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In the last few years the blue ice of the Antarctic has yielded a large collection of these missiles from the past. Horizon: Message in the Rocks, BBC 1979
This is the cleanest place on Earth – the Clear Air facility at the South Pole where the impact of human civilisation is measured. The Earth’s environmental oracle. It was in Antarctica that the hole in the ozone layer was first spotted. It is here the increase in Carbon Dioxide levels is measured. And it is here scientists are predicting doomsday ... Antarctica is warming up. Horizon: Antarctica, BBC 1997
The net records show that in the last fifty years the Antarctic peninsula has warmed by an unprecedented two degrees. ibid.
Four vertical kilometres of ice: but it us what’s underneath this ice that has turned this remote piece of Antarctica into one of the most hottest pieces of real-estate in the world. For beneath their feet lies a vast mysterious lake. No-one has ever seen it. And for a long time no-one knew it existed. But the most enticing prospect of all is what scientists might find living down there. Horizon: The Lost World of Lake Vostok, BBC 2000
The massive ceiling of ice would create a place of absolute dark and intense cold. Crushed by immense pressure. A strange and hostile other-world here on Earth. It was a stunning discovery. Scientists were tantalised. ibid.
If anything has survived in Lake Vostok, it will be microbes. They are the magicians of survival. ibid.
The Russians began drilling these cores twenty-five years ago ... There was a problem. Drilling is a dirty job ... If the drill entered the lake, the purest body of water on Earth would have its first oil slick. ibid.
NASA have come up with an ingenious alternative: they could melt their way down. ibid.
Hancock could change our view of the past and that is to find the home of the lost civilisation ... Hancock has made an astonishing suggestion about where it [Atlantis] could be – Antarctica. Horizon: Atlantis Reborn Again, BBC 2000
This is Antarctica: the last great wilderness. It’s the coldest, windiest, driest and most isolated place on Earth. And it’s home to the British Antarctic Survey’s Halley Research Station. Horizon: Ice Station Antarctica, BBC 2016
A chasm that threatened to cut this station on a massive iceberg. ibid.
This is Halley VI in Antarctica, one of the most remote scientific research states on the planet. In October 2016 the British Antarctic Survey invited me to document a world first – their attempt to relocate the entire station 23 kilometres across a floating ice shelf. Horizon: Antarctica: Ice Station Rescue, BBC 2017
Halley is sitting on an [Brunt] ice shelf that threatens to break up. ibid.
West Antarctica ... If this were to go, sea levels worldwide would go up twenty feet ... Roughly the same size – Greenland would also raise sea levels almost twenty feet if it went. Al Gore, An Inconvenient Truth
But taken as a whole, you cannot say that there has been statistically speaking any significant change in sea-ice concentration throughout the Antarctic. Dr Julian Paren, British Antarctic Survey
The sun rises once more over Antarctica. Now at last the Emperor penguins abandon their huddle. The males are still carrying the precious eggs that they’ve cherished throughout the Antarctic winter. With the returning sun the eggs hatch. David Attenborough, Planet Earth: Pole to Pole, BBC 2006
At the southern-most extreme of our planet the continent of Antarctica is as large as the United States of America. 90% of all the world’s ice is found here. David Attenborough, Planet Earth: Ice Worlds
Vast numbers of chin-strapped penguins come ashore to breed. David Attenborough: Planet Earth: Ice Worlds e6
Humpback whales: they have travelled over five thousand miles to reach these waters. The whales are harvesting krill. ibid.
One creature is just arriving: every winter Emperor penguins leave the comfort of their ocean home and begin a remarkable journey: they head towards their breeding grounds almost a hundred miles inland. ibid.
Abandoned by the run, the males are left alone with their eggs to face the coldest, darkest winter on Earth. ibid.
The females are returning and their bellies are full with fish. As they approach, waves of excitement ripple through the huddle. Each female calls to her mate, and he, recognising her song, trumpets back. Reunited at last. ibid.
The chicks grow quickly on a diet of fish and squid. ibid.
Few places are tougher than the Antarctic. Chin-strapped penguins: every day they travel up to fifty miles out to sea hunting for krill. But the hard part is getting this food back to the colony ... For a flightless bird getting to the top of the volcano is a gruelling climb ... Now she joins penguin rush hour ... She must try and find her family among a hundred and fifty thousand birds. David Attenborough, Life: Birds e5, BBC 2009
Over one third of our planet is frozen. And yet the icy worlds of the Arctic and Antarctic are as alien to most of us as the surface of another planet. They are places of superlatives, from ice caps that hold nearly 80% of our planet’s fresh water to frozen forests that encircle the entire globe. David Attenborough, Frozen Planet I, BBC 2011
Penguins are found only in the southern hemisphere. ibid.
Over forty million penguins take to the southern ocean to feed. They’re joined by thousands of whales. ibid.
This melt halves the size of Antarctica. ibid.
The cold allows animals [e.g. jellyfish] to grow very slowly and become giants. ibid.
Only 1% of Antarctica is free of ice. ibid.
Antarctica: Three miles thick in places and imprisons 70% of the world’s fresh water. ibid.
The sun is absent for up to half a year in the polar regions. When it returns at the beginning of spring its warmth will transform this magical ice-world. David Attenborough, Frozen Planet II: Spring
Some penguins turn to a life of crime. ibid.
These katabatic winds are stronger than any hurricane. They are the coldest and the most ferocious on the planet. ibid.
The elephant seals have arrived. ibid.
Summer’s riches will not last. David Attenborough, Frozen Planet III: Summer
Times are harder for the wolves here in the high Arctic. ibid.
There are three hundred million tons of krill in the Southern ocean. ibid.
There are no land-based predators in Antarctica. ibid.
Autumn can be a particularly savage and unpredictable time. David Attenborough, Frozen Planet IV: Autumn
Bizarrely, it’s now that the Emperor penguins arrive, just as all the other penguins have left. ibid.
Newly formed pairs promenade together. ibid.
The females start the long journey back to the sea. ibid.
The polar winter – this is the planet at its most hostile. Those that stay here at this time must face the harshest conditions on Earth. David Attenborough, Frozen Planet V: Winter
Winter brings a devastatingly destructive force: frost. ibid.
The Emperors are not entirely alone – the weddell seal – the only mammals to remain here during the winter. ibid.
Many animals here are remarkably long-lived. ibid.
Since 1959 the whole of Antarctica has been protected by international treaty. David Attenborough, Frozen Planet VI: The Last Frontier