. >> if it's clear the south is warming, paul mayewski is here to find out why. >> we're just on thething that is potentially going to be much, much bigger. >> mayewski is among the most accomplished antarctic scientists. he's director of the climate change institute at the university of maine, and he's been exploring antarctica since 1968. they've even named a mountain after him here. what are some of the questions, some of the big questions you'd like to answer here? >> oh, we'd of course like to be able to demonstrate that over the last few thousand years, this temperature change truly is different. >> is warming caused by man's pollution in the atmosphere? >> just keep pulling on that till it's tight around your legs. >> mayewski says the answer is right under our feet. so with the help of scientists from poland's arctowski research station, we set out to climb to the top of a glacier that was fractured by deep crevasses covered in snow. antarctica is 1 1/2 times the size of the united states, and it's covered in ice that averages a mile in thickness. and so this is the top. >> t