this is "nightline." >> tonight, r. kelly, guilty. survivors finding vindication. >> for 30 years, we were overlooked. for 30 years people said we were lying. for 30 years, people said this didn't occur. ♪ i believe i can fly ♪ >> the i believe i can fly singer facing the possibility of a lifetime in prison. why his lawyers hope to appeal. plus, discovering the edge of a planet in peril. >> so this is greenland's ice sheet. just incredible. >> but the ancient ice is melting fast. what it means for the rest of the earth. >> what happens in the arctic does not stay in the arctic. it affects and cascades the whole world.

>> and the cutting edge eco racers making green cool. and historic opening. the metropolitan opera premiere that's busting down barriers. >> "nightline" will be right back. >> "nightline" will be right back. i used to pre-rinse because mom did. but i wasted up to 20 gallons of water every time. now, we just scrape and load. finish quantum works without pre-rinsing, cleaning your dishes to a shine. join the millions of americans skipping the rinse to save our water. let's create your trademark style at macy's vip sale with an extra 30% off top designers. plus, 15% off fragrances, skincare, makeup and more... now at macy's.

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but nothing stuck. until today. when a jury took about nine hours to render its verdict on all counts. the decision could land the star in prison, for life. here's abc's stephanie ramos. >> the jury delivered a powerful message to men like r. kelly. >> reporter: r&b superstar, r. kelly, found guilty in federal court in brooklyn today. >> no matter how long it takes, the long arm of the law will catch up with you. >> reporter: the singer was convicted of nine counts of racketeering and sex trafficking charges, including the trafficking of six females, three of them in their teens. one of them, the late singer aaliyah, who died in a plane crash in 2001. kelly married her when she was 15 years old. >> today's verdict to robert

kelly's decade long reign of terror over many you can girls, boys and women. >> reporter: the jury of seven men and five women deliberating for just nine hours before reaching a verdict. the 54-year-old reportedly motionless, as the verdict was read. ♪ i believe i can fly ♪ ♪ i believe i can touch the sky ♪ >> reporter: the "i believe i can fly" singer's wings may be clipped forever now. he could serve life in prison. >> you got presented some of the victims and some key witnesses. what does this verdict mean for them? >> now, he's simply a convicted felon, and that is what is going to be in his obituary. and he has only himself to blame for what he did. he underestimated the courage of his victims. >> reporter: the prosecution arguing his abuse was an open secret. using his network of influence in what amounted to a criminal enterprise. >> today is monumental for our

country, for our communities, to know that we are heard, we are seen, and defendants will be held accountable for their criminal actions. >> reporter: during the nearly six-week long trial, the prosecution called 45 witnesses. more than half a dozen of them said they were abused by kelly. at least three of them were underage at the time. >> the prosecution was able to prove and show this jury that for numerous years, for decades, r. kelly was engaging in the same pattern of having sexual relations with young girls. the same pattern since 1994. >> reporter: witness after witness described an abu sich p -- abusive pattern of terrifying control. claiming r. kelly dictated everything, from their ability to use the bathroom to when they could eat, even forcing them into sex acts. you've called r. kelly the worst perpetrator that you have

pursued. why is that? >> he recruited fans of his, targeted them, intimidated them, indoctrinated them, threatened them, sexually assaulted them. he failed to disclose he had genital herpes. he knew that he had it. he didn't use a condom. as a result, a number of the victims contracted genital herpes, a sexually transmitted disease they will have for the rest of their life. >> reporter: angela was a jane doe in the case, testifying in the trial about her own alleged abuse at the hands of kelly as a teenager. >> i was a little girl, who was in a big girl's world. for 30 years, we were overlooked. for 30 years, people said we were lying and said this didn't occur. i never fathomed that i would have to relive this. so i don't know what healing is going to be like, but i am so ready to start. >> reporter: angela met r. kelly

when she was about 15. she was a background dancer and aspiring singer. >> the situation started with us being the first set of young girls that were exposed to him, violated by this gentleman. it was important for me to gain my courage and to have a voice in this. and to take my power band and to give the young ladies that couldn't speak and were not given the opportunity to speak a voice. >> reporter: her testimony was particularly damning. also accusing kelly of performing sexual acts on aaliyah, who would have been 13 or 14 years old. >> with my testimony, it not only validated her situation, but it gave them a timeline. i'm glad that i was able to speak up. not only for her, but for all of us. >> reporter: his relationship with the singer was also at the center of his racketeering conviction. prosecutors showing that kelly bribed a state employee to

create an identification card so he could marry her. a lawyer for kelly today saying the prosecution ignored iconsistencies in the witness' stories. >> of course i'm disappointed. he was not anticipating this verdict. because based on the evidence, why should he anticipate this verdict? >> reporter: during the trial, kelly's attorneys attacked the credibility of the witnesses, portraying them as groupies and jilted lovers from consensual relationships. >> r. kelly is a huge celebrity, he doesn't need to force anyone to engage in a relationship with them, and they were suing him and they had money to gain. >> reporter: kelly's defense took just three days, and only four witnesses testified. they ranged from an aspiring rapper to a former chicago police officer, to an audio engineer. >> they didn't come off credible on the stand, and actually came off as he was desperate. >> reporter: kelly himself did not take the stand.

tell us about the defense. they quoted mlk. >> they began their defense argument with references to mlk. i would never think that reverend martin luther king, jr., should be mentioned in the same argument or discussion as that of r. kelly. that is a disgrace. >> reporter: kelly, the self-proclaimed king of r&b, was once one of the biggest selling artis and music producers, hit songs like "ignition," making him the top artist of the 1990s. ♪ ♪ >> reporter: this was not kelly's first time in court. >> grammy winning singer r. kelly was acquitted on all charges of child pornography. >> reporter: in 2008 he was tried and acquitted and child pornography charges after the girl in that case refused to

testify against him. in an interview with music journalists taped after his acquittal, he struggles to answer what many viewed as a basic question. >> do you like teenage girls? >> when you say teenage, how old are we talking? >> girls who are teenagers? >> i have some 19-year-old friends. >> reporter: but his fall from grace began in 2017 after a report by buzz feed included allegations of a sex cult run by the artist. today's verdict may have never happened without the explosive 2019 lifetime docu-series, "surviving r. kelly" which dozens of accusers spoke out about being abused by the singer. >> it was consensual but it was consented by intimidation. >> i want you to know you're not alone. you're not alone. >> reporter: and sharing stories

of controlling behavior. >> you had to pretty much agree to it, no matter how demeaning it felt. >> reporter: kelly defended himself in a 2019 explosive interview with cbs news. >> have you ever had sex with anyone under the age of 17? >> no! >> never? >> no. i didn't do this stuff! this is not me. i'm fighting for my [ bleep ] life! >> reporter: kelly is also facing sex related charges in minnesota and illinois. he has pleaded not guilty in both cases. >> this is not the end of what we're going to see of r. kelly. he's going to make his run through the courthouses. >> he will be sentenced in may, and he deserves every day, every month, every year. >> this is bigger than me. this is bigger than aaliyah. this is for all victims that were affected and afflicted by this man. known and unknown. >> our thanks to stephanie. up next, the perilous

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it is one of the most beautiful places on earth. but scientists say greenland, with its untouched vistas and its ancient ice sheets is the canary in the coal mine of climate change. here's abc's james longman. ♪ ♪ >> reporter: i'm walking along the very edge of our planet. we've made it up to greenland's ice sheet. take a look. it's just incredible. it's a bit like an ice desert. where just below my feet a

transformation is taking place. an important change, gaining pace. which promises to turn all of our lives upside down. nestled between the arctic and the atlantic oceans, greenland, which is normally a frozen wonderland, is, along with the rest of the arctic, warming faster than anywhere else on earth. the ice melt causing oceans to rise and making global climate systems more unpredictable. >> the arctic is the engine room of the climate system of the earth. >> reporter: the situation is now even more dire. last month, for the first time in recorded history, rain fell on greenland's summit. raising alarm bells for climate scientists. this is greenland's ice sheet. it makes up something like 85% of the whole of greenland. where we're standing, the ice is

something like 60 meters thick. in some places it's as thick as two miles. our destination, the russell glacier. one of the most studied places on the planet when it comes to climate change. these stunning lakes, a harbinger of the retreating ice sheet. this green scientist is my guide for the expedition. why is greenland so important when it comes to understanding climate change, and why does it affect people at home? >> now, half of the rate of the sea level rise comes from the melting to have greenland ice sheet. it is an average of one kilometer thick of ice. and that is melting at a very rapid rate. just in one year, the amount of fresh water released by the greenland ice sheet is enough to cover the whole of england with two meters of water. >> or florida. >> or florida, absolutely. >> reporter: if greenland continues to melt at this pace,

scientists expect tens of millions of people around the world to face more frequent flooding and displacement by 2030. that's just nine years from now. that's because the ice in the arctic is crucial in regulating the temperatures of the world. affecting more than 90% of the sun's heat back into the atmosphere. but when the ice turns to water and these blue lakes, that sun is absorbed rather than reflected, and that speeds up the melt. ♪ ♪ here we go. research begins. critical research means getting up close to and spending extended time with the glacier. scientists spend their days and nights on this often unwelcoming icecap, taking the readings that inform us all. so this is where we slept. we're out here right on the ice. i can tell you, it is cold, but what an experience, right?

sleeping on that's, which is something like 30,000 years old that's incredible. life here is rugged to say the least. ♪ ♪ but some superstar adventurerers are using greenland's extreme topography to make a statement about climate change. extreme-e is an all-electric super truck race shining a light on an environmental crisis. extreme-e goes around the world to make tackling climate change cool. and today, they're here in greenland, racing to shine a light on the country's disappearing landscape. you can see the russell glacier in the back ground. hally russell is one of the top executives. >> unfortunately, it's melting much quicker than any of us would like. so what we have done is brought a major motor sports series to

greenland as a tv only product to demonstrate what technology can do, what we can do with electric technology, and how we can inspire people to take action on climate change. tlip's the key here. these engines, powered not by diesel or gas, but liquid hydrogen. a cutting edge fuel that could change the way we drive in the future. so this is fueling the whole thing? >> yes, yes. what's really interesting is hydrogen is 100% clean. we've got green hydrogen, so we make our hydrogen using solar panels. so the energy from the arctic sun is creating green hydrogen. and then we charge the cars using green hydrogen. the only byproduct we have from that is water, which we then use to wash the cars. so we have this circular sort of effect here. >> reporter: american off road champion sarah price usually drives monster trucks. >> all right. here we go.

>> reporter: but now races across river beds and sand dunes in her souped up electric car. >> you come from the old world with your gas guzzlers. >> yep. >> electrification is the future. that's what we're here doing. we're racers and loving every little bit of the electric world that we're entering. we've been involved in this, and making things that we stand for, racing in the series. >> reporter: the message here that this place is not only worth protecting, but doing so is critical for all of us. and scientists around the world say it's not too late to change course. in fact, professor duarte is studying ways to stop global climate change. he says the signs are all around us. the answer, he says, could be in the mud beneath the ice. >> we are evaluating the potential of the mud that is discharged from the ice sheet. >> reporter: that mud, he hopes,

is chemically unique and can trap carbon. his proposal, transfer massive amounts of this special mud into the ocean to keep it from releasing more climate warming carbon into the atmosphere. it's almost like the earth is giving you the medicine it needing, you just have to find it. >> you have to go and find it. what happens in the arctic does not stay in the arctic. it affects and cascades the whole of the world. >> our thanks to james. up next, an historic first for one of the world's premiere opera companies. a long time in coming. world's p opera companies. a long time in coming. ♪ ♪ (upbeat pop music throughout) (upbeat pop music throughout)

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♪ ♪ and finally tonight, new york's metropolitan opera has performed the works of composers from all over the world. but it has never presented that of a black composer. until tonight. terrence blanchard's "fire shut up in my bones" premiering this

evening. the composer saying the honor of being the first is bittersweet. >> it's overwhelming experience, but i've got to tell you, it's filled with mixed emotions. i know i'm the first, but i know i'm not the first qualified. and that always has to be said. >> the history making opera was the first performance in 18 months for the met. the stage had been dark since the start of the pandemic. and that's "nightline" for this evening. catch our full episodes on hulu. we'll see you right back here same time tomorrow. thanks for the company, america.