Chasing Ice Page #4

of a circuit that used less

power and is a lot more reliable

because it has a simpler

electronic circuitry inside it.

That

was the turning point

for the whole system.

We had to

replace all the old timers.

And had to wait for a whole

season to check on them again

and make sure they were working.

We

gotta be getting close.

We are.

We'll be able to see it from up here.

Yeah.

Okay.

Alright. This is

the big one; Okay.

Here it goes.

Playback.

March.

11, 2008. It just shot!

It's been working all winter!

Ahhh man. Hello!

I can't believe that worked.

Do you know how cold it's

been out here, for how long?

I'm

unbelievably surprised.

We have over 2,300 frames.

Since June?

Let me see.

And

everything's working.

It's been

shooting the entire time...

Fantastic.

Here's the memory of the

camera and this is... actually,

that's an interesting thought.

This is the memory of the landscape.

That landscape is gone.

It may never be seen again in

the history of civilization

and it's stored right here.

In 1984, the glacier was

down there, 11 miles away.

And today, it's back here.

It receded 11 miles.

The glacier's retreating,

but it's also thinning at the same time.

It's like the air being

let out of a balloon.

You can see what's

called the trim line...

it's the high water mark

of the glacier in 1984.

That vertical change is the height

of the Empire State Building.

You know, we're really in the

midst of geologic scale change.

You know our brains are programed to think

that geology is something

that happened a long time ago

or it will happen a long time in the future.

And we don't think that can

happen during these little years

that we each live on this planet.

But the reality is that it does.

That things can happen

very, very very quickly.

We're living through one of those moments

of epochal geologic change right now.

And we humans are causing it.

Up and down

the edges of the ice sheet,

there's this zone called the melt zone.

This is where the sheet is

melting and that stored water

from the ice sheet is running out to sea.

I have to wrap my knees

for the day's festivities.

This knee has had two

surgeries on it already

and it really could use a third.

It's like the surface of the moon.

Look at those holes.

Oh my gosh, look at this stuff!

I had no idea it was so thick in here.

This stuff, this cryoconite,

it's made from a combination

of natural dust that blows

in from the deserts

of central Asia, mixed with

little flakes of carbon,

Fine particles of soot that come

from wildfires, diesel exhaust

and coal-fired power plants.

And on top of it, there's algae

that grows out here and all

of that stuff accumulates

in these little holes,

and because it's black, it

absorbs the sun's heat more

than the surrounding ice does.

And all over the surface of the ice sheet,

there's literally billions

of these little cryoconite holes

melting away

and filling up with water.

And when you look down at those holes,

what you can actually see

is these little bubbles

of ancient air being released

as the ice sheet melts.

The part of Greenland that's melting,

is out on the edges of the ice sheet.

And that area is growing,

and it's moving higher

up onto the ice sheet.

As the climate changes in

that part of the world.

You see, all this water, melting

down through these swiss cheese

holes, you see it melting

down through the channels,

from little channels into big channels.

And eventually, everything drops vertically,

down through these big Moulin caverns.

Goes down to the bottom of the ice sheet

and out into the ocean.

Ordinarily,

if you make climate a little warmer,

the glacier shrinks a little bit.

If you make the climate a little colder,

the glacier grows a little bit.

And those two things kind

of work to maintain balance.

But if it gets too warm,

and the ice gets too thin,

it doesn't just respond just a

little bit, the volume drops.

You cross that tipping point,

climate no longer matters.

It's irreversible... it's

just gonna keep going.

The sea

level rise that will happen

in my daughter's lifetimes,

will be somewhere between a foot

in a half and a half and three feet.

Minimum. That doesn't sound

like a lot if you live

in the Rocky Mountains, but if

you live down in Chesapeake Bay,

along the Gulf Coast of the United States,

in the Ganges flood plane

- that matters a lot.

It matters in China,

it matters in Indonesia.

A minimum of 150 million

people will be displaced...

that's like approximately half

the size of the United States.

And all of those people are

going to be flushed out and have

to move somewhere else.

It also intensifies the impact

of hurricanes and typhoons.

It means that there's a lot

more high water along the coast

lines, so when these big storms come,

it pushes that much more water

that much further inland.

That's where our story

of Greenland Climate Change is expressed,

it's in that melt water,

rushing out to the ocean.

That's what we're photographing;

that's what I've been

up there trying to document.

You know, I've

seen this thing from your photos

and sat pictures, but to

be here, it's incredible.

It's all becoming a little more real.

While we're heading over,

why don't I walk over

and give you some scale?

Sure.

Just be careful, don't get too

close to the edge, alright?

Stay up where it's flat.

This is really something.

This is terrifying.

: This isn't a 10 foot

little hole in the ground,

it's 100 feet deep into an abyss.

If you don't have that,

that little dot of a person

for scale, then it's lost.

That

is fabulous.

This is a reasonable route right here.

Look at that.

Oh yeah.

That's

like a gift.

This

is the danger spot.

Yeah.

For sure.

Well,

and the other danger is

that the whole thing suddenly implodes

and the entire thing collapses,

but I don't think that's very likely.

This moulin is

one of thousands of moulins all

over the melt zone in Greenland

and everyday,

the ice is cooking down,

and water is pouring into the ice sheet.

It's enormous, you can't wrap your head

around how much water is

coming off this place.

ADAM LEWINTER:

You got it.

Adam,

have you ever done something

like this before?

No.

Not at all.

It's

all calculated risks.

It's not like we're just going out there

and playing Russian Roulette.

Piece o'cake.

Ohhh, there's all sorts of curios crinkling

and crunching effects in my knee.

Just not what the doctor ordered.

Alright. Look down!

Look down?

Look!

Down!

It's

just bottomless...

Oh my God.

I do not want to go any lower than this.

I'm going

out here on this broken fin.

Okay? And I don't, I

assume it won't collapse.

Okay.

All done!

Oh thank God!

Fantastic!

There were audible chunks

of gravel like substances

that I could feel rolling around in there.

The bionic man.

I was covering up the soreness

with anti-inflammatories

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