faster than anywhere else on the planet. this is having an effect on wildlife and is altering deep ocean currents which regulate the world's climate from the polls to the equator. as antarctica's ice melts with seeing global sea levels rise

and unpredictable changes to with a worldwide. and this is rice special we visit the world's most remote consonant to see the effects of climate change first hand. i'm tired days then i'll be spending the next month on this research base of traveling around and tied together with a group of scientists. trying to understand how the changes taking place there will affect us all. i joined the expedition in hobart australia the russian reset ship academy contrition coffins being hired by the swiss polar institute to circumnavigate antarctica. it'll be a floating the bar tree from which fifty five scientists will do twenty two different experiments. david wilson has been visiting antarctica for more than fifty

years and it's the expeditions chief scientist. because the on tell take and i'm the southern ocean. actually influence the whole of the global weather system and all the currents -- in the oceans it matters to everybody it also matters it's the ontology begins to melt. as far as we'll see level is concerned is the largest source of you walk right into the oceans in the world. so even if you live somewhere a long way away. if you're low lying on the coast down talking masses to you. which will take us two and a half thousand kilometers south from home about two the age of antarctica. well then travel five thousand kilometers east making stops at a number of islands. then after months at sea will return to port in southern chil.

first we must cross what are known as the furious fifties and screaming sixties latitudes nine for the ferocious with a we face hundred kilometer out wins and ten minutes away. it's an early remind the potent energy of the oceans -- as we sail selfie and see fast become cold. they in on the six morning we wake up to see ice. soon with forced to navigate around icebergs some the size of a football pitch. others are more than a hundred kilometers long. and then finally we arrive at

the minutes glass scea in antarctica. this is saint castle icicles dropping off of and these amazingly powerful winds coming in off the glass here and dropping down into the same. this call is for as many as place on the planet at sea level and is certainly playing up to that reputation tonight -- the mets classiest fascinates scientists because in two thousand and ten an enormous chunk around seventy five by thirty five kilometers broke of. after it was not just by large icepick. this is dramatically change the flow of ice in the area it's also exposed large areas of ocean floor for study for the first time. the way that comes right in the ship oxes bow up against the glass yeah. this gives a scientist a stable platform to begin the work.

this. is suffering. yeah exactly kia must say is a biologist and in charge of an ambitious project. there is yeah it's call it's amazing -- in -- there is so much care on it. i call it the swiss army knives the swiss army knife. anti discovery yes exactly so [inaudible] okay. yes a lot of cables and so well i think. it's something you must know who is all these cameras basically we were very hard the phoenician cameras so what. digital still one hd camera. one four k. camera here basically we are interested in the always column. so very soon will die along the always column and on this -- the

front of the glacier. the team expects to see a vesicle wall of ice dropping five hundred meters from the surface. but instead there's a surprise. they discover a huge underwater cavern beneath the spots of the glass scea. the sea water is warmer than expected and this unusual evidence of now. we were really close to the office and discovered that. it was kind of a really lots of noise everything was gonna melting away with some kind of a lot of kind of holes in the eyes and yeah completely wrong. we were not expecting that on the glacier. and all that especially north and the step and kind of so far into the glacier. warmer ocean currents and now flowing through the south towards antarctica. scientists believe the kind of mail we've seen here will contribute more than a meter to global sea level rise by the end

of the century. and up to thirty meters over the next five hundred years. do i see is a like rivers of ice so when the ocean water warms and they melt the remaining ice moves faster towards the sea. a team of glaciologist want to see how this is happening and dr i schools from next to the glass is age. seven meters down they find something unexpected. you say the bubbles in -- in michael. i think there's bubbles probably can these contain water public less salty water. finding salt water here suggests warm ocean currents are having an impact possibly weakening the glassy from beneath. the helicopters return and the i. schools are loaded on board.

back on the ship they placed in a giant frieza. the history of this size is that in and festivals is not it. drawn to the continent and then and dance. the pressure of the this now about it is is compressing compressing and at a depth of about sixteen made is this will be second president form solid honest. one of the principles of us because science is that while that's happening -- the area -- from the atmosphere that that was the thing that is in the snow i went fail is slowly being locked. into using these bubbles forming ride. and gradually as we get deeper and the more more pressure these bubbles get isolated and you see these little bottles and that's you know when we get deeper into the us us because we want to look at cabin oxide concentrations back. thousands hundreds of thousands of years it's it's sizeable public to the atmosphere that we get into say say that prices

starting here. few i schools have been taken from the spawn of antarctica so this little specific information about how the climate is changing. but it's hope these samples will help phyllis gatt. further east supply the balleny islands. for most of the year they look to see ice but a visit like this in summer means a team of scientists can dredge the ocean floor. and i've been drafted in to hel. getting better and better. this is a good idea. a certain amount of the log. on the bottom. in the name of the technique is pretty much to his as far has. lost that'll oxen line. and then after that they can get it. there is -- creatures and come

up with a of particular interest of those that take common from the environment by locking it away in the shells. these then end up being buried in the sea bed when they die. over the last hundred years cabin dioxide levels in the atmosphere have risen dramatically largely as a result of out burning of fossil fuels. the role these creatures play to counteract this needs to be better understood and incorporated in climate change model. where does the? values and it's a perfect. model than a centimeter [inaudible] yeah. hilton's native cobb -- these guys here the cresting ones right and these tiny things her.

by much there are hundreds of little combinations animals tha. stories of their work. as to the stars and then we'll - better in some way [inaudible] the balance. that system and anything that happens to stand on one source said the creatures are taken to the lab and photographed. the c. mouse is a notable catch. so to this personal style. another and kills itself measuring around fifty centimeters across. many of these creatures will be preserved and after the expedition the d. and i you will be analyzed giving the research is detailed data. about the distribution and dr city. seven picked over the summer. look for anything of interest. ross the long run slaves from

this anyone think today. on a ship like this you know these extra ballast. the road boss team also too in the cameras on life on the sea floor. at a depth of nine hundred mages they take samples of cold water corals and a wide variety of of the species. they also take sentiment course these will give them clues about what's being buried in the ocean floor. how it's changed over time? but it's later in the dogs that an extraordinary observations night. we have this see store were precisely a brittle start crawling on the sea floor which we believe that a mod or scavenger but certainly. give the fish just crawling it just in the fish with a poison we don't know yet because that's just knew would ever seen that

before. and it's just been a fish sauce. leave the side and so it is real star just roll it. extra to eat the fish which can swim at a at a speed watch much more much faster to any kind of of sea star who can crawl into c. floor. so that's quite amazing just to see that that's the test but when you. close analysis of the footage of feels ten examples of this behavior. these are two of the most abundant species living in antarctic waters. an interaction of this nature has important implications for understanding climate change. all the column which is contained in today's fish then transported directly to the bottom of the ocean -- the ultimately very that would you know quite a lot of slogans including moving on the distance which are very efficient of poisoning the parade. and the i. icing this is the case but we still have to to do a bit more research we read the

discovery but now. it means that we have to to do further research to really understand what we've seen. antarctica has the cleanest air on the planet. and at each stop on the voyage atmospheric scientists judicial molly has used a mobile okay to take samples. she's also packs a suite of instruments into a shipping container on board i do yeah. as a guy are found in the big red yeah. thanks very much wow you got stuff. in here. why he's an interesting man? actually particularly interested in the tiny particles that are in the air we call them our sou. i wrestle particles and they are very important -- for the water

cycle because they form clouds without these tiny particles we would not have any clouds in our atmosphere -- so it would never rain -- earth would be a completely different planet. to see if. the code scan can phone droplets or not how we use. this machine and the cloud mystery. thank you your making our own cloud in here it's very important for us to understand how the clouds form before the industrial revolution. before humankind actually started burning fossil fuels in large amounts -- because it makes a big difference -- for our clients -- for the clouds and for the hydrological cycle in general. climate change models are generally better at predicting variations in temperature rather than precipitation. type the days from this experiment will mean that. as the ship continues east we

come across more sea ice. well. branching out why through the ice because we come across the sea ice flies i'm gonna drop the camera down just so you can. have a look on the balance doing down there it's really quite remarkable. luckily for us anyway the bow of this twelve thousand ton ice breaker rides out all over the ice. current xing there as well that. the power crunching through the sea ice. okay comes another enormous chunk let's see how this one phase of the balance. of the academy traditionally called pushed out of the so i the next office at one of the smallest islands on this leg of

the voyage. just five four full pages in size schools on and is washed over by waves. and in stormy conditions six six about only by helicopter. it's to wind swept for see bids to next here but like in and moss to grow in the cracked volcanic rocks. hopefully with the moss so -- we're gonna find a better person than that i guess it's not here. hell the animals of code three money -- i guess climate change in the past -- which most natural but also how they may move in a death in the you know and facing the future. before we can be flown off the island back to the ship there's a sudden change in the with a the helicopter is clearly make ground. on the ship they're not able to return to the island to pick us up we have. enough -- equipment with us.

that's not a ten ten and rations for four days saddam is a great concern there but it does saudi thinking about how you could possibly survive on an island like this. song a revised site. five well. fortunately the with the left's just long enough to fly us off the island and was safe to me even having to find out. back on the ship the samples are dried it's hoped any living things will drop out. this like in is also examined within it this a discovery. smaller than a pinhead this is the first time this tiny might has been found here. similar mites have been found in other parts of the continent but it's slightly that this is a new species something a new dna tests after the expedition can confirm. the landscapers incredibly old so at the moment probably started off four hundred eighty million years ago would have

been a tropical. rainforest. and it's now looks like it does side and so these are some of the few things that are probably managed to hang on that long and so now they're some of the most successful organisms that. live here. so we have to come out the same way [inaudible] more. maybe -- the teams meet to discuss the next move. from satellite images it appears the next island on the route to the festus surrounded by sea ic. this will make a visit difficul. instead some of the sign to school for the voyage to divert they've spotted clear water around the coastal area which is normally docked in sea ice. it's a rare opportunity for them to attempt to visit. the ship's courses changed and we arrive at mount cycle. that's one of the continent's told us the most isolated volcanoes rising more than three thousand meters from the sea.

we scout the area and find a large number of a daily penguin. come to in touch. to see them in their natural environment you see what extraordinary animal that and just how. incredibly. living in houston. the land on the rocks. you know why. and the next thing on the top. by the time we returned to the ship it's lies in the evening. but at this time of year at such high latitudes it doesn't get doc. instead this along and spectacular son. six the following morning we fly back to mount sinai. listen 1% of antarctica is ice

free making a place like this prime real estate listings. many of the checks have been left to fend for themselves while their parents go to seed to catch curl. the pinkish color of the shrimp like food often ending up staining the from this. as far as we know the scientists have never visited this -- pinguin colony before so the group with one tonight how large it is and whether there's any other species living here we have -- behind me hello deli pain when i was gonna turn around here shay this check her. he he's looking a bit all because he's losing his by because a few months -- doesn't say is very friendly. when the parents would soon the much in demand sometimes from their own offspring but frequently from other hungry bids hoping for a feed? it's late in the season and many are exercising their wings and preparation to leave.

nothing about. other things does is they give you this. sort of canary in the coal mine indication as to what's happening in the southern ocean. and this is significant because it's big. this colony appears to be thriving but on the antarctic peninsula to the east of here it's a different story. there is this woman faster than any other place on the planet colonies of a daily penguins like these have been abandoning their nesting sites and moving south. perhaps in search of colder locations. certainly up sitting many hundreds if not thousands of years of breeding bahagia. i've the previous weeks we've been to some extraordinary places and seen dramatic evidence of climate change it's change many of the scientists feel should be ringing alarm bells and the rest of the world. in the same way that the

antarctic -- sea ice is actually changing in terms of age distribution pattern the sea is warming off the antarctic peninsula. glaces a retreating. out fixie isis artist lois -- yet known these are all indications of the world as a whole is warming -- and that we need to be concerned about the future we certainly do know enough. to say we need to act now we should have acted yesterday. figuratively speaking there's not much time -- to postpone action into the future i think - where were very clear about thi? we can. do is -- that's a knowledge was still have some work to do. we already kind of planning for new -- experiments new expeditions to draw on it in the stomach flu season here. the expedition is connected tens of thousands of samples and millions of megabytes of data.

for the scientists who will return to their labs around the world these years of where i can hit. we're just scratching the surface to understand how anti because some important so significant when it comes to the broader issues of climate change and i'm really where this is going to go away. one is going to go in the years ahead. the scientific findings made on this voyage will add white to what's now overwhelming proof that our planet is warming and that climate change is posing a serious threat to the sustainability of life on is. the evidence is clear than ever. what's needed now is for people everywhere to accept the science engage with the problem. and take action

host: welcome to "global 3000." bright solutions -- in one brazilian favela, discarded bottle caps are being turned into skateboards. melting ice -- in alaska, the permafrost is thawing with dramatic consequences for people and animals. and higher waters -- the egyptian coastal city of alexandria is fighting rising