice. 330 00:22:22,520 --> 00:22:25,180 By looking at the chemistry of the ice, we can learn 331 00:22:25,190 --> 00:22:27,680 about past temperature, and by looking at the air, 332 00:22:27,690 --> 00:22:30,550 we can actually measure the carbon dioxide content. 333 00:22:30,560 --> 00:22:33,340 One of the things that we learn, is that past temperature 334 00:22:33,350 --> 00:22:35,010 and carbon dioxide vary together. 335 00:22:35,020 --> 00:22:38,140 They go up together, they go down together. 336 00:22:38,150 --> 00:22:43,550 And over the last 800,000 years or so, 337 00:22:43,560 --> 00:22:45,720 atmospheric carbon dioxide was never higher 338 00:22:45,730 --> 00:22:49,380 that about 280 parts per million. 339 00:22:49,390 --> 00:22:53,890 Until we started adding carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. 340 00:22:53,900 --> 00:22:56,220 And now it's about 390 parts per million. 341 00:22:56,230 --> 00:22:59,130 And that's about 40 percent higher than it was 342 00:22:59,140 --> 00:23:02,630 when carbon dioxide was only varying for natural reasons. 343 00:23:02,640 --> 00:23:05,890 But now we're heading for 500 parts per million or more. 344 00:23:05,900 --> 00:23:10,170 DR. SYNTE PEACOCK: That pace is a 100 to 1000 times greater 345 00:23:10,180 --> 00:23:11,970 than the pace at which things have changed 346 00:23:11,980 --> 00:23:13,550 by themselves, naturally. 347 00:23:13,560 --> 00:23:16,600 The amazing thing to me is that we're already seeing impacts 348 00:23:16,610 --> 00:23:18,880 because the change already has been so small, right? 349 00:23:18,900 --> 00:23:20,670 It's been .8 degrees C, 350 00:23:20,680 --> 00:23:24,050 about 1.5 degrees Farenheit since 1850 or so. 351 00:23:24,060 --> 00:23:27,470 And yet we've seen so much stuff... 352 00:23:27,480 --> 00:23:28,760 crazy stuff going on already. 353 00:23:28,780 --> 00:23:34,930 JAMES BALOG: What counts to me more than the notion 354 00:23:34,940 --> 00:23:38,550 of the climate changing, is that the air is changing. 355 00:23:38,570 --> 00:23:42,220 The air that we live in, the air that sustains us, 356 00:23:42,230 --> 00:23:45,680 the basic physics and chemistry of that air is changing. 357 00:23:45,690 --> 00:23:50,550 This is about the stuff that you and I breath. 358 00:23:50,560 --> 00:23:53,260 And that effects everything in the agriculture 359 00:23:53,270 --> 00:23:58,550 and the water supply of all the plants and animals around us. 360 00:23:58,570 --> 00:23:59,550 DR. TERRY ROOT: Plants 361 00:23:59,560 --> 00:24:01,010 and animals are already going extinct. 362 00:24:01,020 --> 00:24:03,300 They're going extinct a 100 times faster now 363 00:24:03,310 --> 00:24:04,720 than they did 1000 years ago. 364 00:24:04,730 --> 00:24:08,050 And as the climate continues to warm, we're going to loose more 365 00:24:08,070 --> 00:24:09,880 and more, and more species because we're going 366 00:24:09,890 --> 00:24:11,840 to have more suppresses happening. 367 00:24:11,850 --> 00:24:14,260 We're going to have a mass extinction event 368 00:24:14,270 --> 00:24:16,970 that could happen within the next 200 to 300 years. 369 00:24:16,980 --> 00:24:20,090 Mass extinction event means that we loose half, 370 00:24:20,100 --> 00:24:22,800 or maybe three quarters of the number of species 371 00:24:22,810 --> 00:24:25,300 that we have on the planet. 372 00:24:25,310 --> 00:24:28,630 Are we going to be loosing the plants that clean our water? 373 00:24:28,650 --> 00:24:30,920 The plants that clean our air? 374 00:24:30,930 --> 00:24:33,130 If there's no pollinators out there to pollinate, 375 00:24:33,140 --> 00:24:34,800 then we're going to have to do it by hand. 376 00:24:34,810 --> 00:24:37,350 And they're already doing that in China-- having to go out 377 00:24:37,360 --> 00:24:44,260 and pollinate their crops by hand. 378 00:24:44,270 --> 00:24:46,680 DR. THOMAS SWETNAM: In the last 20 years, we have lost, 379 00:24:46,690 --> 00:24:50,220 close to 20 percent of the forest area 380 00:24:50,230 --> 00:24:51,680 in Arizona-New Mexico. 381 00:24:51,690 --> 00:24:56,550 And that's a high mortality in those forest areas. 382 00:24:56,560 --> 00:24:59,590 We have seen an increasing in the length of the fire season 383 00:24:59,600 --> 00:25:02,090 by more than two months; larger fires 384 00:25:02,100 --> 00:25:04,390 in the Western United States in the last 20 years; 385 00:25:04,400 --> 00:25:09,050 and we've seen hotter fires - more extreme fires burning. 386 00:25:09,060 --> 00:25:12,430 It's not just by chance that I'm seeing many rare events 387 00:25:12,440 --> 00:25:14,890 happening all in sequence, you know. 388 00:25:14,900 --> 00:25:16,180 There's a reason for that. 389 00:25:16,190 --> 00:25:24,680 We're seeing extraordinary changes in our environment. 390 00:25:24,690 --> 00:25:27,260 DR. PETER HOEPPE: Munich Re is the world's largest 391 00:25:27,270 --> 00:25:30,420 re-insurance company and our business model is 392 00:25:30,430 --> 00:25:33,930 to provide insurance for the insurance companies. 393 00:25:33,940 --> 00:25:39,880 As Munich Re is a major reinsurer for natural perils, 394 00:25:39,890 --> 00:25:42,010 natural catastrophes; we need 395 00:25:42,020 --> 00:25:47,220 to know the risks as best as we can. 396 00:25:47,230 --> 00:25:50,550 We have discovered some trends in the number 397 00:25:50,560 --> 00:25:54,510 and in the losses natural perils have caused. 398 00:25:54,520 --> 00:25:57,510 And, interestingly, for the weather related events, 399 00:25:57,520 --> 00:26:01,420 our activities-- primarily greenhouse gas emissions-- 400 00:26:01,430 --> 00:26:06,260 are contributing to more intense and more events. 401 00:26:06,270 --> 00:26:08,880 It cannot be acclaimed by just better reporting, 402 00:26:08,900 --> 00:26:11,380 it has to be explained by changes 403 00:26:11,390 --> 00:26:16,140 in the atmospheric conditions. 404 00:26:16,150 --> 00:26:18,050 DR. GERALD MEEHL: Imagine a base ball player on steroids 405 00:26:18,070 --> 00:26:20,380 who steps up to the plate and hits a home run. 406 00:26:20,390 --> 00:26:24,930 Can you attribute that home run to his taking steroids? 407 00:26:24,940 --> 00:26:27,220 Well steroids occur naturally in very small amounts 408 00:26:27,230 --> 00:26:29,760 in your system, but by adding just a little bit 409 00:26:29,770 --> 00:26:32,010 of those steroids, you can change your background physical 410 00:26:32,020 --> 00:26:34,510 state and increase your chances for enhanced performance 411 00:26:34,520 --> 00:26:36,600 and that's exactly what happens in the climate system. 412 00:26:36,610 --> 00:26:39,550 Greenhouse gases occur in very small amounts but by increasing 413 00:26:39,560 --> 00:26:41,970 that just a little bit, you change the background state 414 00:26:41,980 --> 00:26:49,010 of the system and make it much more susceptible 415 00:26:49,020 --> 00:26:50,380 to increased extremes. 416 00:26:50,390 --> 00:26:51,590 JAMES BALOG: If you had an abcess in your tooth, 417 00:26:51,600 --> 00:26:53,840 would you keep going to dentist after dentist 418 00:26:53,850 --> 00:26:55,890 until you found a dentist that said, 419 00:26:55,900 --> 00:26:57,100 ahhh, don't worry about it. 420 00:26:57,110 --> 00:26:58,210 Leave that rotten tooth in. 421 00:26:58,230 --> 00:27:00,550 Or would you pull it out because more 422 00:27:00,560 --> 00:27:02,760 of the other dentists told you you had a problem? 423 00:27:02,770 --> 00:27:07,550 That's sort of what we're doing with Climate Change. 424 00:27:07,570 --> 00:27:12,010 We'll be arguing about this for centuries. 425 00:27:12,020 --> 00:27:15,140 We're still arguing about a minor thing called evolution, 426 00:27:15,150 --> 00:27:17,590 a minor thing about whether man actually walked on the moon. 427 00:27:17,610 --> 00:27:24,510 We don't have time. 428 00:27:44,230 --> 00:27:45,680 HELICOPTER PILOT: We have low oil pressure 429 00:27:45,690 --> 00:27:47,100 in engine number two. 430 00:27:47,110 --> 00:27:50,550 So I've shut down engine number two. 431 00:27:54,270 --> 00:27:59,090 We cannot hover with one engine. 432 00:27:59,100 --> 00:28:01,550 JAMES BALOG: You look out that window at that sea water 433 00:28:01,560 --> 00:28:04,220 with icebergs floating around in there and you realize if we go 434 00:28:04,230 --> 00:28:08,130 in that, we'll have five minutes of physical function 435 00:28:08,150 --> 00:28:13,510 and in 10 minutes we're dead. 436 00:28:13,520 --> 00:28:15,260 DR. JASON BOX: The fire brigade will be on standby 437 00:28:15,270 --> 00:28:17,710 in case we need their help. 438 00:28:18,650 --> 00:28:22,260 RADIO CHATTER 439 00:28:50,890 --> 00:28:53,090 SUZANNE BALOG: He needs to do his adventures. 440 00:28:53,100 --> 00:28:55,050 That's what makes him who he is. 441 00:28:55,060 --> 00:28:57,310 That's who the man is, that's who I married. 442 00:28:57,320 --> 00:29:02,430 Do I wish sometimes that it was closer 443 00:29:02,440 --> 00:29:04,640 and he would come home at five o'clock? 444 00:29:04,650 --> 00:29:05,720 As a wife, yes. 445 00:29:05,730 --> 00:29:14,050 As a human being, it needs to continue, so. 446 00:29:14,060 --> 00:29:15,970 SIMONE BALOG: He's on this never ending quest 447 00:29:15,980 --> 00:29:19,260 for something. 448 00:29:19,270 --> 00:29:22,840 He's just going and hoping that something 449 00:29:22,850 --> 00:29:26,050 that he's doing is taking him in the right direction 450 00:29:26,060 --> 00:29:27,880 and I think that EIS is it. 451 00:29:27,900 --> 00:29:34,970 He's looking to make a global, worldwide impact. 452 00:29:34,980 --> 00:29:39,050 I've never seen him so passionate 453 00:29:39,060 --> 00:29:41,630 about a project before. 454 00:29:56,570 --> 00:29:58,380 SVAV JONATANSSON: Alright, this way. 455 00:29:58,400 --> 00:30:00,590 It's my job to go out there every couple 456 00:30:00,600 --> 00:30:02,760 of months to visit the cameras. 457 00:30:02,770 --> 00:30:05,640 To go over is everything is okay. 458 00:30:07,320 --> 00:30:12,220 There was always a possibility that this would happen. 459 00:30:13,940 --> 00:30:15,970 This just-- this whole piece must have cracked off 460 00:30:15,980 --> 00:30:20,510 in one part; flew off into whoever knows where. 461 00:30:20,520 --> 00:30:24,220 The rock obviously did not read our warning. 462 00:30:24,230 --> 00:30:25,890 JAMES BALOG: It's only shot eight pictures 463 00:30:25,900 --> 00:30:30,630 in the past 24 hours which is somewhat weird. 464 00:30:30,640 --> 00:30:37,510 In fact it's very weird. 465 00:30:37,520 --> 00:30:39,050 DR. JASON BOX: It-- It could still shoot. 466 00:30:39,060 --> 00:30:40,720 JAMES BALOG: Come on, please. 467 00:30:40,730 --> 00:30:41,720 Please work. 468 00:30:41,730 --> 00:30:43,140 It's dead. 469 00:30:43,150 --> 00:30:44,010 It has to be dead. 470 00:30:44,020 --> 00:30:46,600 JASON BOX: Okay, so... 471 00:30:46,610 --> 00:30:50,470 JAMES BALOG: Everything we're trying is getting thwarted. 472 00:30:56,110 --> 00:31:00,670 ADAM LEWINTER: Again. Zebras again. 473 00:31:00,680 --> 00:31:03,220 JAMES BALOG: Ohhhhh. 474 00:31:03,230 --> 00:31:04,550 JEFF ORLOWSKI: We've had numerous, 475 00:31:04,560 --> 00:31:07,840 numerous timer failures. 476 00:31:07,860 --> 00:31:11,880 We've had cameras buried under 15 or 20 feet of snow. 477 00:31:11,890 --> 00:31:13,390 JAMES BALOG: Ewwww. 478 00:31:13,400 --> 00:31:14,760 Oh my. 479 00:31:14,770 --> 00:31:17,670 JEFF ORLOWSKI: We've had Plexiglas windows sand blasted. 480 00:31:17,690 --> 00:31:20,880 We've had batteries explode inside the camera boxes. 481 00:31:20,890 --> 00:31:22,510 ADAM LEWINTER: I think it's a bird just kind 482 00:31:22,520 --> 00:31:23,840 of pecking away at it. 483 00:31:23,850 --> 00:31:27,220 ADAM LEWINTER: This is what a fox does to your cables 484 00:31:27,230 --> 00:31:28,460 when you're not looking. 485 00:31:28,470 --> 00:31:30,720 ADAM LEWINTER: He had spent a lot of many-- grants, 486 00:31:30,730 --> 00:31:33,470 personal money, getting to Alaska, getting to Greenland 487 00:31:33,480 --> 00:31:35,300 and when you go out there, you want it to work, 488 00:31:35,310 --> 00:31:38,670 and when something doesn't work, you feel so far from anything 489 00:31:38,680 --> 00:31:41,510 and anyone that can help you. 490 00:31:41,520 --> 00:31:45,970 JAMES BALOG: I think It's in that voltage regulator. 491 00:31:52,560 --> 00:31:55,550 All of that obsession means absolutely nothing 492 00:31:55,560 --> 00:31:59,760 if a little electronic piece that big doesn't work. 493 00:32:00,980 --> 00:32:03,180 If I don't have pictures, I don't have anything. 494 00:32:03,190 --> 00:32:05,930 You know, everything is a failure. 495 00:32:05,940 --> 00:32:07,710 No, it's dead, it's not working. 496 00:32:07,730 --> 00:32:10,840 Period, flat out, just dead. 497 00:32:10,850 --> 00:32:12,260 It's dead. 498 00:32:13,440 --> 00:32:14,760 God, after all this! 499 00:32:14,770 --> 00:32:17,710 After all this, it just - it makes me insane! 500 00:32:17,730 --> 00:32:20,670 It makes me fucking insane! 501 00:32:22,640 --> 00:32:27,420 It's so disappointing. 502 00:32:27,440 --> 00:32:35,800 SIMONE BALOG: It's hard to see somebody that you love chase 503 00:32:35,810 --> 00:32:37,710 after something that... 504 00:32:37,730 --> 00:32:40,130 might not ever happen. 505 00:33:18,220 --> 00:33:20,130 JAMES BALOG: See that white dot down there... 506 00:33:20,140 --> 00:33:21,340 There's a white dot on the... 507 00:33:21,350 --> 00:33:25,970 Something's happening inside the timer. 508 00:33:25,980 --> 00:33:28,130 After months of trouble shooting, 509 00:33:28,150 --> 00:33:30,050 we realized that the core problem was 510 00:33:30,060 --> 00:33:33,050 in the voltage regulator and in this little computer timer-- 511 00:33:33,060 --> 00:33:37,390 this custom made computer that told the cameras when to fire. 512 00:33:37,400 --> 00:33:38,420 ADAM LEWINTER: We worked with these guys 513 00:33:38,430 --> 00:33:40,590 at National Geographic, and we sat down 514 00:33:40,600 --> 00:33:42,180 and re-designed the controllers. 515 00:33:42,190 --> 00:33:45,140 JAMES BALOG: We switched to an entirely different kind 516 00:33:45,150 --> 00:33:48,760 of a circuit that used less power and is a lot more reliable 517 00:33:48,770 --> 00:33:53,260 because it has a simpler electronic circuitry inside it. 518 00:33:53,270 --> 00:33:55,010 ADAM LEWINTER: That was the turning point 519 00:33:55,020 --> 00:33:57,710 for the whole system. 520 00:33:57,730 --> 00:33:59,760 JAMES BALOG: We had to replace all the old timers. 521 00:33:59,770 --> 00:34:03,550 And had to wait for a whole season to check on them again 522 00:34:03,560 --> 00:34:06,050 and make sure they were working. 523 00:34:56,730 --> 00:34:59,470 ADAM LEWINTER: We gotta be getting close. 524 00:34:59,480 --> 00:35:00,420 JAMES BALOG: We are. 525 00:35:00,430 --> 00:35:06,810 We'll be able to see it from up here. 526 00:35:06,820 --> 00:35:07,920 ADAM LEWINTER: Yeah. 527 00:35:11,480 --> 00:35:12,720 JAMES BALOG: Okay. 528 00:35:12,730 --> 00:35:20,130 Alright. This is the big one; Okay. 529 00:35:22,900 --> 00:35:23,840 Here it goes. 530 00:35:23,850 --> 00:35:25,390 Playback. 531 00:35:30,680 --> 00:35:31,800 JAMES BALOG: March. 532 00:35:31,810 --> 00:35:34,390 11, 2008. It just shot! 533 00:35:39,850 --> 00:35:43,300 It's been working all winter! 534 00:35:43,310 --> 00:35:44,970 Ahhh man. Hello! 535 00:35:44,980 --> 00:35:47,050 I can't believe that worked. 536 00:35:47,070 --> 00:35:49,510 Do you know how cold it's been out here, for how long? 537 00:35:49,520 --> 00:35:51,720 ADAM LEWINTER: I'm unbelievably surprised. 538 00:35:51,730 --> 00:35:54,930 ADAM LEWINTER (CONT'D): We have over 2,300 frames. 539 00:35:54,940 --> 00:35:55,680 JAMES BALOG: Since June? 540 00:35:55,690 --> 00:35:57,960 Let me see. 541 00:35:57,980 --> 00:36:00,260 ADAM LEWINTER: And everything's working. 542 00:36:24,730 --> 00:36:26,930 JAMES BALOG: It's been shooting the entire time... 543 00:36:26,940 --> 00:36:32,010 Fantastic. 544 00:36:32,020 --> 00:36:34,140 Here's the memory of the camera and this is-- actually, 545 00:36:34,150 --> 00:36:35,760 that's an interesting thought. 546 00:36:35,770 --> 00:36:37,840 This is the memory of the landscape. 547 00:36:37,860 --> 00:36:39,550 That landscape is gone. 548 00:36:39,560 --> 00:36:42,090 It may never be seen again in the history of civilization 549 00:36:42,100 --> 00:36:45,890 and it's stored right here. 550 00:36:55,980 --> 00:36:58,670 In 1984, the glacier was down there, 11 miles away. 551 00:36:58,680 --> 00:37:00,840 And today, it's back here. 552 00:37:00,850 --> 00:37:03,390 It receded 11 miles. 553 00:37:03,400 --> 00:37:06,010 The glacier's retreating, 554 00:37:06,020 --> 00:37:07,880 but it's also thinning at the same time. 555 00:37:07,900 --> 00:37:09,550 It's like the air being let out of a balloon. 556 00:37:09,560 --> 00:37:12,430 You can see what's called the trim line-- 557 00:37:12,440 --> 00:37:16,720 it's the high water mark of the glacier in 1984. 558 00:37:16,730 --> 00:37:19,670 That vertical change is the height 559 00:37:19,680 --> 00:37:22,680 of the Empire State Building. 560 00:37:34,940 --> 00:37:39,340 You know, we're really in the midst of geologic scale change. 561 00:37:39,350 --> 00:37:42,890 You know our brains are programed to think 562 00:37:42,900 --> 00:37:45,430 that geology is something that happened a long time ago 563 00:37:45,440 --> 00:37:47,590 or it will happen a long time in the future. 564 00:37:47,610 --> 00:37:50,720 And we don't think that can happen during these little years 565 00:37:50,730 --> 00:37:52,840 that we each live on this planet. 566 00:37:52,850 --> 00:37:56,180 But the reality is that it does. 567 00:37:56,190 --> 00:37:58,630 That things can happen very, very very quickly. 568 00:37:58,640 --> 00:38:01,050 We're living through one of those moments 569 00:38:01,060 --> 00:38:03,970 of epochal geologic change right now. 570 00:38:03,980 --> 00:38:06,760 And we humans are causing it. 571 00:38:39,850 --> 00:38:42,510 JAMES BALOG: Up and down the edges of the ice sheet, 572 00:38:42,520 --> 00:38:45,140 there's this zone called the melt zone. 573 00:38:45,150 --> 00:38:49,840 This is where the sheet is melting and that stored water 574 00:38:49,850 --> 00:38:53,050 from the ice sheet is running out to sea. 575 00:39:05,110 --> 00:39:07,800 I have to wrap my knees for the day's festivities. 576 00:39:07,810 --> 00:39:11,260 This knee has had two surgeries on it already 577 00:39:11,270 --> 00:39:14,350 and it really could use a third. 578 00:39:16,730 --> 00:39:19,220 It's like the surface of the moon. 579 00:39:19,230 --> 00:39:22,260 Look at those holes. 580 00:39:33,850 --> 00:39:35,100 Oh my gosh, look at this stuff! 581 00:39:35,110 --> 00:39:37,710 I had no idea it was so thick in here. 582 00:39:37,730 --> 00:39:41,220 This stuff, this cryoconite, it's made from a combination 583 00:39:41,230 --> 00:39:43,510 of natural dust that blows in from the deserts 584 00:39:43,520 --> 00:39:48,510 of central Asia, mixed with little flakes of carbon, 585 00:39:48,520 --> 00:39:53,220 Fine particles of soot that come from wildfires, diesel exhaust 586 00:39:53,230 --> 00:39:54,760 and coal-fired power plants. 587 00:39:54,770 --> 00:39:58,050 And on top of it, there's algae that grows out here and all 588 00:39:58,060 --> 00:40:00,720 of that stuff accumulates in these little holes, 589 00:40:00,730 --> 00:40:04,300 and because it's black, it absorbs the sun's heat more 590 00:40:04,310 --> 00:40:05,810 than the surrounding ice does. 591 00:40:05,820 --> 00:40:08,050 And all over the surface of the ice sheet, 592 00:40:08,060 --> 00:40:10,380 there's literally billions 593 00:40:10,390 --> 00:40:13,390 of these little cryoconite holes melting away 594 00:40:13,400 --> 00:40:15,220 and filling up with water. 595 00:40:15,230 --> 00:40:17,840 And when you look down at those holes, 596 00:40:17,850 --> 00:40:20,170 what you can actually see is these little bubbles 597 00:40:20,180 --> 00:40:29,220 of ancient air being released as the ice sheet melts. 598 00:40:32,190 --> 00:40:34,350 The part of Greenland that's melting, 599 00:40:34,360 --> 00:40:36,180 is out on the edges of the ice sheet. 600 00:40:36,190 --> 00:40:39,550 And that area is growing, and it's moving higher 601 00:40:39,560 --> 00:40:40,800 up onto the ice sheet. 602 00:40:40,810 --> 00:40:44,300 As the climate changes in that part of the world. 603 00:40:44,310 --> 00:40:46,720 You see, all this water, melting 604 00:40:46,730 --> 00:40:49,220 down through these swiss cheese holes, you see it melting 605 00:40:49,230 --> 00:40:50,630 down through the channels, 606 00:40:50,640 --> 00:40:52,220 from little channels into big channels. 607 00:40:52,230 --> 00:40:55,430 And eventually, everything drops vertically, 608 00:40:55,440 --> 00:40:58,840 down through these big Moulin caverns. 609 00:40:58,850 --> 00:41:00,550 Goes down to the bottom of the ice sheet 610 00:41:00,560 --> 00:41:02,550 and out into the ocean. 611 00:41:05,900 --> 00:41:06,840 DR. TAD PFEFFER: Ordinarily, 612 00:41:06,860 --> 00:41:08,130 if you make climate a little warmer, 613 00:41:08,140 --> 00:41:09,760 the glacier shrinks a little bit. 614 00:41:09,770 --> 00:41:11,630 If you make the climate a little colder, 615 00:41:11,640 --> 00:41:12,840 the glacier grows a little bit. 616 00:41:12,900 --> 00:41:16,920 And those two things kind of work to maintain balance. 617 00:41:16,940 --> 00:41:19,220 But if it gets too warm, and the ice gets too thin, 618 00:41:19,230 --> 00:41:23,340 it doesn't just respond just a little bit, the volume drops. 619 00:41:23,350 --> 00:41:26,260 You cross that tipping point, climate no longer matters. 620 00:41:26,270 --> 00:41:29,880 It's irreversible-- it's just gonna keep going. 621 00:41:29,890 --> 00:41:32,550 JAMES BALOG: The sea level rise that will happen 622 00:41:32,560 --> 00:41:35,600 in my daughter's lifetimes, will be somewhere between a foot 623 00:41:35,610 --> 00:41:36,920 in a half and a half and three feet. 624 00:41:36,940 --> 00:41:40,130 Minimum. That doesn't sound like a lot if you live 625 00:41:40,140 --> 00:41:43,430 in the Rocky Mountains, but if you live down in Chesapeake Bay, 626 00:41:43,440 --> 00:41:45,600 along the Gulf Coast of the United States, 627 00:41:45,610 --> 00:41:48,340 in the Ganges flood plane - that matters a lot. 628 00:41:48,350 --> 00:41:51,550 It matters in China, it matters in Indonesia. 629 00:41:51,560 --> 00:41:55,930 A minimum of 150 million people will be displaced-- 630 00:41:55,940 --> 00:41:58,710 that's like approximately half the size of the United States. 631 00:41:58,720 --> 00:42:01,430 And all of those people are going to be flushed out and have 632 00:42:01,440 --> 00:42:03,840 to move somewhere else. 633 00:42:03,900 --> 00:42:08,010 It also intensifies the impact of hurricanes and typhoons. 634 00:42:08,020 --> 00:42:11,090 It means that there's a lot more high water along the coast 635 00:42:11,100 --> 00:42:13,340 lines, so when these big storms come, 636 00:42:13,350 --> 00:42:17,260 it pushes that much more water that much further inland. 637 00:42:18,390 --> 00:42:19,840 That's where our story 638 00:42:19,850 --> 00:42:21,760 of Greenland Climate Change is expressed, 639 00:42:21,770 --> 00:42:24,550 it's in that melt water, rushing out to the ocean. 640 00:42:24,560 --> 00:42:27,420 That's what we're photographing; that's what I've been 641 00:42:27,440 --> 00:42:30,550 up there trying to document. 642 00:43:03,650 --> 00:43:05,930 ADAM LEWINTER: You know, I've seen this thing from your photos 643 00:43:05,940 --> 00:43:08,380 and sat pictures, but to be here, it's incredible. 644 00:43:08,390 --> 00:43:12,430 It's all becoming a little more real. 645 00:43:12,440 --> 00:43:15,140 While we're heading over, why don't I walk over 646 00:43:15,150 --> 00:43:16,800 and give you some scale? 647 00:43:16,820 --> 00:43:18,170 JAMES BALOG: Sure. 648 00:43:18,180 --> 00:43:21,050 Just be careful, don't get too close to the edge, alright? 649 00:43:21,060 --> 00:43:23,180 Stay up where it's flat. 650 00:43:24,650 --> 00:43:27,670 This is really something. 651 00:43:27,680 --> 00:43:31,050 ADAM LEWINTER: This is terrifying. 652 00:43:31,060 --> 00:43:33,640 : This isn't a 10 foot little hole in the ground, 653 00:43:33,650 --> 00:43:37,630 it's 100 feet deep into an abyss. 654 00:43:37,650 --> 00:43:40,470 If you don't have that, that little dot of a person 655 00:43:40,480 --> 00:43:43,300 for scale, then it's lost. 656 00:43:43,310 --> 00:43:45,180 JAMES BALOG: That is fabulous. 657 00:43:45,190 --> 00:43:47,760 This is a reasonable route right here. 658 00:43:47,780 --> 00:43:48,710 Look at that. 659 00:43:48,720 --> 00:43:49,720 ADAM LEWINTER: Oh yeah. 660 00:43:49,730 --> 00:43:50,800 JAMES BALOG: That's like a gift. 661 00:43:50,810 --> 00:43:51,550 ADAM LEWINTER: This is the danger spot. 662 00:43:51,560 --> 00:43:52,390 JAMES BALOG: Yeah. 663 00:43:52,400 --> 00:43:53,510 ADAM LEWINTER: For sure. 664 00:43:53,520 --> 00:43:54,550 JAMES BALOG: Well, and the other danger is 665 00:43:54,560 --> 00:43:55,970 that the whole thing suddenly implodes 666 00:43:55,980 --> 00:43:57,260 and the entire thing collapses, 667 00:43:57,280 --> 00:43:59,970 but I don't think that's very likely. 668 00:44:02,400 --> 00:44:05,640 ADAM LEWINTER: This moulin is one of thousands of moulins all 669 00:44:05,650 --> 00:44:07,960 over the melt zone in Greenland and everyday, 670 00:44:07,970 --> 00:44:09,720 the ice is cooking down, 671 00:44:09,730 --> 00:44:12,050 and water is pouring into the ice sheet. 672 00:44:12,060 --> 00:44:13,850 It's enormous, you can't wrap your head 673 00:44:13,900 --> 00:44:19,010 around how much water is coming off this place. 674 00:44:19,060 --> 00:44:23,550 ADAM LEWINTER (CONT'D): You got it. 675 00:44:23,560 --> 00:44:31,880 JEFF ORLOWSKI: Adam, have you ever done something 676 00:44:31,890 --> 00:44:34,010 like this before? 677 00:44:34,020 --> 00:44:36,350 ADAM LEWINTER: No. Not at all. 678 00:44:47,400 --> 00:44:49,170 ADAM LEWINTER: It's all calculated risks. 679 00:44:49,230 --> 00:44:51,300 It's not like we're just going out there 680 00:44:51,310 --> 00:44:59,380 and playing Russian Roulette. 681 00:44:59,390 --> 00:45:01,470 JAMES BALOG: Piece o'cake. 682 00:45:01,480 --> 00:45:08,550 Ohhh, there's all sorts of curios crinkling 683 00:45:08,560 --> 00:45:11,050 and crunching effects in my knee. 684 00:45:16,400 --> 00:45:18,840 Just not what the doctor ordered. 685 00:45:20,640 --> 00:45:25,180 Alright. Look down! 686 00:45:31,060 --> 00:45:32,220 ADAM LEWINTER: Look down? 687 00:45:32,230 --> 00:45:33,720 JAMES BALOG: Look! Down! 688 00:45:33,730 --> 00:45:39,260 ADAM LEWINTER: It's just bottomless... 689 00:45:39,270 --> 00:45:42,680 Oh my God. 690 00:45:42,690 --> 00:45:46,180 I do not want to go any lower than this. 691 00:45:46,230 --> 00:45:48,630 JAMES BALOG: I'm going out here on this broken fin. 692 00:45:48,640 --> 00:45:53,340 Okay? And I don't, I assume it won't collapse. 693 00:46:08,930 --> 00:46:09,840 JAMES BALOG (CONT'D): Okay. 694 00:46:09,850 --> 00:46:11,260 All done! 695 00:46:11,270 --> 00:46:13,550 ADAM LEWINTER: Oh thank God! 696 00:46:13,560 --> 00:46:16,180 JAMES BALOG: Fantastic! 697 00:46:27,930 --> 00:46:32,430 There were audible chunks of gravel like substances 698 00:46:32,440 --> 00:46:35,010 that I could feel rolling around in there. 699 00:46:35,060 --> 00:46:37,340 The bionic man. 700 00:46:37,400 --> 00:46:40,550 I was covering up the soreness with anti-inflammatories 701 00:46:40,560 --> 00:46:42,840 and pain killers so that I could function in the field 702 00:46:42,900 --> 00:46:45,300 and I would think, ah, that's pretty good-- not so bad. 703 00:46:45,310 --> 00:46:48,300 Not realizing that the drugs were masking the symptoms way 704 00:46:48,310 --> 00:46:50,840 more than I had realized. 705 00:46:51,850 --> 00:46:52,550 JAMES BALOG (CONT'D): Bye babe. 706 00:46:52,560 --> 00:46:53,890 I love you. 707 00:46:53,900 --> 00:46:57,880 SUZANNE BALOG: I love you too. 708 00:47:08,770 --> 00:47:10,010 FEMALE NEWSCASTER: More 709 00:47:10,020 --> 00:47:11,510 and more people are becoming increasingly skeptical 710 00:47:11,520 --> 00:47:13,510 about the existence of climate change. 711 00:47:13,520 --> 00:47:15,760 HANNITY: These so called climate scientists are 712 00:47:15,770 --> 00:47:17,960 hoodwinking the entire world community. 713 00:47:17,970 --> 00:47:20,220 BRIAN SUSSMAN: There is no consensus, this is a myth. 714 00:47:20,230 --> 00:47:21,760 SENATOR INHOFE: The notion that man made gas, 715 00:47:21,770 --> 00:47:25,350 this anthropogenic gas, this C02 cause global warming is probably 716 00:47:25,400 --> 00:47:27,130 the greatest hoax ever perpetrated 717 00:47:27,150 --> 00:47:28,170 on the American people. 718 00:47:28,220 --> 00:47:29,590 RUSH LIMBAUGH (VO): 719 00:47:29,600 --> 00:47:37,380 All of this garbage science has been a total fraud and a fake! 720 00:47:40,180 --> 00:47:41,970 SUZANNE BALOG: Jim was told after his surgery 721 00:47:41,980 --> 00:47:44,100 that hiking is not a form of exercise 722 00:47:44,110 --> 00:47:46,340 that they want him to pursue anymore. 723 00:47:46,360 --> 00:47:55,350 I'm not sure that's sunken in quite yet. 724 00:47:57,470 --> 00:48:00,380 JAMES BALOG: I think, when we started out, 725 00:48:00,390 --> 00:48:02,260 the glacier was approximately right here. 726 00:48:02,270 --> 00:48:04,470 It might of been there, it might of been here; 727 00:48:04,480 --> 00:48:07,010 but it's in this zone somewhere. 728 00:48:12,060 --> 00:48:13,600 Look. Look at this. 729 00:48:13,610 --> 00:48:17,710 In '05, you couldn't even look into the canyon back there, 730 00:48:17,720 --> 00:48:19,920 look, it was all filled up to that point. 731 00:48:19,930 --> 00:48:23,850 And look how, look how low it is now. 732 00:48:32,020 --> 00:48:38,510 JAMES BALOG: Beautiful. 733 00:48:38,520 --> 00:48:44,180 And that's 2007-- that isn't even 2005. 734 00:48:44,190 --> 00:48:48,630 In 2007, just two years ago, you couldn't see any 735 00:48:48,640 --> 00:48:50,470 of that mountain ridge over there. 736 00:48:50,480 --> 00:48:53,010 The thing has deflated tremendously, I mean, 737 00:48:53,020 --> 00:48:56,010 I don't know what the number of feet is, but, it's a lot. 738 00:48:56,070 --> 00:49:00,130 If I hadn't seen it in the pictures, 739 00:49:00,140 --> 00:49:02,340 I wouldn't believe it at all. 740 00:49:24,110 --> 00:49:28,090 JAMES BALOG: When I saw that glacier dying, it was like, wow. 741 00:49:28,100 --> 00:49:29,170 You know we, uh... 742 00:49:29,230 --> 00:49:32,930 If a glacier that's been here for 30,000 years, 743 00:49:32,940 --> 00:49:37,090 or 100,000 years is literally dying in front of my eyes, 744 00:49:37,110 --> 00:49:45,760 you're very aware of the fact that... 745 00:49:45,770 --> 00:49:50,970 You know, sometime you um... 746 00:49:50,980 --> 00:50:06,170 sometime you go out over the horizon and you don't come back. 747 00:50:10,060 --> 00:50:13,340 JEFF ORLOWSKI: James is now doing exactly what his doctors 748 00:50:13,350 --> 00:50:16,710 said he shouldn't be doing. 749 00:50:22,730 --> 00:50:23,640 ADAM LEWINTER: Lower. 750 00:50:31,560 --> 00:50:33,970 JAMES BALOG: Oh, man. 751 00:50:33,980 --> 00:50:36,880 ADAM LEWINTER: A little more... 752 00:50:36,900 --> 00:50:37,630 Okay... 753 00:50:42,060 --> 00:50:44,140 Yes...there you go. 754 00:50:56,110 --> 00:50:58,590 JAMES BALOG: It feels worse this morning 755 00:50:58,600 --> 00:51:02,050 than it has any day since the surgery. 756 00:51:02,060 --> 00:51:04,800 It felt better the three days after the surgery 757 00:51:04,810 --> 00:51:06,710 than it feels right now. 758 00:51:06,730 --> 00:51:12,510 I think that the best that can be said about this is, 759 00:51:12,520 --> 00:51:14,260 ah I'm a safety liability. 760 00:51:14,270 --> 00:51:18,010 ADAM LEWINTER: Well, you can maybe limp your way up, but... 761 00:51:18,060 --> 00:51:19,840 you can't go down that. 762 00:51:19,890 --> 00:51:21,050 SVAV JONATANSSON: Unless you're in a wheelchair. 763 00:51:21,060 --> 00:51:24,680 ADAM LEWINTER: I mean, we need to go up there-- 764 00:51:24,690 --> 00:51:27,300 check on the camera, and all of that, but... 765 00:51:27,310 --> 00:51:29,550 but you don't necessarily need to do it. 766 00:51:29,560 --> 00:51:31,380 I mean, that's more of a climb 767 00:51:31,390 --> 00:51:33,340 than we did in the past two days. 768 00:51:33,400 --> 00:51:35,260 JAMES BALOG: I have a hard time letting ideas go, you know? 769 00:51:35,270 --> 00:51:37,260 SVAR JONATANSSON: Well here's another thing. 770 00:51:37,280 --> 00:51:38,760 ADAM LEWINTER: That's why your knee's like this. 771 00:51:38,770 --> 00:51:40,180 JAMES BALOG: Okay. 772 00:51:40,190 --> 00:51:43,090 I'm inclined to think that you guys should at least go and look 773 00:51:43,100 --> 00:51:44,850 at one of the cameras - get it downloaded, 774 00:51:44,900 --> 00:51:46,670 get the computer changed today. 775 00:51:46,730 --> 00:51:47,420 Okay? 776 00:51:47,430 --> 00:51:48,130 ADAM LEWINTER: Yep. 777 00:51:48,140 --> 00:51:52,010 JAMES BALOG: Enough 778 00:51:55,730 --> 00:52:04,510 ADAM LEWINTER: See the route? 779 00:52:11,770 --> 00:52:12,930 ADAM LEWINTER (CONT'D): Okay. 780 00:52:12,940 --> 00:52:22,300 Hold on. See if you can get in there. 781 00:52:22,310 --> 00:52:24,350 That's it! 782 00:52:29,770 --> 00:52:32,840 Let's get out of here. 783 00:52:39,560 --> 00:52:40,840 ADAM LEWINTER (CONT'D): Every once in a while, 784 00:52:40,890 --> 00:52:42,840 I get this thing in the back of my head saying, 785 00:52:42,850 --> 00:52:44,510 what were you thinking? 786 00:52:44,560 --> 00:52:47,800 Maybe that office job wasn't so bad. 787 00:52:49,100 --> 00:52:50,340 But... 788 00:52:50,390 --> 00:52:52,010 SVAV JONATANSSON: The sandwiches are better here. 789 00:52:52,020 --> 00:52:53,050 ADAM LEWINTER: The - after the sandwich, 790 00:52:53,060 --> 00:52:55,310 I'm totally happy to be here. 791 00:52:55,320 --> 00:52:57,460 This project is... 792 00:52:57,470 --> 00:52:59,760 now we're two years in. 793 00:52:59,770 --> 00:53:02,680 We have like, hundreds of thousands of images. 794 00:53:02,730 --> 00:53:03,850 SVAV JONATANSSON: It feels like, yeah, 795 00:53:03,860 --> 00:53:05,680 he goes to that point where he can't anymore 796 00:53:05,730 --> 00:53:07,920 and sometimes you even feel he's going even further. 797 00:53:07,930 --> 00:53:09,840 Yeah and he speaks about it, he says, well, 798 00:53:09,850 --> 00:53:12,640 so I'll just do a fourth knee surgery, you know? 799 00:53:12,650 --> 00:53:16,010 Like, however many it takes to keep him going. 800 00:53:16,020 --> 00:53:18,510 Like most people say, I'm going to get knee surgery 801 00:53:18,520 --> 00:53:19,970 to fix me, kind of, you know? 802 00:53:19,980 --> 00:53:21,130 It's to make it better. 803 00:53:21,140 --> 00:53:23,850 But for him, it's to make it better so he can keep 804 00:53:23,900 --> 00:53:26,800 on pushing it, destroying it, basically, 805 00:53:26,820 --> 00:53:35,850 and then maybe he'll just have to do it again. 806 00:53:40,100 --> 00:53:46,880 JAMES BALOG: Okay Svav, you ready for another exposure? 807 00:53:46,900 --> 00:53:51,260 Do it exactly as you just did it, okay? 808 00:53:51,270 --> 00:53:52,640 You ready? 809 00:53:52,650 --> 00:53:54,300 SVAV JONATANSSON: So as quick as I can, I, I cover it. 810 00:53:54,310 --> 00:53:55,600 JAMES BALOG: That's right. 811 00:53:55,610 --> 00:53:57,420 JAMES BALOG (CONT'D): Way back, early in my career, 812 00:53:57,430 --> 00:53:59,800 I discovered that there was really something special 813 00:53:59,810 --> 00:54:04,010 about photographing at night, that places your mind 814 00:54:04,020 --> 00:54:12,680 on the surface of a planet. 815 00:54:12,690 --> 00:54:15,010 You're no longer just a human being walking 816 00:54:15,070 --> 00:54:16,300 around in the regular world. 817 00:54:16,320 --> 00:54:21,590 You are a human animal, striding around on the surface 818 00:54:21,600 --> 00:54:27,630 of the planet that's out in the middle of the galaxy. 819 00:54:27,640 --> 00:54:29,880 We as a culture-- we're forgetting 820 00:54:29,890 --> 00:54:32,510 that we are actually natural organisms 821 00:54:32,520 --> 00:54:34,890 and that we have this very, very deep connection 822 00:54:34,900 --> 00:54:36,630 and contact with, and contact with nature. 823 00:54:36,650 --> 00:54:40,180 You can't divorce civilization from nature. 824 00:54:40,190 --> 00:54:44,680 We totally depend on it. 825 00:55:23,440 --> 00:55:24,550 ADAM LEWINTER: Shortly after that, 826 00:55:24,560 --> 00:55:28,340 he sent us on this month long, massive trip, 827 00:55:28,390 --> 00:55:31,800 to a place that's really hard to get to, 828 00:55:31,810 --> 00:55:36,140 to get a shot that's is just-- it was such a shot in the dark. 829 00:55:37,520 --> 00:55:41,840 The idea sprung from this one glacier called Store. 830 00:55:41,900 --> 00:55:44,890 That event was so spectacular, we decided, 831 00:55:44,900 --> 00:55:48,220 okay we got to go back, and go to the big glacier, 832 00:55:48,230 --> 00:55:51,510 Ilulissat glacier and sit. 833 00:55:51,520 --> 00:55:55,100 And wait. We're going to try to catch some... 834 00:55:55,110 --> 00:55:57,460 some big calving events. 835 00:55:57,470 --> 00:56:01,380 You know, kilometer wide pieces of ice coming 836 00:56:01,390 --> 00:56:05,430 of this massive, massive, glacier. 837 00:56:07,770 --> 00:56:09,220 JEFF ORLOWSKI: The Ilulissat glacier in Greenland is kind 838 00:56:09,230 --> 00:56:10,970 of-- like the mother of all glaciers. 839 00:56:10,980 --> 00:56:13,050 It is the most productive glacier 840 00:56:13,060 --> 00:56:14,470 in the Norther Hemisphere. 841 00:56:14,480 --> 00:56:17,420 It's rumored that this is the glacier that put out the iceberg 842 00:56:17,430 --> 00:56:18,340 that sank the titanic. 843 00:56:18,350 --> 00:56:22,510 It flows at 130 feet every day. 844 00:56:26,970 --> 00:56:32,930 This is a really, really huge fjord of ice, 845 00:56:32,940 --> 00:56:41,680 and it's about five miles wide. 846 00:56:43,020 --> 00:56:45,800 ADAM LEWINTER: That is massive. 847 00:56:45,820 --> 00:56:48,130 JEFF ORLOWSKI: I totally lost him. 848 00:56:48,140 --> 00:56:49,510 You see him still? 849 00:56:49,520 --> 00:56:50,800 ADAM LEWINTER: He's going-- he's, he's about to turn on go 850 00:56:50,810 --> 00:56:52,640 in front of the peninsula that we think's going to go. 851 00:56:52,650 --> 00:56:53,680 JEFF ORLOWSKI: Oh, I see him. 852 00:56:53,730 --> 00:57:02,760 ADAM LEWINTER: He's at the base of it. 853 00:57:04,230 --> 00:57:05,680 JEFF ORLOWSKI: What's up? 854 00:57:05,690 --> 00:57:08,170 ADAM LEWINTER: My boots are frozen. 855 00:57:08,230 --> 00:57:09,670 And I'm really tired. 856 00:57:09,680 --> 00:57:13,050 And nothing happens. 857 00:57:13,060 --> 00:57:17,420 For days and days and days. 858 00:57:17,430 --> 00:57:19,300 We called it glacier watching. 859 00:57:19,310 --> 00:57:20,720 JEFF ORLOWSKI: Because literally, it was just, 860 00:57:20,730 --> 00:57:26,210 me and Adam, for three weeks, watching ice. 861 00:57:39,850 --> 00:57:41,680 JAMES BALOG: Photography for me has been-- 862 00:57:41,690 --> 00:57:45,560 as much as anything-- about a raising of awareness. 863 00:57:45,570 --> 00:57:48,510 Through that camera, you know, we become vehicles 864 00:57:48,520 --> 00:57:52,470 to raise awareness outside my own experience. 865 00:57:52,480 --> 00:57:58,840 And in this case, we're the messengers. 866 00:58:11,400 --> 00:58:12,340 PRESENTOR: He is a visionary, 867 00:58:12,350 --> 00:58:15,260 and his works are like sacred objects. 868 00:58:15,270 --> 00:58:16,670 I present James Balog. 869 00:58:16,720 --> 00:58:20,930 JAMES BALOG: Thank you so much. 870 00:58:20,940 --> 00:58:23,100 Can we dim the house lights a little bit more? 871 00:58:23,110 --> 00:58:24,510 That's it, better. 872 00:58:24,520 --> 00:58:27,630 Okay. What I'm here to do tonight is bring 873 00:58:27,640 --> 00:58:31,760 to you tangible, visual evidence of the immediacy 874 00:58:31,770 --> 00:58:33,760 of climate change itself. 875 00:58:33,770 --> 00:58:36,760 Glaciers matter because they're the canary 876 00:58:36,780 --> 00:58:38,130 in the global coal mine. 877 00:58:38,140 --> 00:58:40,510 It's the place where you can see climate change happening. 878 00:58:40,520 --> 00:58:42,340 And without further adieu, 879 00:58:42,400 --> 00:58:44,890 let me tell you what we've been seeing out there. 880 00:58:44,900 --> 00:58:47,550 This is a glacier called the Solheim Glacier, 881 00:58:47,560 --> 00:58:48,590 we're looking down on it. 882 00:58:48,600 --> 00:58:52,470 Now we turn on our time lapse. 883 00:59:00,980 --> 00:59:02,510 You can see the terminus retreating, 884 00:59:02,560 --> 00:59:04,180 you can see this river being formed, 885 00:59:04,190 --> 00:59:08,220 you can see it deflating. 886 00:59:08,230 --> 00:59:10,760 You go back a couple years, in time... 887 00:59:10,770 --> 00:59:11,760 That's where it started. 888 00:59:11,770 --> 00:59:15,260 That's where it ended a few months ago. 889 00:59:15,270 --> 00:59:19,420 Now down onto the side of the glacier, 890 00:59:19,430 --> 00:59:24,930 looking across the terminus. 891 00:59:24,940 --> 00:59:25,670 This is what we see. 892 00:59:25,690 --> 00:59:26,670 Look at this. 893 00:59:26,680 --> 00:59:28,090 You'll see deflation happening here 894 00:59:28,100 --> 00:59:29,720 as heat takes away the surface 895 00:59:29,730 --> 00:59:31,550 of the glacier, the surface drops. 896 00:59:31,560 --> 00:59:34,350 At the same time, a stream is undercutting it 897 00:59:34,360 --> 00:59:36,840 from a glacier that's melting faster up valley, 898 00:59:36,850 --> 00:59:39,420 washing this thing away. 899 00:59:48,730 --> 00:59:52,840 The vast majority of glaciers in the world are retreating. 900 00:59:52,850 --> 00:59:55,510 Glacier National Park Montana will need a new name. 901 00:59:55,570 --> 00:59:58,510 We'll be calling it glacier-less national park by the middle 902 00:59:58,560 --> 01:00:02,510 of the century because all the glaciers will be gone. 903 01:00:02,520 --> 01:00:04,890 There's such a strange, bizarre fascination 904 01:00:04,900 --> 01:00:07,340 in seeing these things you don't normally get 905 01:00:07,350 --> 01:00:10,260 to see-- - come alive. 906 01:00:17,350 --> 01:00:20,550 We're up at the Columbia glacier in Alaska, this is a view 907 01:00:20,560 --> 01:00:21,800 of what's called a calving face. 908 01:00:21,810 --> 01:00:24,010 This is what one of our cameras saw 909 01:00:24,060 --> 01:00:30,970 over a course of a few months. 910 01:00:30,980 --> 01:00:34,010 The action at Columbia is in part, 911 01:00:34,020 --> 01:00:35,640 due to local glacier dynamics 912 01:00:35,650 --> 01:00:39,970 and in part due to climate change. 913 01:00:39,980 --> 01:00:41,760 Here's another time-laps shot of Columbia. 914 01:00:41,770 --> 01:00:45,310 And everybody says well don't they advance in the wintertime? 915 01:00:45,320 --> 01:00:47,090 No, it was retreating through the winter 916 01:00:47,100 --> 01:00:49,470 because it's an unhealthy glacier. 917 01:00:49,480 --> 01:00:54,510 We realized it was retreating so far we had to turn the camera 918 01:00:54,520 --> 01:00:56,130 up stream to follow the retreat. 919 01:00:56,150 --> 01:00:59,130 Then, we had to pivot it again. 920 01:01:13,560 --> 01:01:16,670 And then, when we went back this past August, it was so far 921 01:01:16,680 --> 01:01:19,340 out of frame we had to turn the camera one more time 922 01:01:19,390 --> 01:01:23,260 so that we could still see the glacier. 923 01:01:29,770 --> 01:01:32,180 So that's where we started three years ago way out on the left, 924 01:01:32,230 --> 01:01:34,510 that's where we were a few months ago last time we were 925 01:01:34,570 --> 01:01:38,300 into Columbia. 926 01:01:54,610 --> 01:01:55,590 ADAM LEWINTER: We're going to have 927 01:01:55,610 --> 01:01:58,380 to collapse it --- put rocks over it. 928 01:01:58,390 --> 01:01:59,510 It's ripping too. 929 01:01:59,520 --> 01:02:02,720 We got to collapse it now. 930 01:02:09,350 --> 01:02:11,390 FEMALE REPORTER (VO): James Balog is documenting the melting 931 01:02:11,400 --> 01:02:13,350 of glaciers around the world. 932 01:02:13,400 --> 01:02:16,420 The most visible manifestations of climate change on the planet. 933 01:02:16,430 --> 01:02:20,430 And he's making it possible for scientists to watch too. 934 01:02:20,440 --> 01:02:21,800 CNN FEMALE REPORTER (VO): James Balog is founder 935 01:02:21,810 --> 01:02:24,260 and director of the Extreme Ice Survey he's joining us now 936 01:02:24,270 --> 01:02:26,170 from Denver, James, thanks for being with us. 937 01:02:26,190 --> 01:02:27,510 JAMES BALOG: My pleasure, thank you. 938 01:02:27,520 --> 01:02:29,300 BRIAN WILLIAMS We'll also have more on our special report 939 01:02:29,310 --> 01:02:32,260 on a man who lets his pictures do the talking 940 01:02:32,270 --> 01:02:34,390 JAMES BALOG: As a photographer, it's exciting 941 01:02:34,400 --> 01:02:36,880 to see this stuff, but as a citizen of the world, 942 01:02:36,890 --> 01:02:38,590 you go, this is horrible. 943 01:02:38,600 --> 01:02:40,180 MALE REPORTER (VO): And consider who NASA is sending 944 01:02:40,230 --> 01:02:43,140 as a delegate to the climate change summit in Copenhagen. 945 01:02:43,150 --> 01:02:47,010 Jim Balog, a photographer with the group Extreme Ice Survey. 946 01:02:47,060 --> 01:02:48,170 JAMES BALOG: Prior to '06-- 947 01:02:48,230 --> 01:02:51,180 This glacier had retreated 10, 11 miles. 948 01:02:51,190 --> 01:02:54,470 And, now we've added just in the past few years, 949 01:02:54,480 --> 01:02:57,170 another two and a half miles. 950 01:02:57,180 --> 01:02:58,260 DR. MARTIN SHARP: One of the things you often hear 951 01:02:58,270 --> 01:03:00,180 in the debate about glacier change is 952 01:03:00,230 --> 01:03:01,840 that there are glaciers around the world 953 01:03:01,850 --> 01:03:03,180 which are also getting bigger 954 01:03:03,230 --> 01:03:05,390 and advancing, so, how can that be? 955 01:03:05,400 --> 01:03:09,550 How can that be a response to a global warming signal? 956 01:03:09,560 --> 01:03:12,010 What we've done recently on the Yukon territory in Canada --- 957 01:03:12,020 --> 01:03:16,210 where we looked at the change in glacier area from 1958 to 2008. 958 01:03:16,230 --> 01:03:19,880 And what we found was, of the 1,400 glaciers that were there 959 01:03:19,890 --> 01:03:23,010 in 1958, four got bigger. 960 01:03:23,060 --> 01:03:27,420 Over 300 disappeared completely, and almost all 961 01:03:27,430 --> 01:03:30,090 of the rest got smaller. 962 01:03:30,100 --> 01:03:32,930 Yes, there is a component of natural variability 963 01:03:32,940 --> 01:03:37,050 in the climate change we observe, but, it's not enough 964 01:03:37,060 --> 01:03:39,340 to explain the full signal. 965 01:03:39,390 --> 01:03:42,140 So there has to be a greenhouse gas element to it. 966 01:03:42,150 --> 01:03:45,840 JAMES BALOG: Up to the Ilulissat Glacier calving face. 967 01:03:45,900 --> 01:03:48,300 A little helicopter is shown for scale. 968 01:03:48,310 --> 01:03:51,300 The Atlantic Ocean is on the left side of the frame, 969 01:03:51,310 --> 01:03:53,010 covered with icebergs so thick, 970 01:03:53,020 --> 01:04:00,680 that you could walk across the ocean... 971 01:04:01,850 --> 01:04:03,350 ADAM LEWINTER: I'm on the phone with Jim, 972 01:04:03,400 --> 01:04:07,800 on one of our regular check-ins, Jim, just, nothing's happening. 973 01:04:07,810 --> 01:04:10,010 ADAM LEWINTER (CONT'D): Hey Jim! 974 01:04:10,020 --> 01:04:11,340 Uh... it's going well. 975 01:04:11,400 --> 01:04:14,640 We had some serious bouts of wind. 976 01:04:14,650 --> 01:04:20,050 But other than that, things are fairly well set up here. 977 01:04:20,060 --> 01:04:22,140 We've got some continuous time lapse going. 978 01:04:22,150 --> 01:04:22,970 JEFF ORLOWSKI: It's starting Adam, I think. 979 01:04:22,980 --> 01:04:24,010 Adam it's starting. 980 01:04:24,020 --> 01:04:24,930 ADAM LEWINTER: Oh wait, Jim, Jim... 981 01:04:24,940 --> 01:04:27,340 The big piece is starting to calve. 982 01:04:27,390 --> 01:04:28,840 Let me call you back. 983 01:04:28,850 --> 01:04:30,590 JEFF ORLOWSKI: Call him back. 984 01:04:30,600 --> 01:04:32,010 ADAM LEWINTER: Okay. Bye. 985 01:04:32,060 --> 01:04:34,510 JAMES BALOG: Is it still going? 986 01:04:34,570 --> 01:04:35,340 JEFF ORLOWSKI: Yeah. 987 01:04:35,400 --> 01:04:37,510 In that V-section right there. 988 01:04:39,180 --> 01:04:42,640 Holy shit, look at that big berg rolling. 989 01:04:42,650 --> 01:04:44,010 All four are running, right? 990 01:04:44,060 --> 01:04:46,210 ADAM LEWINTER: Yeah... Look at that! 991 01:04:49,310 --> 01:04:50,340 Do you see how... 992 01:04:50,390 --> 01:04:52,390 look at the whole thing! 993 01:06:26,850 --> 01:06:28,050 ADAM LEWINTER (CONT'D): 994 01:06:28,060 --> 01:06:32,140 The calving face was 300 sometimes 400 feet tall. 995 01:06:32,150 --> 01:06:33,220 Pieces of ice were shooting 996 01:06:33,230 --> 01:06:37,010 out of the ocean 600 feet and then falling. 997 01:06:37,060 --> 01:06:46,130 The only way you can try to put it into scale 998 01:06:47,390 --> 01:06:51,300 with human reference is if you imagine Manhattan. 999 01:06:51,310 --> 01:06:55,010 All the sudden, all those buildings just start to rumble 1000 01:06:55,070 --> 01:06:58,010 and quake and peel off and just fall over, 1001 01:06:58,060 --> 01:07:00,220 fall over and roll around. 1002 01:07:01,350 --> 01:07:05,170 This whole massive city, just breaking apart 1003 01:07:05,230 --> 01:07:07,800 in front of your eyes. 1004 01:07:16,430 --> 01:07:17,550 We're just observers. 1005 01:07:17,560 --> 01:07:20,630 These two little dots on the side of the mountain 1006 01:07:20,640 --> 01:07:24,140 and we watched and recorded the largest, 1007 01:07:24,150 --> 01:07:27,840 witnessed calving event ever caught on tape. 1008 01:07:31,230 --> 01:07:33,350 JAMES BALOG: So how big was this calving event 1009 01:07:33,400 --> 01:07:34,430 that we just looked at? 1010 01:07:34,440 --> 01:07:36,170 We'll resort to some illustrations again 1011 01:07:36,180 --> 01:07:37,510 to give you a sense of scale. 1012 01:07:37,520 --> 01:07:45,340 It's as if the entire lower tip of Manhattan broke off, 1013 01:07:45,400 --> 01:07:49,760 except that, the thickness-- the height of it-- is equivalent 1014 01:07:49,770 --> 01:07:51,340 to buildings that are two and a half 1015 01:07:51,350 --> 01:08:00,380 or three times higher than they are. 1016 01:08:09,020 --> 01:08:13,220 That's a magical, miraculous, horrible, scary thing. 1017 01:08:13,230 --> 01:08:16,800 I don't know that anybody's really seen the miracle 1018 01:08:16,810 --> 01:08:21,640 and horror of that. 1019 01:08:21,650 --> 01:08:23,300 It took a hundred years for it 1020 01:08:23,310 --> 01:08:26,960 to retreat eight miles - from 1900 to 2000. 1021 01:08:26,970 --> 01:08:30,800 From 2000 to 2010, it retreated nine miles. 1022 01:08:30,810 --> 01:08:33,180 So in 10 years, it retreated more 1023 01:08:33,230 --> 01:08:37,800 than it had in the previous 100. 1024 01:08:37,810 --> 01:08:39,010 It's real. 1025 01:08:39,020 --> 01:08:41,470 The changes are happening; they're very visible, 1026 01:08:41,480 --> 01:08:44,060 they're photographable, they're measurable. 1027 01:08:44,070 --> 01:08:47,670 There's no significant scientific dispute about that. 1028 01:08:47,730 --> 01:08:50,510 And the great irony and tragedy of our time is that a lot 1029 01:08:50,560 --> 01:08:51,840 of the general public thinks 1030 01:08:51,900 --> 01:08:54,390 that science is still arguing about that. 1031 01:08:54,400 --> 01:08:56,170 Science is not arguing about that. 1032 01:08:56,180 --> 01:08:58,340 JAMES WOOLSEY: One of the really troubling things 1033 01:08:58,390 --> 01:09:01,890 about climate change is that almost all 1034 01:09:01,900 --> 01:09:05,500 of the world's prestigious climatologist are much more 1035 01:09:05,570 --> 01:09:08,090 frightened about all this than the public is. 1036 01:09:08,100 --> 01:09:11,260 DENNIS DIMICK: People have a hard time understanding 1037 01:09:11,270 --> 01:09:13,760 when we talk about climate change. 1038 01:09:13,770 --> 01:09:17,010 What for me is so powerful and actually unprecedented 1039 01:09:17,060 --> 01:09:20,800 in the work that he is doing, is visualizing the change 1040 01:09:20,810 --> 01:09:27,010 that allows us to actually see what was and what is become. 1041 01:09:27,020 --> 01:09:29,800 RICHARD WARD: I actually saw his work last spring 1042 01:09:29,810 --> 01:09:33,680 and that kind of changed my life in the sense that I had 1043 01:09:33,730 --> 01:09:36,840 to quit what I was doing, which was working for Shell, 1044 01:09:36,850 --> 01:09:42,890 and get involved in this debate in a much more profound way. 1045 01:09:42,900 --> 01:09:44,390 LOUIS PSIHOYOS: The Extreme Ice Survey will go 1046 01:09:44,400 --> 01:09:47,880 down in history as this is the evidence 1047 01:09:47,890 --> 01:09:51,840 that we knew what was going on. 1048 01:09:51,850 --> 01:09:54,430 You can't deny it! 1049 01:09:59,730 --> 01:10:01,800 JAMES BALOG: We don't have a problem with economics, 1050 01:10:01,810 --> 01:10:03,930 technology and public policy. 1051 01:10:03,940 --> 01:10:05,760 We have a problem with perception. 1052 01:10:05,780 --> 01:10:08,880 Because not enough people really get it yet. 1053 01:10:08,890 --> 01:10:11,340 I believe we really have an opportunity right now. 1054 01:10:11,350 --> 01:10:14,010 We are nearly on the edge of a crisis, 1055 01:10:14,020 --> 01:10:18,340 but we still have an opportunity to face the greatest challenge 1056 01:10:18,390 --> 01:10:21,050 of our generation, and in fact, of our century. 1057 01:10:21,060 --> 01:10:23,550 Thank you. 1058 01:10:49,060 --> 01:10:53,010 When my daughters, Simone and Emily, look at me 25 or 30 years 1059 01:10:53,020 --> 01:10:57,920 from now and say, what were you doing when, when... 1060 01:10:57,930 --> 01:10:59,510 global warming was happening 1061 01:10:59,520 --> 01:11:02,390 and you guys knew what was coming down the road. 1062 01:11:02,400 --> 01:11:04,100 I want to be able to say, guys, 1063 01:11:04,110 --> 01:11:07,170 I was doing everything I knew how to do. 1063 01:11:08,305 --> 01:11:14,629 Support us and become VIP member to remove all ads from www.OpenSubtitles.org