0:00:05 > 0:00:09When you get to the Arctic, you normally go there by ship.
0:00:09 > 0:00:13And when you are standing on the ship and get in to the ice,
0:00:13 > 0:00:17there's a smell which is very peculiar,
0:00:17 > 0:00:20the smell of cold water and ice.
0:00:27 > 0:00:29And then when you get away from the ship,
0:00:29 > 0:00:32and you don't hear the ship's engine any more,
0:00:32 > 0:00:37you only have natural sounds, see, the cracking of the ice,
0:00:37 > 0:00:38the howling of the wind,
0:00:38 > 0:00:44and maybe your own footsteps and you hear your own heart beating,
0:00:44 > 0:00:47which you don't hear in Europe.
0:00:51 > 0:00:53Everyone who actually goes there
0:00:53 > 0:00:55is overwhelmed by it.
0:00:55 > 0:00:57First of all, it's enormous.
0:00:58 > 0:01:03Second, it's actually a lot more varied.
0:01:03 > 0:01:06If you haven't been there, you think, "Oh, cold."
0:01:07 > 0:01:10And it's lighter than you think when it's dark...
0:01:12 > 0:01:16..because there's not necessarily a lot of cloud cover
0:01:16 > 0:01:19and you will get starlight, moonlight
0:01:19 > 0:01:25and they reflect off white surfaces which look of course blue
0:01:25 > 0:01:30so you'll get a kind of shimmering light even when there isn't any sun.
0:01:32 > 0:01:34200 years ago,
0:01:34 > 0:01:38most people could only imagine how the Arctic might be.
0:01:40 > 0:01:44I feel a cold northern breeze play upon my cheeks,
0:01:44 > 0:01:48which braces my nerves, and fills me with delight.
0:01:48 > 0:01:50I try in vain to be persuaded
0:01:50 > 0:01:55that the Pole is the seat of frost and desolation.
0:01:55 > 0:01:58It ever presents itself to my imagination
0:01:58 > 0:02:01as a region of beauty and delight.
0:02:01 > 0:02:04I shall satiate my ardent curiosity
0:02:04 > 0:02:08with the sight of a part of the world never before visited
0:02:08 > 0:02:13and may tread a land never before imprinted by the foot of man.
0:02:16 > 0:02:19Mary Shelley wrote at a time when the Europeans
0:02:19 > 0:02:22had only ventured to the edge of the Arctic ocean.
0:02:22 > 0:02:26In the following two centuries of exploration,
0:02:26 > 0:02:30our knowledge and understanding of the region has increased enormously,
0:02:30 > 0:02:33transforming the way we imagine it.
0:02:33 > 0:02:36It's become a place where heroes were born
0:02:36 > 0:02:40and heroes would disappear without trace.
0:02:40 > 0:02:45We have discovered that however remote and forbidding it seems,
0:02:45 > 0:02:48it is vitally connected to the climate and nature
0:02:48 > 0:02:50of the rest of our planet.
0:02:50 > 0:02:53It's been both a theatre of war,
0:02:53 > 0:02:56where great powers vie for supremacy,
0:02:56 > 0:02:59but also a cause for international collaboration.
0:03:02 > 0:03:06Recently it has become a symbol of the fragility of our planet.
0:03:06 > 0:03:09WHALE MOANS
0:03:09 > 0:03:14And now the way we see the Arctic is being transformed once again.
0:03:29 > 0:03:33Throughout history, the idea of wilderness has developed
0:03:33 > 0:03:35from meaning a place of fear and the unknown
0:03:35 > 0:03:40to a place of beauty, unspoilt by humankind.
0:03:40 > 0:03:45By any definition, the Arctic once symbolised both these ideas.
0:03:45 > 0:03:50In our times, wilderness has come to mean something we must protect,
0:03:50 > 0:03:52something we must save from ourselves.
0:03:55 > 0:04:00The word Arctic derives from the Greek word Arktos - "bear"
0:04:00 > 0:04:04and wilderness comes from old Anglo-Saxon -
0:04:04 > 0:04:07"the place of wild beasts".
0:04:07 > 0:04:10BIRDS CAW
0:04:13 > 0:04:18And in the early 1800s, the British Navy planned to conquer it.
0:04:22 > 0:04:24One image above all
0:04:24 > 0:04:27inspired the would-be polar explorers of the future -
0:04:28 > 0:04:32the Navy's greatest hero, Horatio Nelson,
0:04:32 > 0:04:36was said to have fought a polar bear single-handed at the age of 16.
0:04:37 > 0:04:41It was an anecdote told by his commanding officers.
0:04:41 > 0:04:43It made its way into the Nelson biographies
0:04:43 > 0:04:48and certainly many of the polar histories through the 19th century
0:04:48 > 0:04:52seized upon this episode of the young boy engaging the Arctic.
0:04:52 > 0:04:53Is there truth to the story?
0:04:53 > 0:04:58Possibly a mixture of truth and fantasy and myth.
0:04:58 > 0:05:00But it's a wonderful story.
0:05:01 > 0:05:05The polar bear was to become an integral part of the Arctic image.
0:05:05 > 0:05:07BEAR GROWLS
0:05:07 > 0:05:10GUNSHOT
0:05:10 > 0:05:14If you want to think of it as an allegory for man against nature,
0:05:14 > 0:05:20the bear emblematic of the Arctic wilderness in its sort of ferocity.
0:05:20 > 0:05:24Certainly for a generation of people reading heroic biographies,
0:05:24 > 0:05:26it was a story they cherished.
0:05:28 > 0:05:30Young Nelson's Arctic encounter
0:05:30 > 0:05:35was to be re-drawn and re-published dozens of times in hagiographies
0:05:35 > 0:05:38and schoolboy comics right up to the present day.
0:05:39 > 0:05:43As a symbol of the navy against the Arctic, the challenge,
0:05:43 > 0:05:47the bear personified as the Arctic wilderness,
0:05:47 > 0:05:50it's an image that's taken right through the century.
0:05:52 > 0:05:55The Arctic wasn't only playing on the imagination of schoolboys
0:05:55 > 0:05:57dreaming of emulating Nelson.
0:05:57 > 0:06:02John Barrow, second secretary of the Admiralty, was also looking north.
0:06:02 > 0:06:07The maps of the time show that he had as little idea as Mary Shelley
0:06:07 > 0:06:11as to what lay beyond the great ice barriers of the north.
0:06:11 > 0:06:14He did hope to find the fabled Northwest Passage,
0:06:14 > 0:06:17a short and potentially lucrative route
0:06:17 > 0:06:20to the great trading emporiums of Asia.
0:06:20 > 0:06:22The Northwest Passage was this
0:06:22 > 0:06:25elusive chalice which had been sought for centuries
0:06:25 > 0:06:28and it was a chance for Britain to plant the Union Jack,
0:06:28 > 0:06:34to claim new lands to explore and to, in fact, have the honour
0:06:34 > 0:06:37of discovering undiscovered parts of the world.
0:06:39 > 0:06:42The Northwest Passage had been a British obsession
0:06:42 > 0:06:44since the time of Henry the Eighth.
0:06:44 > 0:06:49Numerous expeditions had failed in the attempt to find it.
0:06:49 > 0:06:50Now what spurred John Barrow on
0:06:50 > 0:06:54was a fear that another nation might get there first.
0:06:56 > 0:07:00The Russians have for some time been strongly impressed
0:07:00 > 0:07:04with an idea of an open passage round America.
0:07:04 > 0:07:08It would be somewhat mortifying, if a naval power but of yesterday
0:07:08 > 0:07:12should complete a discovery in the 19th century
0:07:12 > 0:07:15which was so happily commenced by Englishmen in the 16th.
0:07:19 > 0:07:24The Navy's first expedition was to produce a new model of naval hero -
0:07:24 > 0:07:25the Arctic explorer.
0:07:28 > 0:07:32First among them was the leader of the expedition, Captain John Ross.
0:07:32 > 0:07:36He was vain, he was egotistical, he was a cantankerous Scot
0:07:36 > 0:07:41devoted to the Arctic, devoted to enhancing his public profile.
0:07:41 > 0:07:42He was a celebrity hellbent
0:07:42 > 0:07:45on utilising the wilderness to self-promote.
0:07:45 > 0:07:49Captain Ross's expedition was supplied in naval fashion -
0:07:49 > 0:07:53all the latest equipment of the day and other essentials.
0:07:53 > 0:07:56A 25 volume library and 90 religious tracks,
0:07:56 > 0:08:00Also 129 gallons of gin and brandy,
0:08:00 > 0:08:04105 pounds of snuff and 40 umbrellas.
0:08:04 > 0:08:06If you think of Arctic explorations
0:08:06 > 0:08:08as voyaging to the limits of the known world,
0:08:08 > 0:08:12these naval voyages in their well stocked ships were literally
0:08:12 > 0:08:14sailing to the edges of the map.
0:08:14 > 0:08:17They took with them all the things that perhaps
0:08:17 > 0:08:18seem totally unnecessary
0:08:18 > 0:08:21if you were to travel successfully through the Arctic
0:08:21 > 0:08:24but all these things that were deemed necessary
0:08:24 > 0:08:28for English gentlemen to sustain themselves
0:08:28 > 0:08:32in a civilised manner within a challenging wilderness.
0:08:33 > 0:08:36In June 1818, Ross's two vessels
0:08:36 > 0:08:41managed to penetrate past Baffin Island into the Davis Strait.
0:08:41 > 0:08:44It was the first sight that he and many of his crew
0:08:44 > 0:08:46had had of the Arctic in summer.
0:08:47 > 0:08:52It's hardly possible to imagine anything more exquisite,
0:08:52 > 0:08:55by night as well as by day.
0:08:55 > 0:08:58They glitter with a vividness of colour
0:08:58 > 0:09:01beyond the power of art to represent.
0:09:01 > 0:09:03The weather was beautiful,
0:09:03 > 0:09:07fine and clear and nothing could exceed the serenity
0:09:07 > 0:09:12and at the same time, the grandeur of the whole scene around us.
0:09:13 > 0:09:15The water was glassy smooth
0:09:15 > 0:09:20and ships glided gently among the numberless masses of ice.
0:09:20 > 0:09:23The land of Greenland - rugged, high
0:09:23 > 0:09:29and almost entirely covered with snow - filled up the eastern horizon.
0:09:29 > 0:09:34The Arctic was a vast geography of nothingness.
0:09:34 > 0:09:38It was a tempting sublime, it was an imaginary landscape.
0:09:38 > 0:09:40What could they expect?
0:09:40 > 0:09:44They travelled with baggage, they travelled with a perceptual baggage.
0:09:45 > 0:09:49Icebergs that reared from the sea like towers and cathedrals.
0:09:51 > 0:09:53Midnight polar winter sky
0:09:53 > 0:09:56with ribbons of the aurora borealis
0:09:56 > 0:09:59in emeralds and golds and deep crimsons,
0:09:59 > 0:10:03a beautiful, wondrous, awe-inspiring, sublime place,
0:10:03 > 0:10:06a sublime place that was terrifying.
0:10:08 > 0:10:11Ross and many of the officers in his crew
0:10:11 > 0:10:15were keen diarists and competent water colourists.
0:10:15 > 0:10:17The pictures and accounts and of their experiences
0:10:17 > 0:10:21were to shape the Arctic image in the European mind.
0:10:21 > 0:10:24They also "discovered" a new people -
0:10:24 > 0:10:28an isolated band of Inuit they called the Arctic Highlanders.
0:10:28 > 0:10:31Until Ross's two naval vessels arrived,
0:10:31 > 0:10:35they'd believed themselves to be the only human beings in the world.
0:10:37 > 0:10:43What my ancestors have told me is that when the first contacts
0:10:43 > 0:10:46were made between the Europeans and the Inuit,
0:10:46 > 0:10:50I think there was a sense of fear in many ways
0:10:50 > 0:10:53because they had never seen a people
0:10:53 > 0:10:57with the type of skin colour that they had,
0:10:57 > 0:11:00some of the explorers had blond hair.
0:11:00 > 0:11:05They didn't really know where these beings were coming from.
0:11:05 > 0:11:08So there was a lot of reluctance and hesitation
0:11:08 > 0:11:13involved in actually going up to someone and making contact.
0:11:16 > 0:11:20Ross's voyage and indeed his reputation was to be marred
0:11:20 > 0:11:24by one of the tricks that the Arctic plays on the naive observer.
0:11:26 > 0:11:30He aborted his expedition after, what he perceived to be,
0:11:30 > 0:11:34a range of mountains blocked his route through to the Northwest Passage.
0:11:34 > 0:11:38He named them the Croker Mountains after an Admiralty official.
0:11:39 > 0:11:42"The land I then saw was a high ridge of mountains
0:11:42 > 0:11:46"extending directly across the bottom of the inlet.
0:11:46 > 0:11:48"This chain appeared high in the centre
0:11:48 > 0:11:51"and those towards the north had at times the appearance
0:11:51 > 0:11:56"of islands being insulated by fog at their bases."
0:11:56 > 0:11:59The Arctic was a great place for illusions as well.
0:11:59 > 0:12:02There are Arctic mirages.
0:12:02 > 0:12:05They're quite wonderful mirages, they're called fata morgana
0:12:05 > 0:12:08and they make things look a lot taller than they are.
0:12:08 > 0:12:13They look very real, until you get out your binoculars
0:12:13 > 0:12:16and you look at them closely
0:12:16 > 0:12:20and you realize that some of the information is missing,
0:12:20 > 0:12:23you know, they're shimmering round the edges and then the next minute,
0:12:23 > 0:12:25they're gone.
0:12:25 > 0:12:28Ross's so-called Croker Mountains
0:12:28 > 0:12:32were indeed a polar illusion and not a mountain range.
0:12:34 > 0:12:40On his return to London, Ross found himself pilloried for his failure.
0:12:40 > 0:12:43The great cartoonist George Cruickshank ridiculed the collection
0:12:43 > 0:12:47of Arctic specimens Ross and his officers had brought back.
0:12:49 > 0:12:53The Arctic and the prospect of a Northwest Passage
0:12:53 > 0:12:58were to entice and confound John Ross and many subsequent explorers
0:12:58 > 0:13:00for the rest of the century.
0:13:02 > 0:13:08The early British explorers, they really didn't understand the Arctic.
0:13:08 > 0:13:12People tend to have this concept of the Arctic ice
0:13:12 > 0:13:14as being like a big skating rink,
0:13:14 > 0:13:17certainly the early polar explorers kind of thought that.
0:13:17 > 0:13:19They figured, once they get on the ice,
0:13:19 > 0:13:22they'll just haul off on their sledges and away they go.
0:13:22 > 0:13:25It's not like that. I mean, the ice is constantly in motion.
0:13:25 > 0:13:27It piles up into great huge ridges.
0:13:27 > 0:13:29You see these people, you know,
0:13:29 > 0:13:34pushing sledges over ridges that are ten, 20 metres high
0:13:34 > 0:13:39and that ridge is extending 30 or 40 metres down into the ocean below it.
0:13:39 > 0:13:44For a ship to try to break through that is next to impossible.
0:13:50 > 0:13:53Though they failed to penetrate the ice barrier,
0:13:53 > 0:13:57their exploits were celebrated in the popular art and literature
0:13:57 > 0:14:00of the time, making them national heroes despite huge loss
0:14:00 > 0:14:02of ships and lives.
0:14:02 > 0:14:04One expedition above all
0:14:04 > 0:14:09was to dominate the 19th century culture of the Arctic.
0:14:11 > 0:14:17# We were homeward bound one night on the deep
0:14:17 > 0:14:23# Swinging in my hammock I fell asleep
0:14:23 > 0:14:29# I dreamt a dream and I thought it true
0:14:29 > 0:14:35# Concerning Franklin and his gallant crew... #
0:14:37 > 0:14:40John Franklin, who is a veteran explorer,
0:14:40 > 0:14:43he was given a command of the Northwest Passage expedition in 1845,
0:14:43 > 0:14:46left England full of optimism,
0:14:46 > 0:14:49his ships full with the latest Victorian gadgetry,
0:14:49 > 0:14:50but he didn't return.
0:14:50 > 0:14:53The Franklin saga occupied the minds
0:14:53 > 0:14:59of a generation of naval men going in search of him...over 30 voyages.
0:14:59 > 0:15:01He's perhaps remembered now as
0:15:01 > 0:15:06a bumbling old man who was full of all sorts of Victorian ideals
0:15:06 > 0:15:08and didn't really approach the wilderness
0:15:08 > 0:15:10in an appropriate manner.
0:15:10 > 0:15:12I think that's probably a harsh analysis.
0:15:14 > 0:15:19Well, the Franklin expedition was one of those things like the Titanic.
0:15:19 > 0:15:23In fact, there is a great parallel between the way
0:15:23 > 0:15:26those two stories both came out.
0:15:26 > 0:15:30Both involved ships, both involved ice,
0:15:30 > 0:15:34both involved huge fanfare when they set out -
0:15:34 > 0:15:40"state of the art", "best we've got" modern technology.
0:15:40 > 0:15:44"No danger, it'll be a snap.
0:15:44 > 0:15:47"There's never been anything like this before."
0:15:50 > 0:15:53They had special plating on their hulls,
0:15:53 > 0:15:57they had steam organs, they had libraries and best of all,
0:15:57 > 0:16:00they had tinned food.
0:16:02 > 0:16:06The best-equipped expedition to date with 129 men
0:16:06 > 0:16:11disappeared among the frozen islands above the Canadian mainland.
0:16:11 > 0:16:13Unfortunately, his expedition
0:16:13 > 0:16:16coincided with a particularly cold sequence of years.
0:16:18 > 0:16:21If nothing else, Franklin can be accused of bad timing.
0:16:21 > 0:16:28You know, he sailed at really one of the coldest periods in 500 years.
0:16:28 > 0:16:34It was a period where you know, already, very forbidding landscape
0:16:34 > 0:16:37in terms of the geography, very... It was like a puzzle.
0:16:37 > 0:16:38It was like a maze.
0:16:38 > 0:16:42It was an extremely difficult challenge to begin with.
0:16:43 > 0:16:46Usually the pan ice would melt
0:16:46 > 0:16:50in the summers and for three years, it didn't,
0:16:50 > 0:16:55so their ships got in to a place near King William Island
0:16:55 > 0:16:58and they couldn't get out again. They were stuck.
0:16:59 > 0:17:01And when you're beset by the ice,
0:17:01 > 0:17:05it's not just that you're frozen in, as in an ice cube,
0:17:05 > 0:17:10the ice is actually pushing and being driven up against you,
0:17:10 > 0:17:11so that it piles up.
0:17:11 > 0:17:17If there's a wind, the sticking out parts of the ice act as sails
0:17:17 > 0:17:22and it can move very quickly and it can move with enormous force.
0:17:22 > 0:17:25ICE ROARS AND CRASHES
0:17:32 > 0:17:35Quite what happened during the three years
0:17:35 > 0:17:39that Franklin and his two ships were iced in is still a mystery.
0:17:41 > 0:17:45They had to abandon the ships. Nobody quite knows where those ships are.
0:17:45 > 0:17:48Had they walked north,
0:17:48 > 0:17:51they might have been rescued by whalers, because there were a lot of
0:17:51 > 0:17:54whalers in the summer went there.
0:17:54 > 0:18:00But they didn't, they walked south, dragging a sledge,
0:18:00 > 0:18:05which contained such things as a copy of the Vicar of Wakefield,
0:18:05 > 0:18:09just what you would wish to drag on a sledge.
0:18:09 > 0:18:13Lots of bars of soap, also very handy.
0:18:13 > 0:18:15There was obviously something wrong
0:18:15 > 0:18:20with their ability to reason at this point.
0:18:20 > 0:18:24They went in the wrong direction, they took a lot of unnecessary things.
0:18:26 > 0:18:30It took three years before people in London began to wonder
0:18:30 > 0:18:31whether anything had gone wrong.
0:18:31 > 0:18:35Spearheading the "lets find Franklin" lobby
0:18:35 > 0:18:36was his redoubtable wife -
0:18:36 > 0:18:41the first heroine of the Arctic story, Lady Jane Franklin.
0:18:41 > 0:18:45Amazing celebrity in her own right, this remarkable woman who...
0:18:45 > 0:18:48who turned her husband's
0:18:48 > 0:18:52tragic disappearance into a career.
0:18:52 > 0:18:56She became this incredible celebrity.
0:18:56 > 0:18:58She was beautiful, she travelled the world.
0:18:58 > 0:19:01She certainly made the most of his loss.
0:19:01 > 0:19:04Her charisma and exertions
0:19:04 > 0:19:07were to launch more than 30 Arctic expeditions
0:19:07 > 0:19:09over the next few decades.
0:19:09 > 0:19:12Many lasted for years at a time.
0:19:12 > 0:19:15New landscapes were charted, ships were wrecked,
0:19:15 > 0:19:19more heroes emerged, more lives were lost.
0:19:19 > 0:19:23Neither Sir John nor his two ships were ever found.
0:19:23 > 0:19:27Successive search parties returned from the north
0:19:27 > 0:19:32with handfuls of artefacts, assorted human bones and a lot of conjecture.
0:19:32 > 0:19:35There's a book called Dead Elvis,
0:19:35 > 0:19:38which is about the posthumous life of Elvis Presley
0:19:38 > 0:19:43and it turns out that he's led a much more vigorous, energetic and
0:19:43 > 0:19:45varied life since being dead
0:19:45 > 0:19:47than he did when he was alive.
0:19:49 > 0:19:51And you could write a book called Dead Franklin,
0:19:51 > 0:19:56which would follow the life of Franklin, after he died.
0:19:56 > 0:20:00The first phase of that would be Franklin - The Mystery,
0:20:00 > 0:20:02you know, "Where has he gone?"
0:20:02 > 0:20:06The second phase, when Lady Jane Franklin really got going,
0:20:06 > 0:20:09was Franklin - The Brave Hero.
0:20:09 > 0:20:11And she built him up to no end,
0:20:11 > 0:20:15making him almost like somebody who had died in a war,
0:20:15 > 0:20:19or had sort of selflessly martyred himself.
0:20:19 > 0:20:23The fact was that he was setting out to find the Northwest Passage,
0:20:23 > 0:20:27which was not a war. It was going to be a cheap way of getting to Asia.
0:20:27 > 0:20:29It was a commercial venture,
0:20:29 > 0:20:32but nonetheless brave Franklin, heroic Franklin,
0:20:32 > 0:20:34got statues in Westminster Abbey
0:20:34 > 0:20:38and mythology of the very heroic person kind.
0:20:40 > 0:20:42Just as money was being raised
0:20:42 > 0:20:46to commemorate Britain's great Arctic martyr in Westminster Abbey,
0:20:46 > 0:20:51one of the most intrepid Franklin searches returned with new evidence.
0:20:51 > 0:20:53From Lady Franklin's point of view,
0:20:53 > 0:20:56Dr John Rae was decidedly off message.
0:20:57 > 0:21:00The bodies of some 30 persons and graves
0:21:00 > 0:21:03were discovered on the continent.
0:21:03 > 0:21:06From the mutilated state of many of the bodies
0:21:06 > 0:21:08and the contents of the kettles,
0:21:08 > 0:21:12it is evident that our wretched countrymen had been driven
0:21:12 > 0:21:14to the last dread alternative -
0:21:14 > 0:21:16cannibalism.
0:21:19 > 0:21:20John Rae brought the wrong news.
0:21:20 > 0:21:25The wrong news was they were eating each other.
0:21:25 > 0:21:29This was the wrong news. It caused great indignation,
0:21:29 > 0:21:36both from Lady Jane - hard to get your husband into Westminster Abbey
0:21:36 > 0:21:40if he had been practicing that kind of cuisine -
0:21:40 > 0:21:45and also from Charles Dickens, who wrote a very outraged piece,
0:21:45 > 0:21:49no honest, virtuous, good, true English sailor
0:21:49 > 0:21:53would ever, ever, ever eat another honest, good, true and virtuous
0:21:53 > 0:21:55English sailor.
0:21:57 > 0:22:01The three earliest casualties from the expedition have lain buried,
0:22:01 > 0:22:05high up in the Arctic, for the last 160 years.
0:22:05 > 0:22:09Their graves on Beechey Island have remained one of the few
0:22:09 > 0:22:13tangible symbols of the Franklin disaster.
0:22:13 > 0:22:17In 1984, some Canadian scientists exhumed their bodies
0:22:17 > 0:22:21and gave a new breath of life to the Arctic mystery.
0:22:25 > 0:22:28To be able to look in to the eyes of someone who's been dead
0:22:28 > 0:22:30for more than a century,
0:22:30 > 0:22:34who was a participant in one of the great discovery expeditions,
0:22:34 > 0:22:37it is a profoundly moving experience.
0:22:37 > 0:22:40But I think for people who saw that image, saw that face,
0:22:40 > 0:22:43this is a face that they know,
0:22:43 > 0:22:47this could be the face of a family member or a brother or a friend.
0:22:47 > 0:22:52I think that that really opened up a new era of interest
0:22:52 > 0:22:53in Arctic exploration.
0:22:53 > 0:22:57We can see that in terms of the number of sort of amateur sleuths
0:22:57 > 0:23:02who are poking around King William, Beechey Islands every summer.
0:23:03 > 0:23:07Forensic analysis drove the Canadians to the conclusion
0:23:07 > 0:23:10that Franklin's crew had been poisoned by the lead
0:23:10 > 0:23:13from the tin cans they had stored their food in.
0:23:13 > 0:23:18Lead poisoning may explain why the remaining crew hauled bars of soap,
0:23:18 > 0:23:20silver spoons, silk slippers
0:23:20 > 0:23:23and a copy of the Vicar of Wakefield across the ice
0:23:23 > 0:23:25and in the wrong direction.
0:23:25 > 0:23:28The Canadian theory is hotly disputed
0:23:28 > 0:23:33and has re-opened the Franklin mystery to yet more speculation.
0:23:33 > 0:23:35This is one of those historical stories
0:23:35 > 0:23:38that really is very difficult to answer.
0:23:38 > 0:23:42It's a story, I suppose, about the ongoing appeal
0:23:42 > 0:23:45of the Arctic as an imaginative space.
0:23:45 > 0:23:48The North Pole is an absence of anything.
0:23:48 > 0:23:51But it's a featureless spot but at the same time,
0:23:51 > 0:23:57it's that point where scientific curiosity and imaginations combine
0:23:57 > 0:24:01and continues to capture people's interests.
0:24:03 > 0:24:05There was one significant by-product
0:24:05 > 0:24:08from 15 years of Franklin search expeditions.
0:24:08 > 0:24:12Almost the entire coast line and island system above North America
0:24:12 > 0:24:17was mapped out, showing the region to be almost permanently icebound.
0:24:20 > 0:24:24By the 1860s, however, after years of sacrifice and failure,
0:24:24 > 0:24:28the awesome nature of the frozen north seemed to have sapped
0:24:28 > 0:24:30the strength of British ardour.
0:24:33 > 0:24:38Edwin Landseer's picture summed up the sentiments of the time.
0:24:38 > 0:24:41Landseer's Man Proposes, God Disposes
0:24:41 > 0:24:45is this wonderful, biting controversial painting,
0:24:45 > 0:24:48painted in 1864, that people cried when they saw it.
0:24:48 > 0:24:52Newspaper reports said, "Gosh, this is too awful to be proper art."
0:24:52 > 0:24:54It wasn't a patriotic picture,
0:24:54 > 0:24:58it was a picture exposing the vanity of human effort.
0:24:58 > 0:25:00There's an echo of cannibalism in there too,
0:25:00 > 0:25:02these ravenous polar bears,
0:25:02 > 0:25:05the personification of a hostile Arctic,
0:25:05 > 0:25:07are chewing on the corners of a Union Jack.
0:25:07 > 0:25:11There's a shipwreck, there's a chaos of tumbled icebergs.
0:25:14 > 0:25:16At this particular moment in 1864,
0:25:16 > 0:25:20Landseer so well expresses a dissatisfaction
0:25:20 > 0:25:24with the sheer uselessness of polar endeavour.
0:25:26 > 0:25:30The disillusion of the 1860s was only a brief respite
0:25:30 > 0:25:33in a savage struggle between the Arctic wilderness
0:25:33 > 0:25:34and Victorian endeavour.
0:25:36 > 0:25:40Although the Northwest Passage was written off as a viable trade route,
0:25:40 > 0:25:44a new Arctic goal emerged - the North Pole.
0:25:46 > 0:25:49And from now on, there was to be international competition,
0:25:49 > 0:25:51and there was little place
0:25:51 > 0:25:54for the large scale British naval expeditions.
0:25:54 > 0:25:57The key to success lay in the Arctic itself.
0:26:01 > 0:26:04HUSKIES BARK
0:26:04 > 0:26:06The Inuit have been part of the polar image
0:26:06 > 0:26:09from the beginning of European exploration.
0:26:09 > 0:26:13They had survived thousands of years in an Arctic environment
0:26:13 > 0:26:15where the British failed.
0:26:15 > 0:26:17It eventually dawned on would-be polar explorers
0:26:17 > 0:26:21that the Inuit were more than just another exotic part
0:26:21 > 0:26:22of the flora and fauna.
0:26:22 > 0:26:26They and their use of the raw materials of the Arctic
0:26:26 > 0:26:28might be the key to conquest.
0:26:28 > 0:26:31And the new conquerors were not going to be the Brits!
0:26:36 > 0:26:41Norwegians like Roald Amundsen and Americans like Robert Peary
0:26:41 > 0:26:44were to be the new pioneers of the Arctic,
0:26:44 > 0:26:48and they adopted the ways of the Inuit to get to places
0:26:48 > 0:26:50no Brit had gone before.
0:26:50 > 0:26:54Peary was to take the Inuit example further than anyone else -
0:26:54 > 0:26:59he not only copied the Inuit, he co-opted them onto his expeditions.
0:26:59 > 0:27:05Peary learned to travel on the ice with light sledges, with dogs.
0:27:05 > 0:27:07They'd figured out the problem of scurvy,
0:27:07 > 0:27:11lead poisoning was no longer the issue.
0:27:11 > 0:27:14So Peary was able to...
0:27:14 > 0:27:19by adapting the local Inuit way of living in the Arctic,
0:27:19 > 0:27:23was much more successful at achieving the farthest north.
0:27:25 > 0:27:29On the 6th of April 1909, Peary had himself,
0:27:29 > 0:27:33his black servant Matthew Henson and his Inuit team
0:27:33 > 0:27:36photographed at what he claimed to be the North Pole.
0:27:40 > 0:27:41The discovery of the North Pole
0:27:41 > 0:27:44stands for the inevitable victory of courage,
0:27:44 > 0:27:48persistence, experience over all obstacles.
0:27:48 > 0:27:51Here is the cap and climax, the finish,
0:27:51 > 0:27:55the closing of the book on 400 years of history.
0:27:56 > 0:28:00Such was the glory associated with reaching the Pole
0:28:00 > 0:28:03that another rival explorer, Frederick Cook,
0:28:03 > 0:28:05also claimed to have got there first.
0:28:05 > 0:28:07The world's media was captivated
0:28:07 > 0:28:11by an acrimonious debate among rival claimants.
0:28:11 > 0:28:13Peary's claim prevailed at the time.
0:28:13 > 0:28:16But doubts remain.
0:28:16 > 0:28:19Did Peary get to the North Pole?
0:28:19 > 0:28:22Does it really matter?
0:28:22 > 0:28:26He certainly got farther north than anybody had been.
0:28:26 > 0:28:30His claims of distances, the 40-odd kilometres a day
0:28:30 > 0:28:33that he travelled or he must have travelled
0:28:33 > 0:28:38to actually get to the Pole, it's maybe hard to believe,
0:28:38 > 0:28:39but, you know, we weren't there.
0:28:39 > 0:28:42Maybe he got very lucky ice conditions
0:28:42 > 0:28:44in these variable ice conditions.
0:28:44 > 0:28:48And whether he really got to the Pole or not, like I say,
0:28:48 > 0:28:50doesn't really matter.
0:28:50 > 0:28:54The Arctic Pole is kind of a virtual place.
0:28:54 > 0:28:57If you stand on the North Pole one day, the ice is moving
0:28:57 > 0:28:59and if you don't even move yourself,
0:28:59 > 0:29:01you won't be at the North Pole the next day,
0:29:01 > 0:29:06so, you know, whether he really made it or not, I don't think it really matters.
0:29:06 > 0:29:09Peary certainly exploited his achievement
0:29:09 > 0:29:13to bring the Arctic into every American household.
0:29:13 > 0:29:16A whole plethora of merchandise was emblazoned with his picture
0:29:16 > 0:29:19and his polar success.
0:29:26 > 0:29:27So by the early 1900s,
0:29:27 > 0:29:32the Arctic had become imbedded in the public consciousness.
0:29:32 > 0:29:34Its pole had been conquered
0:29:34 > 0:29:37and its image had become a global marketing gimmick.
0:29:39 > 0:29:41Now its inhabitants were to become the heroes
0:29:41 > 0:29:45of the world's first ever cinema documentary.
0:30:00 > 0:30:05It's a wonderful film, a beautiful, a technical piece of cinema.
0:30:05 > 0:30:09It's pivotal in the 1920s as marking a change of the way
0:30:09 > 0:30:12the Arctic wilderness is represented
0:30:12 > 0:30:15from explorers' narratives in the 19th century
0:30:15 > 0:30:19through to a new forms, new technologies of image representation,
0:30:19 > 0:30:20the camera and the cinema
0:30:20 > 0:30:24which gave quite wonderful and new and challenging images
0:30:24 > 0:30:26of the Arctic as a wilderness.
0:30:30 > 0:30:34It gets its world premiere in New York in 1922
0:30:34 > 0:30:38and it really goes global.
0:30:38 > 0:30:40The image is seen in Australia
0:30:40 > 0:30:43the film shows in London in Indonesia, in India, in Africa
0:30:43 > 0:30:48an image of the Canadian wilderness albeit a romanticised one possibly.
0:30:48 > 0:30:50Nevertheless an image of the Canadian wilderness,
0:30:50 > 0:30:52the Arctic wilderness travels the world.
0:30:54 > 0:30:58The film opened the eyes of millions of people to a distant region
0:30:58 > 0:31:00very remote from their own.
0:31:00 > 0:31:03Its release coincided with the discovery that, far from
0:31:03 > 0:31:05being an isolated wilderness,
0:31:05 > 0:31:10the Arctic was powerfully connected to the rest of the hemisphere.
0:31:24 > 0:31:26That connection was the ever moving boundary
0:31:26 > 0:31:29between the mass of cold air over the Arctic
0:31:29 > 0:31:33and the warmer body of air moving north from the equator.
0:31:34 > 0:31:38You see they discovered that we have
0:31:38 > 0:31:41on the Northern hemisphere, two big air masses,
0:31:41 > 0:31:45the sub tropic air over the North Atlantic,
0:31:45 > 0:31:49and the polar air over the Polar Regions.
0:31:49 > 0:31:54And these air masses touched each other at a border
0:31:54 > 0:31:57which is called the polar front.
0:32:01 > 0:32:03The polar front is where the cold Arctic air
0:32:03 > 0:32:05meets warm air from the equator.
0:32:05 > 0:32:09Bad weather or cyclones form along the front.
0:32:09 > 0:32:12Find where the front is and you can predict the weather.
0:32:12 > 0:32:16If the polar front is north of us, we'll have good weather.
0:32:16 > 0:32:19If the polar front is...
0:32:19 > 0:32:22in our area or even south of it, we will get the cyclones.
0:32:24 > 0:32:27As the Second World War drew closer
0:32:27 > 0:32:31the Arctic became an area of vital strategic significance.
0:32:31 > 0:32:33On the oceans,
0:32:33 > 0:32:36the safe passage of Atlantic shipping would depend upon it.
0:32:36 > 0:32:40So would the success or failure of military campaigns on the mainland.
0:32:43 > 0:32:45All year round prediction
0:32:45 > 0:32:48necessitated all year round presence in the Arctic.
0:32:48 > 0:32:51After years of trials and tribulations, Europeans had
0:32:51 > 0:32:56finally developed the capacity to operate in the high North.
0:32:58 > 0:33:02It was during the Second World War that the technology finally allowed
0:33:02 > 0:33:05southern individuals to actually be able to function in the North.
0:33:05 > 0:33:08It's the development of the steel hull vessel,
0:33:08 > 0:33:11the steam engine and the aeroplane,
0:33:11 > 0:33:15that meant for the first time ever, that if you were a non-Inuit,
0:33:15 > 0:33:18you could actually have a reasonable hope of having
0:33:18 > 0:33:20transportation within the region,
0:33:20 > 0:33:24and it's within that context where we start seeing the ability to go forth.
0:33:24 > 0:33:28And we see this of course from the German secret weather stations
0:33:28 > 0:33:31that they had in Greenland and in Labrador, where they're trying to
0:33:31 > 0:33:33ascertain what the weather was going
0:33:33 > 0:33:37to be in the Atlantic, by having these weather stations in the Arctic.
0:33:37 > 0:33:40Some of the secret weather stations had to be manned.
0:33:40 > 0:33:42In September 1944
0:33:42 > 0:33:47Dr Wilhelm Dege and a team of young German meteorologists
0:33:47 > 0:33:52were secretly transported out to the remote Arctic archipelago of Svalbard
0:33:52 > 0:33:57to set up a station that would help forecast the weather in Western Europe.
0:33:57 > 0:33:59Dr Dege carried a film camera
0:33:59 > 0:34:02and was able to provide an extraordinary record
0:34:02 > 0:34:04of a year in the Arctic.
0:34:04 > 0:34:10And the last station 1944 to 45, was led by my father.
0:34:10 > 0:34:12You see they were very well-equipped
0:34:12 > 0:34:16because their status was higher than the submarine people,
0:34:16 > 0:34:21so higher status, they got everything, even in 1944,
0:34:21 > 0:34:24but they stressed the food was hunting...
0:34:26 > 0:34:31and they stressed the heating material was collecting
0:34:31 > 0:34:33and chopping up, up drift wood.
0:34:39 > 0:34:44He had to keep people busy. It was a bunch of ten young men,
0:34:44 > 0:34:49I think between 18 and 21 years of age
0:34:49 > 0:34:51and the official job,
0:34:51 > 0:34:56weather measuring didn't take up all their time.
0:35:01 > 0:35:02We have a nice movie,
0:35:02 > 0:35:06shows a beautiful scene of everybody disappearing
0:35:06 > 0:35:08in the steam bath, they had a sauna,
0:35:08 > 0:35:12and they claimed that was the best thing they had up there.
0:35:12 > 0:35:17You see once a week, on Friday, they had a, a steam bath, yeah.
0:35:26 > 0:35:30Dege's team did provide crucial forecasts that made a significant
0:35:30 > 0:35:33contribution to the German war effort.
0:35:33 > 0:35:37Determining the timing of one famous battle in particular.
0:35:37 > 0:35:38THUNDERING OF GUNS
0:35:42 > 0:35:45And one weather report
0:35:45 > 0:35:50in which my father was involved was in the, in December 1944,
0:35:50 > 0:35:53the Battle of the Bulge in Belgium,
0:35:53 > 0:35:56the last German offensive on the Western front,
0:35:56 > 0:36:00which was timed for a weather situation,
0:36:00 > 0:36:04when the Allied planes were grounded because of
0:36:04 > 0:36:07drifting snow and fog.
0:36:07 > 0:36:11After initial setbacks the Allies eventually repulsed
0:36:11 > 0:36:16the German attacks and went on to force German surrender in 1945.
0:36:21 > 0:36:22Dege and his team were shipped home,
0:36:22 > 0:36:27leaving behind a year's worth of sardine supplies.
0:36:29 > 0:36:34Elsewhere on Svalbard other artefacts of war were left to rust.
0:36:34 > 0:36:36But from a military point of view
0:36:36 > 0:36:39things were going to hot up rather than cool down.
0:36:42 > 0:36:46The region was now about to play a central part in the story
0:36:46 > 0:36:49of the superpower rivalry of the Cold War.
0:36:49 > 0:36:52'Here is a shadow that hangs above our world.
0:36:52 > 0:36:56'Our fears, suspicions, nightmares of the future
0:36:56 > 0:37:00'are all held in this picture of our shrunken Earth.
0:37:03 > 0:37:06'From here we can see the main centres of human life.
0:37:06 > 0:37:12'America, Europe, Asia gathered in close, in range of one another.
0:37:14 > 0:37:17'But whether this is to be a new link between us
0:37:17 > 0:37:19'or our last battlefield
0:37:19 > 0:37:23'depends not on the machines we fly, but on ourselves!'
0:37:25 > 0:37:29Most people are used to thinking about the Arctic as being a peripheral region.
0:37:29 > 0:37:33It's a little strip of white you see at the top of your map at school, of the world
0:37:33 > 0:37:35which is a Mercator projection,
0:37:35 > 0:37:37but when you look at a proper projection,
0:37:37 > 0:37:40the polar stereographic projection,
0:37:40 > 0:37:44you see that the Arctic is a little blob, surrounded by all the
0:37:44 > 0:37:49advanced industrial countries of the world, North America, Europe, Russia.
0:37:49 > 0:37:52So the Arctic Ocean becomes, geo-politically,
0:37:52 > 0:37:55it's the centre of things, it's not on the edge.
0:37:55 > 0:37:56During the Cold War, therefore,
0:37:56 > 0:38:00it became very very important and a huge amount was being spent on,
0:38:00 > 0:38:04on Arctic research, not because of the climatic implications
0:38:04 > 0:38:07but because of the military implications.
0:38:07 > 0:38:09From the end of January
0:38:09 > 0:38:13to the middle of March the big delta country of Alaska
0:38:13 > 0:38:15is a snow bound wilderness
0:38:15 > 0:38:20where the mercury can drop to 50 degrees below zero, and often does.
0:38:20 > 0:38:25Yet during these 3 months your army held exercise "Moose horn".
0:38:25 > 0:38:28# Oh, the weather outside is frightful
0:38:28 > 0:38:34# But the fire is so delightful and since we've no place to go...
0:38:34 > 0:38:39# Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow... #
0:38:46 > 0:38:49It completely transformed itself.
0:38:49 > 0:38:51When the Soviets and the Americans
0:38:51 > 0:38:55had both figured out how to use their captured German rocket scientists to
0:38:55 > 0:39:01the best avail and develop what become known of course as ICBMs,
0:39:01 > 0:39:03intercontinental ballistic missiles,
0:39:03 > 0:39:05and you figure out how to put a nuclear warhead on it,
0:39:05 > 0:39:09the means of targeting is over the Pole.
0:39:09 > 0:39:11So, from '47 onward,
0:39:11 > 0:39:15the polar region becomes the major strategic transfer point
0:39:15 > 0:39:19as tensions continue to develop between the Soviets
0:39:19 > 0:39:23and the NATO countries and in particular the North Americans.
0:39:27 > 0:39:30You had to have a clearly working system
0:39:30 > 0:39:33that was going to alert you to the missiles.
0:39:33 > 0:39:37Ultimately, within North America this becomes known as the DEW Line,
0:39:37 > 0:39:41distant early warning, and it was basically a trigger point
0:39:41 > 0:39:44in which we would be told the nukes are coming, basically say
0:39:44 > 0:39:47goodbye to your family we're just about to go kill Moscow.
0:39:55 > 0:39:57All around the rim of the Arctic,
0:39:57 > 0:40:00small bands of indigenous people, including the Inuit
0:40:00 > 0:40:02had been eking out
0:40:02 > 0:40:06a highly adapted livelihood for at least 5,000 years.
0:40:06 > 0:40:10The Cold War and the Dew Line were to change this forever.
0:40:14 > 0:40:18The DEW Line completely transforms the economic situation
0:40:18 > 0:40:22of the Inuit across the entire North American Arctic.
0:40:22 > 0:40:27You had town settings where the major construction was occurring
0:40:27 > 0:40:30and many of the Inuit who had traditionally only lived off the land
0:40:30 > 0:40:33started looking for employment
0:40:33 > 0:40:37and being introduced into the whole idea of a wage economy.
0:40:38 > 0:40:43The unique traditional way of life for Inuit
0:40:43 > 0:40:45has disappeared in many respects.
0:40:45 > 0:40:51The part that we still retain is our cultural identity and our language.
0:40:51 > 0:40:55We've now come into communities, everybody goes to school,
0:40:55 > 0:40:58people go to work that can find a job
0:40:58 > 0:41:01so you can see the transition that has taken place,
0:41:01 > 0:41:03it's very, it's very stark
0:41:03 > 0:41:07compared to the way it used to be in a very short time.
0:41:07 > 0:41:11I mean they have never been such big changes I don't think
0:41:11 > 0:41:14in any culture that we've had to go through in the last 70 years,
0:41:14 > 0:41:16it's been tremendous.
0:41:19 > 0:41:21Cold War and Nuclear technology
0:41:21 > 0:41:25was to have another major impact on the North Polar Region.
0:41:25 > 0:41:29As a wilderness the Arctic is unique in that it exists
0:41:29 > 0:41:32both above and underneath the ice.
0:41:32 > 0:41:36The Arms race led humankind to where no man had gone before.
0:41:43 > 0:41:48Prior to the development of nuclear power and being able to build a small
0:41:48 > 0:41:51reactor, there was no way of going under the ice.
0:41:51 > 0:41:54You would never go under the ice in a conventional powered sub
0:41:54 > 0:41:57as there is always the danger that when you needed to surface to get air
0:41:57 > 0:42:01and re-charge your batteries, you weren't going to break the ice.
0:42:01 > 0:42:04When the Americans and the Soviets figured out how to put a nuclear
0:42:04 > 0:42:07reactor in a submarine, that eliminated that issue.
0:42:07 > 0:42:09By the end of the 1950s
0:42:09 > 0:42:14the Americans were able to cross the Arctic under the ice.
0:42:15 > 0:42:20On March 17th 1959 the USS Skate was the first submarine
0:42:20 > 0:42:22to surface at the North Pole.
0:42:24 > 0:42:27On this voyage the crew of the Skate had been able to navigate for
0:42:27 > 0:42:324,000 kilometres under the ice, surfacing only 10 times.
0:42:34 > 0:42:38And as such you saw nuclear deterrents being above the air
0:42:38 > 0:42:41in terms of bombers and ICBM's.
0:42:42 > 0:42:45You saw nuclear deterrents under the ice.
0:42:47 > 0:42:51The sea under the Arctic became the scene for games of hide and seek,
0:42:51 > 0:42:54where submarine crews of each side
0:42:54 > 0:42:58listened for tell-tale sounds of each other's engines.
0:42:58 > 0:43:00Occasionally scientists were allowed on board
0:43:00 > 0:43:05to measure the ice from below and take soundings of the sea bed.
0:43:05 > 0:43:07Frequently the sonar equipment picked up
0:43:07 > 0:43:09some of the wildlife from below.
0:43:09 > 0:43:12WHALE MOANS
0:43:13 > 0:43:17A lot of the early understanding of whale behaviour in the Arctic came
0:43:17 > 0:43:20from recordings done from submarines
0:43:20 > 0:43:24US and British Nuclear subs and that was partly because
0:43:24 > 0:43:28they needed to collect a library of sounds so that they could recognise
0:43:28 > 0:43:33natural sounds and separate them from artificial sounds made by other subs.
0:43:33 > 0:43:36WHALES CALL
0:43:39 > 0:43:41There has been a project
0:43:41 > 0:43:46to map the migration of belugas under the ice.
0:43:46 > 0:43:49And it turns out that not only
0:43:49 > 0:43:52do they migrate around the edges of the Arctic
0:43:52 > 0:43:55but sometimes they take quite long, dangerous voyages
0:43:55 > 0:44:01under the ice itself to get from between two feeding grounds,
0:44:01 > 0:44:04so for instance in the Beaufort Sea and this means they have to
0:44:04 > 0:44:08rely on being able to surface in polynias to breathe
0:44:08 > 0:44:11and of course if there aren't any polynias they drown,
0:44:11 > 0:44:15so the tracking devices show them swimming under the ice
0:44:15 > 0:44:16and then taking very deep dives
0:44:16 > 0:44:19so they can use their sonar from a great depth
0:44:19 > 0:44:22to survey a bigger area of the surface
0:44:22 > 0:44:24and find where there's a hole.
0:44:26 > 0:44:29But the wonders of Arctic wildlife were not only on the minds of
0:44:29 > 0:44:33scientists and submariners listening on hydrophones.
0:44:33 > 0:44:36Towards the end of the '80s the importance of the polar
0:44:36 > 0:44:40environment was dawning on yet more powerful figures.
0:44:40 > 0:44:45It was here in a Soviet Union's Arctic capital
0:44:45 > 0:44:50that a dramatic new vision of the high North was to be outlined.
0:44:50 > 0:44:53When Gorbachev comes forward even before the Cold War ends,
0:44:53 > 0:44:57he comes forward in what is known as the Murmansk Speech in 1987,
0:44:57 > 0:44:59in which he starts bringing forward
0:44:59 > 0:45:04his whole ideas of Perestroika and Glasnost and says to the West,
0:45:04 > 0:45:06"You know, we've got this commonality,
0:45:06 > 0:45:10"we're Arctic nations, we should be co-operating in the Arctic."
0:45:12 > 0:45:14TRANSLATION: Let the North of the globe,
0:45:14 > 0:45:17the Arctic, become a zone of peace.
0:45:17 > 0:45:21Let the North Pole be a Pole of peace.
0:45:21 > 0:45:25We suggest that all interested states start talks on the limitation
0:45:25 > 0:45:30and scaling down of military activity in the North as a whole.
0:45:32 > 0:45:34Now in '87 when he makes that speech
0:45:34 > 0:45:38he basically gets dismissed, basically it's seen as a Soviet ploy,
0:45:38 > 0:45:41the Russians are just doing this for some form of protection
0:45:41 > 0:45:43of their Northern Fleet,
0:45:43 > 0:45:46but he also makes the very strong point that we need
0:45:46 > 0:45:48to come together on the environment.
0:45:50 > 0:45:53TRANSLATION: We attach special importance to the cooperation
0:45:53 > 0:45:56of the Northern countries in environmental protection.
0:45:56 > 0:45:59The urgency of this is obvious.
0:45:59 > 0:46:03It would be well to extend joint measures for protecting the marine
0:46:03 > 0:46:07environment of the entire oceanic and sea surface
0:46:07 > 0:46:09of the globe's North.
0:46:19 > 0:46:23Although his speech was too early and possibly too utopian,
0:46:23 > 0:46:26Mikhail Gorbachev did set out a vision of an Arctic
0:46:26 > 0:46:31surrounded by a community of polar nations collaborating peacefully.
0:46:31 > 0:46:32Once demilitarized,
0:46:32 > 0:46:38the polar region was something that could bind hostile nations together.
0:46:38 > 0:46:39He sets the stage.
0:46:39 > 0:46:44When it becomes evident by 1989 that in fact he is very serious
0:46:44 > 0:46:47and then you start seeing events overtake him,
0:46:47 > 0:46:50you start seeing some of the other Arctic nations saying,
0:46:50 > 0:46:52"Hey, you know, maybe he was on to something."
0:46:52 > 0:46:56Well, when you get everyone together and say, "OK, well, what are we going to do besides talk?
0:46:56 > 0:46:59"Well, let's start looking at environmental issues, nature issues,
0:46:59 > 0:47:02"I mean there can't be anything too terribly bad in the Arctic
0:47:02 > 0:47:05"but you know, let's, let's actually get substance."
0:47:05 > 0:47:09Well, lo and behold when they start looking they discover that the image
0:47:09 > 0:47:13of a pristine environmental condition in the Arctic is completely wrong.
0:47:14 > 0:47:18That it is completely and utterly connected to almost
0:47:18 > 0:47:21all other environmental sections in the world.
0:47:21 > 0:47:26So pollution occurring in Pakistan ends up in the Arctic.
0:47:26 > 0:47:30For the Arctic is no longer understood as an isolated area,
0:47:30 > 0:47:33but in fact becomes the corner stone
0:47:33 > 0:47:36of understanding environmental processes worldwide.
0:47:44 > 0:47:48Parallel to the twists and turns of the Cold War,
0:47:48 > 0:47:53the media, particularly television, was bringing Arctic wildlife
0:47:53 > 0:47:54into the homes of millions.
0:47:54 > 0:47:59For many this created an image of a remote and pristine eco-system
0:47:59 > 0:48:01supporting large and exotic mammals.
0:48:03 > 0:48:07One animal above all, became the emblem for the region.
0:48:14 > 0:48:17A high slope above the sea ice
0:48:17 > 0:48:21is a relatively safe position for a bear's maternity den.
0:48:25 > 0:48:28Polar bears have between one and three cubs,
0:48:28 > 0:48:32or very occasionally four, but twins are the most common.
0:48:32 > 0:48:35Since their birth under the snow around Christmas,
0:48:35 > 0:48:38they have suckled their mother's milk, but she has not fed
0:48:38 > 0:48:42since November and having lived only on her fat reserves
0:48:42 > 0:48:44is now extremely thin and hungry.
0:48:46 > 0:48:51The filmmakers also recognised the fragility of the environment.
0:48:52 > 0:48:55If disturbance were to reduce the number of seals,
0:48:55 > 0:48:59or industrial waste poison the Arctic Ocean,
0:48:59 > 0:49:02then polar bears would feel more strongly than most
0:49:02 > 0:49:05the sweeping changes that now face the North.
0:49:06 > 0:49:08Just as the Arctic was emerging as a symbol
0:49:08 > 0:49:11for the vulnerability of the planet,
0:49:11 > 0:49:17another more insidious and ultimately overwhelming threat became apparent.
0:49:22 > 0:49:25Global temperatures have been rising
0:49:25 > 0:49:29and the warming has been greatest in the Arctic.
0:49:29 > 0:49:33Each year the sea ice expands and contracts with the seasons.
0:49:34 > 0:49:37Normally, the summer time minimum of ice
0:49:37 > 0:49:40is around 7.5 million square kilometres,
0:49:40 > 0:49:43which is about half the winter time size.
0:49:43 > 0:49:49In the past decade we've seen smaller and smaller amounts.
0:49:49 > 0:49:552005 set a big record with only five million square kilometres,
0:49:55 > 0:49:58so a couple of million square kilometres than the normal.
0:49:58 > 0:50:022007 was stunning to the Arctic scientists where we reached a minimum
0:50:02 > 0:50:05of 4.1 million square kilometres.
0:50:05 > 0:50:11So 4.1, almost half the normal minimum size of ice in summer.
0:50:14 > 0:50:17If the trend continues then it's possible that the
0:50:17 > 0:50:22Arctic Ocean will be clear of ice in the summer, by as early as 2030.
0:50:25 > 0:50:28The scientists are only confirming
0:50:28 > 0:50:30what the Inuit have been observing for years.
0:50:30 > 0:50:35Some are now seeing their homes sink into the thawing permafrost.
0:50:36 > 0:50:40Now, with the change in the climate
0:50:40 > 0:50:42and the sea ice melting,
0:50:42 > 0:50:47the elders are no longer able to predict the weather
0:50:47 > 0:50:52and they're very uncomfortable now about using their knowledge base
0:50:52 > 0:50:54because they themselves
0:50:54 > 0:50:56are questioning whether it's valid or not.
0:50:58 > 0:51:02There's pockets of ice that have melted and hunters
0:51:02 > 0:51:05don't know that, and you, you hear about accidents quite a bit where,
0:51:05 > 0:51:10snow machines have gone through the ice and people have gone, you know.
0:51:10 > 0:51:16These are things that would not normally have happened years ago.
0:51:19 > 0:51:23But it's the Arctic's number one icon that has now become
0:51:23 > 0:51:25a global emblem of climate change.
0:51:27 > 0:51:32What's so powerful about the imagery of the Arctic is that if you start
0:51:32 > 0:51:34talking about climate change in the impacts
0:51:34 > 0:51:36of say New York or London and you start saying,
0:51:36 > 0:51:38"OK in a few years, you know,
0:51:38 > 0:51:42"you'll have to start dealing with a much higher tide line here. "
0:51:42 > 0:51:44You start showing a picture or an icon,
0:51:44 > 0:51:47such as the polar bear or the walrus,
0:51:47 > 0:51:50and you say here it is in all its glory in the Arctic.
0:51:50 > 0:51:54Everybody can understand that right now, and you say in 20 years,
0:51:54 > 0:51:5630 years, it will no longer be there,
0:51:56 > 0:51:59that is one of the most powerful images that I think people have
0:51:59 > 0:52:03in terms of the environmental distress the Earth is now facing.
0:52:05 > 0:52:07In just a few decades the polar bear
0:52:07 > 0:52:12has been transformed from being a ferocious symbol of the Arctic that
0:52:12 > 0:52:17nearly ate Nelson, to the victim of mankind's abuse of the planet.
0:52:17 > 0:52:19Human induced climate change
0:52:19 > 0:52:23is fundamentally altering the way the Arctic is perceived.
0:52:32 > 0:52:35I think once upon a time, and as we're talking only of
0:52:35 > 0:52:38the European perception here,
0:52:38 > 0:52:43once upon a time it was the harsh, threatening but beautiful,
0:52:43 > 0:52:46very alien, other place.
0:52:46 > 0:52:50So from there, I think we have now come to a point where it's now
0:52:50 > 0:52:55seen as a fragile...
0:52:55 > 0:52:59a fragile, easy-to-destroy place.
0:53:03 > 0:53:08Throughout the 19th century the frozen north had been seen as
0:53:08 > 0:53:12the great ice barrier which enticed brave seamen on heroic voyages...
0:53:12 > 0:53:15many never to return.
0:53:15 > 0:53:21Now this 19th century obsession is literally melting away.
0:53:21 > 0:53:27The Northwest Passage, now in 2007 has been open, clear of ice
0:53:27 > 0:53:31for two years in a row, for an extended period, about six weeks.
0:53:31 > 0:53:34We, we don't have any record
0:53:34 > 0:53:39of it being like that for, so frequently in time.
0:53:40 > 0:53:47Franklin came through, 1847 he found a bit of a route but he was stopped.
0:53:50 > 0:53:54Now, today we're sending ships through that area more and more
0:53:54 > 0:53:59frequently but we still expect we'll be seeing years
0:53:59 > 0:54:02when there'll be difficult ice conditions,
0:54:02 > 0:54:04well into the next few decades
0:54:04 > 0:54:07until all the ice finally melts in the summer time.
0:54:07 > 0:54:11The Arctic is more accessible than it's ever been,
0:54:11 > 0:54:17no longer the exclusive reserve for Inuit, explorers and camera crews.
0:54:17 > 0:54:19An open ocean in the north,
0:54:19 > 0:54:23surrounded by industrial nations is a possibility that might
0:54:23 > 0:54:27be realised within the next two or three decades.
0:54:27 > 0:54:31There'll be losses as well as gains.
0:54:31 > 0:54:33As in any other massive transformation
0:54:33 > 0:54:37and I'll use the adjective massive very purposely,
0:54:37 > 0:54:39there are pros and cons.
0:54:39 > 0:54:41The cons are getting fairly understood, you will
0:54:41 > 0:54:45have the elimination of most of the major mammal species,
0:54:45 > 0:54:48particularly polar bears, walruses, you will have
0:54:48 > 0:54:52a major disruption of the traditional way of life for the Inuit,
0:54:52 > 0:54:54and for other Northern indigenous peoples.
0:54:54 > 0:54:58But by the same token you are going to have opportunities.
0:54:58 > 0:55:01You are going to have economic opportunities, in terms of the exploitation
0:55:01 > 0:55:05of natural resources, oil, gas and diamonds.
0:55:05 > 0:55:11You are going to have the ability to have new transportation routes.
0:55:11 > 0:55:16We're not entirely sure where it is going but it is going to be massive.
0:55:20 > 0:55:22Some estimates suggest that
0:55:22 > 0:55:26as much as 20% of the world's oil and gas reserves
0:55:26 > 0:55:29may be found beneath the polar sea bed.
0:55:29 > 0:55:34Discoveries are being made of yet more gold, diamonds and tungsten.
0:55:34 > 0:55:37Environmental consequences will be inevitable
0:55:37 > 0:55:40as exploration gets underway.
0:55:40 > 0:55:42There is also the prospect of
0:55:42 > 0:55:46an international land grab and disputes over sovereignty.
0:55:48 > 0:55:52Two centuries ago, John Barrow of the British admiralty was spurred
0:55:52 > 0:55:57into action by the prospect of Russian domination of the polar sea.
0:55:57 > 0:56:01History seems to be repeating itself.
0:56:01 > 0:56:05It continues to be a stage for geo-political contest,
0:56:05 > 0:56:07just in 2007,
0:56:07 > 0:56:12the flamboyant Russian explorer Artur Chilingarov planting a flag
0:56:12 > 0:56:17on the sea floor, 4,000 metres below the North Pole,
0:56:17 > 0:56:21below the sea ice as a gesture of Russian sovereignty.
0:56:23 > 0:56:27The melting Arctic is now between two visions.
0:56:27 > 0:56:32Will it become the scene of peaceful collaboration
0:56:32 > 0:56:34as Mikhail Gorbachev proposed in 1987
0:56:34 > 0:56:38or will it return to being the scene of armed hostility
0:56:38 > 0:56:40that characterised the Cold War?
0:56:40 > 0:56:46We are literally on a crossroad. We have a possibility
0:56:46 > 0:56:50of seeing true international co-operation develop in the north.
0:56:50 > 0:56:53Unfortunately, there are also forces that are coming to the forefront
0:56:53 > 0:56:56that are suggesting that nations
0:56:56 > 0:56:59may in fact start looking to their own interest.
0:56:59 > 0:57:02We have the choice at this point in time in terms of how we respond
0:57:02 > 0:57:04to this transformation, but it's...
0:57:04 > 0:57:07at this point it's not entirely clear, which of the two
0:57:07 > 0:57:09we are in fact going to follow.
0:57:19 > 0:57:23It's now 190 years since Mary Shelley opened her story of
0:57:23 > 0:57:28Frankenstein, with the idealistic imaginings of a young explorer.
0:57:31 > 0:57:34"I feel a cold northern breeze play upon my cheeks,
0:57:34 > 0:57:38"which braces my nerves and fills me with delight.
0:57:38 > 0:57:41"I try in vain to be persuaded
0:57:41 > 0:57:46"that the Pole is the seat of frost and desolation.
0:57:46 > 0:57:49"It ever presents itself to my imagination
0:57:49 > 0:57:51"as a region of beauty and delight.
0:57:52 > 0:57:56"I shall satiate my ardent curiosity with the sight
0:57:56 > 0:58:00"of a part of the world never before visited,
0:58:00 > 0:58:04"and may tread a land never before imprinted by the foot of man."
0:58:07 > 0:58:12This is now a landscape where the imprint of humankind is so powerful
0:58:12 > 0:58:16that we are fundamentally altering its appearance and its ecology.
0:58:16 > 0:58:21But it is still within our power to ensure that, at least in part,
0:58:21 > 0:58:24the Arctic remains a wilderness,
0:58:24 > 0:58:29a place of wild beasts and a region of beauty and delight.
0:58:53 > 0:58:57Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd