stand for. cutting which course at. any time anywhere. in the center of.

the arctic is often described as a vast expanse of eternal ice but in some parts of the region that's no longer the case. this is alice muir island in the canadian arctic. this strip of coastline was once covered with ice but the nearby glaciers are melting so we can see more and more of the land that lies beneath them. some researchers predict starting in 2015 the arctic will be ice free in summer so what will happen to the region as all that ice melts. this will be almost for me to rise should she look. the arctic helps to determine the climate for a much wider area including parts of the us future climate change your true the ice

retrieving. the wall maps reread the act in the center. that will cause massive changes here and in other parts of the world. i think it's the biggest challenge facing the whole in the future. a challenge or an opportunity during the summer after the ice has melted but the taishan blooms along the coastline animal bones indicate that wildlife is returning . to more and more scientists are coming to the region and several countries have claimed mining rights how will those rights be allocated. geologists can now study land that used to be covered in ice land that is rich in natural resources. the competition for this arctic treasure is fierce.

these resources including oil natural gas and rare earth elements. taken together they're worth trillions of dollars. the indigenous peoples who live in the arctic region say they deserve a share of these riches new sources of income would help them improve their lives and have more of a sane government policies that affect them. all .

these scientists will be the 1st to study a particularly remote part of our to canada. feels great you know our days are waiting in the new get ready to go on the field. we got close twice and now we're getting on it's actually right. now see what awaits. are a few spots just tuck your bag underneath your seat it'll probably be a bumpy ride because of bad weather. more than a century ago arctic expeditions led by. an alfred vega made headlines around the world. today research trips to the region are not nearly as demanding as they used to be but they are expensive about $15000.00 euros per person.

resolute bay is often used as a starting point for scientific expeditions in the 1950 s. the canadian government forced indigenous people from northern quebec to settle in this remote but strategically important region. susan sullivan it was a child at the time. there has been a thing that has come up here. i guess there are more now i'm expecting that they'll be a lot more. people coming up north to find out more. vegetation. things that were frozen.

july 1st is canada day the country's national holiday but the local any with residents don't have much to celebrate. the village of resolute bay needs more jobs schools and hospitals the in you would want more financial support from the canadian government they also demand more autonomy so that they can live according to their traditional values. susan sullivan it copes that her grandchildren will be able to lead better lives than she and her parents did she says that the canadian government should formally a. for the forced resettlement of the innuit people and provide better jobs and job training programs.

for young people they are today there are so many more possibilities for them to get proper education and we hope that. wealthy within that 1020 years that they'll be a doctor. we now have. lawyers we now have well nurses that are in need but we need more. in the proper. system. and. the arctic region includes parts of 5 countries. denmark. norway. russia. the usa.

and canada. in 1909 the canadian government created a new northern territory called nunavut which means our land. summer has arrived and none of it but it's still cold just 3 degrees centigrade. the researchers arrived from resolute bay. spent 2 months on the territories not cops. there are no settlements here and no roads either there's not a lot of vegetation because the tundra subsoil is permanently frozen. the scientists set up their camp and it's anything but luxurious their only connection to the outside world are the transport helicopters this expedition is financed by the governments of canada and germany. germany has invested a lot of money in out the research and will continue to do so i think is very

important as we continue to study the effects of global warming. we need to find out more about how the entire climate system functions and. the. cost is a geologist who works for germany's institute for geosciences and natural resources which is part of the federal ministry of economics and technology. there are scientists here from several other countries as you can see from these flags. stephen grass be as a geochemist who works for canada's department of energy and environment his work here will focus on the composition of rocks on. american biologist john spear

will study microbes that could be used in research on antibiotic resistant bacteria . these are. little green top tubes is $15.00 each. and they are. are for extracting d.n.a. out of samples all collect like a little bit of a pencil eraser size amount of material and i'll insert it into these tubes and it will shake it around i'll take it home or will extract d.n.a. out of it at home. the weather is good today so the scientists head out to do some work. when these mountains were formed millions of years ago the local environment looked much different there was no ice cover and the land was covered with plants and trees.

geologists take a long term view of life on earth they think in terms of millennia not centuries and many scientists believe that today we are living in the final stages of the most recent ice age. stephen grass be discovered some unusual vegetation on a mountainside recently and now he's come back to take a closer look. there's a freshwater spring here a rare occurrence in this part of the arctic. the topsoil falls only in the summertime. recipe speculates on the origins of the spring.

we're finding more and more different areas of spring and we're able to record temperatures we've left data longer than the springs through the winter and we can see that the fall winter along. these very high latitude art. regions are sheets of areas a very active groundwater flow and it challenges all or conceptions of those see what's happening and it really tells us we don't know as much as we thought we did those exciting those new things to learn. the researchers have dug this the ice spring it continues to flow even in winter when the temperature is minus 4 degrees centigrade. the water temperature at that time is 6 degrees. speer captures a thermal image of the spring before the team heads back to camp. victoria peace specializes in the study of plate tectonics the movement of parts of the

earth's crust. she's been doing research in the arctic for 20 years and also teaches at the university of stockholm today she's working with a colleague from canada. and the arctic is a hole in the global warming the icing framework of climate today industry not just petroleum but other economic resources fishing shipping transportation mining oil and gas are all interested in accessing what they perceive to be a new. reservoir a new region right and i would say that the industry side of

things are very interested in the arctic what's going on here and how they may be able to capitalize on ice free conditions in the arctic. some experts speculate that the melting of the arctic open up to shipping routes between asia and europe. could have substantial strategic and economic benefits for several countries including china. believe that china do have a role to play in seeking peace. in that region and in promoting susceptibility sustainable development in the area china's government issued a white paper on the arctic policy in which the pole the silk road has

been off initially announced as a policy of the chinese government and you can see the north sea of routes. i have to because. commercial they feasible all of 10 years all for a celebration melting of ice in the arctic region. china aims to create a new silk road trade route that would run from asia to europe via the north pole. right now china has to move its exports to europe through the indian ocean the proposed new arctic routes would cut shipping time by 20 percent or about 2 weeks. some experts say that china also wants access to the arctic switch supply of natural resources to.

the growing chinese middle class is basically screaming for resources from all over the planet. and then the oxy gets no exception so what you see is basically the same interest for resources as china have in south america and china in africa and there and you can also i think they see that china moves in in the places where united states is not present always states force out then you see china course in and and we also stopped to see that in the oxy. meanwhile back in arctic canada the tory a piece prepares to fly back to camp. the research that she and her colleagues are doing here could be used by any number of countries. the scientists have no control

over where their data ends up and that's fine with victoria. i look at the tectonic environment where rocks form and that information is useful to the industry. and what they do with it is beyond me. this research work is difficult time consuming and expensive it's not yet clear how the governments and businesses that are funding these projects will make use of all the data. but if they have a strategic interest in the arctic after the ice they'll have to start preparing now.

it's yes this i'll start with some materials from the franklin basin. these researchers at germany's institute for geosciences and natural resources and how know if are going to end a life some rock samples that were taken off the coast of western greenland they've got a lot of work ahead of them. first to cut away a slice of rock that's just 30 microns think about the same width as a sheet of paper. then will examine it under a microscope. my voice jesus stance this sample is almost transparent it's thinner than a single human hair. that will allow us to examine in detail how this material interacts with light. and that will help us identify the individual minerals that are contained in this sample if you. can the ice in the holly and.

we return to know what the local residents sometimes find jobs helping the foreign research teams. several countries have a vested interest in exploiting the region's natural resources and the scientists research may help them to do that. if you would hope that as the arctic ice continues to melt to be able to share in the economic benefits and have more of a say in how they live their lives. over the centuries in you would have proven that they can adapt to even the harshest climate conditions. but they're tired of living in primitive dwellings and eating only the meat and fish that nature provides as their ancestors did before the. this is greenland capital nuku located on the southwest coast. greenland has been

part of denmark since 814 but now enjoys a great deal of autonomy. still subsidy payments from denmark make up about 60 percent of the territory's budget. the capital is in the middle of a construction boom as greenland gains more control over the allocation of revenues generated by the exploitation of natural resources. we want to diversify away economy inchers of generating new income sources for our country which she or the mining us. as a future income source along with tourism along with other industries that we are trying to attract to green so there is a consideration of making ali economy less vulnerable for rapid fire

or sudden changes of fish. the fishing industry is a key element in greenland's economy fish and shellfish make up about 90 percent of total exports and as much as 20 percent of g.d.p. . greenland left the european economic community in 1905 in a dispute over fishing policy. part of today's catch is being unloaded at the port of new. mike olson works for oil greenland the territory's largest fishing company . it has more than 40 processing facilities in greenland and also on canada's atlantic coast. the company headquarters are located here and new. the most important fish shellfish is.

our main supply us all the local fisherman. in the near coastal fishery so that approximately 3000 people fisherman delivering the fish for our factories and besides that we have a lot of troll us that off fishing in the in the sea. oil greenland also operates its own fleet of fishing vessels. one of them is just coming to port. and mike also meets the captain yes the ship was at sea for 2 weeks and brought in $250.00 tons of fish the catch was immediately frozen on board. this is the cooling facility the temperature is minus 25 degrees centigrade each bag contains 30 kilos of caught.

some scientists predict the climate change will force large numbers of fish and shellfish to move north into colder waters. in addition there are indications that the area off greenland's coast is being overfished. monica seen that happen before . his species that is coming back back in the eighty's there was a lot of a lot of cut in the greenlandic sea but suddenly it disappeared so there hasn't been. fishing in the last 20 years and greenland so it's it's 1st the last years that it started to come back. after the trawler unloads its catch it goes back out to sea. the market for fish and fish products is good right now sales and prices are rising still the fishing industry

does not generate enough revenue to support greenland's entire economy on its own so the territory will have to find new sources of income. at the moment the fishery cannot alone. maintain this economy for green and so we have to welcome some new businesses in the green line sure islamist one of the things that the politicians are talking about and though we have to develop new businesses too to gain some more economic growth in green and. greenland is one of europe's most remote tourist destinations but visitors are not attracted by luxury hotels or wellness facilities there are none here. they've come to see the territory's breathtaking natural beauty. those who are looking for

a unique travel experience will find it here. in their own ruins of viking settlements. the northern lights. and arctic wildlife including reindeer. these vast landscapes are populated by more than 20 species of mammals and dozens of bird species. looming roomier. but greenland is an expensive place to visit food prices are high mostly because supplies have to be imported. the infrastructure needs a lot of the. only small planes can land at the airport and know. the runway is too

short for large commercial passenger jets. greenland's government is trying to line up foreign investors who will help finance improvements high on the list of potential partners or chinese businesses. i'm not afraid of china in general i think china. and metals and minerals. it's an important investment country. last year a company owned by the chinese government submitted a bid for the expansion of 3 smaller ports in greenland but the government in denmark stepped in and blocked the bid citing security and financial concerns. in any case greenland needs to make a serious effort to improve its infrastructure. that

it definitely the. very difficult it is far away from both europe and north america and it's a very big island the biggest island in world spread out over a very large area so it definitely looked just tickle challenges and also environmental challenges and from one form of bad weather. in large parts of greenland many people earn a living by hunting. one of them is to be a signal to use and who lives in the lock on the southeast coast. during the summer

he goes hunting every week. in the winter months he could just fish. this is the only way that he can provide food for his family. did not open up my father and brothers taught me how to hunt i'm a. great you know new longer law if you know so now i'll go by myself. been yeah. binya i did good when my family lives on the meat all the fish that i bring back you know. so far we've always had enough to eat. with never go hungry. my sure of that but. i don't. know. b.s. and his family eat reindeer and musk ox meat in summer. and in winter mostly seals

and narwhals a small species of whale. the number. to be as is not concerned that the arctic ice is melting he's learned to adapt to his environment. to be and so often takes a long foreign tourists on his hunting trips the extra income is allowed him to buy

a few luxuries like a snowmobile and an outboard motor for his boat. to be. grow vegetables here. we can only provide on its. own we don't waste any food. if we don't eat it right away we'll freeze it and story. and if you are going to be noticable. those who prefer to buy their food instead of hunting or fishing for it can shop at the supermarkets and dizzy like. but the food in the shops is expensive because a lot of it has to be imported mostly from europe. some food supplies are brought in by helicopter.

there aren't many trees in greenland only a few species are able to grow here mostly in the far south. but that may change because of global warming. during the summer some crops are grown in the south. as legend has it the region was given the name greenland by a 10th century norse explorer he hoped that a pleasant sounding name would attract settlers. the residents of to see like would love to grow vegetables here in the summer and that may happen if the arctic ice continues to melt. 2000 people live into z. like it's the largest town in southeastern greenland. but behind the colorful facades of these homes many people suffer from depression and alcoholism. the

community only recently started to discuss these problems openly. the causes include the town's high unemployment rate and the poverty of the goes along with it . domestic abuse is common. the suicide rate among young men is high. and during the winter the bodies can be buried because the ground is frozen. you. the local mortuary is located next to a church the bodies are kept here until spring. many local residents simply have not been able to cope with the transition from

a semi nomadic eco centered culture to a modern society that's based on commerce and consumerism. some are frustrated by the presence of wealthy tourists when they themselves can't find a job. there's no need to go hunting anymore you can just buy food at the supermarket. many people would put it up on welfare. every family in greenland knows the pain of the social problems that we are seeing in the statistics and they are quite high i mean it's both suicides and as i said.

we do see. a lot of violence as well and violence against women and children and this is something that we need to fix and i think we need to fix it within the next generation or otherwise it will be every every family it is being affected by this 34 times over we have to stop it now. tilly martin a son is a member of greenland's parliament and has been speaking out on these problems. she's half innuit and have to. she believes that greenland should maintain close ties to denmark because she fears that the indigenous peoples will not be able to survive on their own. right back. politician electra hammond also hopes for a better future for greenland but she believes that this will only happen if the territory wins its independence from denmark.

i have a danish passport but that's all. danish i don't think danish i don't speak things at home i don't feel like a dane and i don't feel like at home when i meant i'm not. greenland continues to move toward independence from denmark and today even young in which children learn to take pride in their traditional culture their language and their homeland. a lot of people around the world are definitely concerned about the effects of global warming but many in greenland see these environmental changes as an opportunity to free themselves from foreign influence. many of the european immigrants who helped build this territory are buried in the cemetery. and bent insists a question of what society. that we want in the future for the

people of green. and independence is a question of the freedom of the choices the government of $39.00 should be doing in regards to the foreign affairs in terms of the safety and the military issues connected to bring them to. denmark is responsible for. agreement security and maintain several military bases here. but in the near future greenland will have more control over its defense and foreign policy. still some danes are reluctant to sever ties completely for a number of different reasons. for. that danish greenlandic relationship goes back many 100 years so there is

there is cut your ties there's historical ties people who have married each other a lot of greenland those living in denmark there's a lot of danish people living in greenland so so so it's not just you know a matter of pulling the plug and then say from now on we are independent. from. denmark also understands the importance of maintaining good relations with the territory to destroy teach equally important and rich in natural resources. as the competition for those resources intensifies denmark aims to maintain its security presence there. many danes believe that the government's current policies on greenland benefits both sides. that is where i would argue that it is difficult to find

a better deal if you are looking at the world from a greenlandic perspective then being. with denmark and i would doubt that if your partner up with china or anyone else that there would be no favors return. china keeps a close eye on developments in the arctic from its embassy in reykjavik iceland the ambassador says that the world has nothing to fear from beijing's trade policy. the chinese government has no intention of a cow painting with the u.s. side for the influence we regard is u.s. space on its merits and also we have a strong wish to develop a good relationship with all the countries. as world powers compete for position and influence in greenland to anyone people are standing up for their rights. when these children grow up they may find themselves living in

a country that has won its freedom from denmark but is heavily dependent on china. in u.s. and canada also want more autonomy some even favor closer ties with innuit peoples of other countries. we were one people before governments work in that state and divided us through borders we work with where we work across borders we have always been one in 8 we recognize that we know we have rights as it itches people's. okalik easy ak is a former chair of the innuit circumpolar council and often speaks out on issues that affect indigenous peoples. here she's meeting with an old friend former nun of a premier eva arya. they've set up camp on the outskirts of none of its capital calling it. the. we will never completely lose. who we are. it's not in the middle.

of the. land. we want to work with our governments and we want to work with industries. that are up here that want to come up here. recognize that. and. work with us to your collective benefit i guess. every year hundreds of delegates from dozens of countries gather in reykjavik for the annual arctic circle assembly. the participants include politicians scientists business executives representatives of indigenous peoples and others who are interested in the future of the arctic region and how it will be affected by climate change. the organization's chairman is former iceland president olafur

a grim sort he says it's important to bring together as many international representatives as possible to discuss policy. the problem for the arctic is not in the arctic and it should be heavily industrialized countries in the world and without putting a lot in perspective where one. of the future of. the arctic ice has been rapidly melting now for 2 decades the process has even affected glaciers in greenland that are 100000 years old. scientists estimate that 10000 tons of arctic ice are lost every 2nd due to global warming but some say that this may turn out to be a positive development. summers are. getting longer there's vegetation growing. i believe.

you know there are a lot of all even things. that have become so. i guess it's their problem. i believe this proposition. as the arctic ice continues to melt the indigenous people stand to benefit from the exploitation of the region's natural resources and the creation of new tree. routes . increased prosperity may help them to preserve their natural way of life but as all of our good him some points out the future of the arctic has become an international issue. we are now seeing for the 1st time in human history the arctic becoming a global. kong ship punchers all the worst of the world for a while toppling and the author of all fall the rush limbaugh world in part all

they all feel. good. because. life's a quote having a form shall come with flowers a massive attack on a bunch of pussycats. common time home color as they keep just love the whole concept of taken aback. because. w. . journalist also. julian assange for full complete transparency which he makes wiggling doesn't. talk on the world's most powerful

country and ended up mining. the rise of a man who founded wiki leaks and risked his life to find the truth. in the 90 minutes on d w. have fun in pyongyang. the capital city of north korea is reinventing itself. but only a few can enjoy the benefits of those the rich allow. him jong un introduced an insidious reward system to coerce allegiance to the regime. those who don't make it into the fun metropolis are often toggery. have

fun in pyongyang starts february 28th on w. . this is day 8 of the news and these top story german police say at least 30 people have been injured after a car plowed into a crowd celebrating qana vote the apparent attack happened in the town no fluke was in the state of pesach some of the injuries a serious the driver was arrested at the scene and is facing a charge.