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It’s in the Arctic that the effects of global warming are most evident. Professors Iain Stewart & Kathy Sykes, Future Earth
This is the largest ice shelf in the Arctic – the Ward Hunt Ice Shelf – it just cracked in half three years ago. Al Gore, An Inconvenient Truth, 2006
The ice cap – it has diminished by forty per cent in fifty years. And now there are two major studies showing that within the next fifty to seventy years in summertime it will be completely gone. ibid.
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
Arctic: there’s no sun here at all for half the year. ibid.
And yet the greatest challenge to life here is not the cold but the extreme swings between the seasons. ibid.
Now is a race to breed before the sun departs. ibid.
Short-tailed shearwaters have travelled ten thousand miles from Australia to be here. Eighteen million visitors darken the skies, the largest gathering of sea-birds on the planet. Humpback whales have come all the way from the Equator to feed in these rich polar waters. ibid.
The good times will be very short. 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
A female polar bear emerges from her den beneath the snow … Three young cubs. 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.
Early autumn in the Canadian Arctic and polar bears are gathering on the coastal strip waiting for the sea to freeze. David Attenborough, Frozen Planet IV: Autumn
Belugas: the white whales of the north. ibid.
Millions of summer visitors are beginning to return south. ibid.
It’s surprising just how sociable polar bears can be. ibid.
Autumn can be a particularly savage and unpredictable time. 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.
Many animals here are remarkably long-lived. ibid.
The Arctic is rich in coal, oil and minerals. David Attenborough, Frozen Planet VI: The Last Frontier
Most of the Arctic remains empty of human beings. ibid.
Reindeer are one of the few animals that can endure these bitterly cold conditions. ibid.
These hundred-metre high cliffs are home to thousands of Guillemots. ibid.
The men are totally dependent on the stamina of their dogs. ibid.
Sometime within the next few decades perhaps as soon as 2020 there will be open water here. David Attenborough, Frozen Planet VII: On Thin Ice
September 1980: since then there’s been a 30% drop of the area covered by ice. ibid.
To the naked eye glaciers don’t appear to move at all. ibid.
Spirals are common in the natural world … The narwhal lives in the cold waters of the Arctic Sea. Attenborough’s Natural Curiosities: A Curious Twist, Eden 2013
It’s not a horn at all; it’s an enormous canine tooth. ibid.
This is one of the coldest places on Earth – the high Arctic ... There are animals that live here all the time. David Attenborough, The Life of Mammals I: A Winning Design, BBC 2002
The great grey owl hunts in the Arctic ... The owl listens for its victims. David Attenborough, The Life of Birds V: Fishing for a Living, BBC 1998
A few miles from the coast the ice is already splitting. Now the mother can start hunting for the seals they must have but she’s leading her cubs into a dangerous new world. Nearly half of all cubs die in their first year out on the ice. David Attenborough, Planet Earth: Pole to Pole, BBC 2006
The polar bear cubs emerge from the den in which they were born. Their mother stretches her legs after five months under the snow. They are just two months old and instinctively follow her lead. David Attenborough, Planet Earth: Ice Worlds
As the ice disappears, sea birds return to the high Arctic. ibid.
At the height of summer the sun never sets. ibid.
The polar bear’s world is literally melting away. Attenborough Explores ... Our ... Fragile World, BBC 2009
The Arctic winter is becoming tougher for the caribou. ibid.
One of the most hostile bodies of water on the planet – the icy wastes of the Arctic Ocean. The water-temperature hovers around zero. Oceans VIII: Arctic Ocean, BBC 2008
The smallest and shallowest of the five main oceans. ibid.
It’s heating up twice and fast as anywhere else on Earth. ibid.
The polar bear is the world’s largest terrestrial carnivore. ibid.
There are about thirty [Beluga whales] swimming around the boat. ibid.
The high Arctic in winter. One of the toughest places on Earth in which to live. Only three top predators are able to survive here: the Wolf ... the Arctic Fox ... and out on the sea ice the Polar Bear. David Attenborough, The Hunt II: In the Grip of the Seasons, BBC 2015
Adult hares may be easy to spot but they're far from easy to catch. ibid.
Once the seal is in the water it’s as good as lost. ibid.
Thousands of chicks will take this leap ... The majority make it to the water. ibid.
Looking down on our planet it may come as a surprise to find just how much of it is blanketed in snow and ice. These vast frozen wildernesses cover more than a fifth of the Earth. David Attenborough, Frozen Planet II, BBC 2022
Our frozen wildernesses are disappearing at faster rates than ever before. ibid.
In winter at the top of the planet lies an icy wilderness not of land but of frozen water: the Arctic Ocean. Its surface forms an almost solid platform that is bigger than the whole of the United States. David Attenborough, Frozen Planet s2e2
In the Arctic monumental change is a regular event. Some visitors are arriving en masse attracted by the biggest seasonal transformation of any coast on earth. Over 300 billion tons of ice are melting, releasing nutrient-rich water. Extraordinary newcomers appear from the depths. David Attenborough, Planet Earth s3e1: Coasts, BBC 2023