This episode is about the interaction of humans with the Frozen Planet. The Poles of our planets are the least populated parts of our planet, most places like Longyearbyen in Svalbard, Norway, the most Northern town in the World, do not see any sunlight for three months or more. They must rely on natural light from the moon. The reason for population and some industry in the areas is that there is a lot of mineral wealth in the area with oil and precious metals. It is so cold that ships are iced up in rivers for nine months of the year and even fuel in trucks is frozen solid, it is unwisely thawed using naked flames.
The first part of the episode focussed on two tribes in the Arctic, the first being the Dolgan – nomadic reindeer herdsman and the second a group of Inuit’s who hunt sea mammals. The Dolgan are one of the few tribes left in the Arctic, they live by being nomadic herdsmen taming the reindeers as best they can. They have tiny communities of two families per ‘village’ creating a tight knit community. Their main source of food is raw fish; they only eat reindeer as a last resort. They get their water from boiling ice cut out from the frozen rivers. They use their reindeer’s hides for both their clothing and their huts; this is because it offers the best thermal defence against the harsh temperatures. The children of the tribe are sewn into their clothes to prevent them getting frostbite. Being nomadic they move to fresher pastures almost on a weekly basis, the strongest reindeer are lassoed and attached to the huts and pull them across the tundra like a sleigh until they reach wherever they decide to set up camp.
Dolgan, nomadic reindeer herdsmen
The Inuit’s hunt sea mammals through the ice floes, the ice floes could easily crush their boats like eggshells so they have to be very careful. They hunt mammals like seals and walrus, mammals that vastly outweigh them often coming in at two or so tonnes. Hunting the animal they harpoon it from their boat, the harpoon is attached to a length of rope and attached to that is numerous floats which prevent the walrus from diving underwater. They finish the walrus by using a rifle, aiming to kill it with one clean shot. The walrus should provide enough meat to feed the families of the Inuit’s for many weeks, none of the carcass will go to waste. The seasons change very quickly so the seals and walrus that the Inuit rely on will soon be gone; instead they search islands for food. Especially ones with big colonies of nesting birds. The lightest man of the group will abseil down a cliff to pick guillemot eggs, it is a dangerous job and his life is entrusted in both the strength of his fellow hunters and that of the piece of old rope he is tied to. He gets lowered to the bottom of the cliff and works his way back up gathering the eggs as he ascends, he should collect about fifty eggs. It is very dangerous and many have died doing this, the risks have to be taken because the Inuit rely on animals for their food. What with crops being unsustainable in arctic conditions. The risks are necessity in order to survive.
Antarctica on the other hand is so remote that no humans have ever settled there, in fact people only arrived there two hundred years ago in order to hunt sea mammals. The first to venture inland was Captain Scott in 1911 when he and his team launched their attempt to reach the South Pole; the cold conditions have preserved their base to be in the same condition now as it was when they left on their ill-fated journey. Sadly they all perished in their attempt to reach the pole. Ronald Amundsen reached the South Pole on 14th December 1911, a journey nobody attempted for a further fifty years afterward. Since them though there has been a base maintained in the South Pole including a landing strip for air borne vehicles. It is the home of the most scientific research station ever built. Said to be the closest you can get to being on a space station on Earth. It is a totally self-contained station where people are shut off from the outside World for over six months of the year.
We do not know how much ice there is in Antarctica but only now experts are beginning to explore the unknown lands using the latest technologies like planes fitted with radar to measure the depth of ice, finding it four thousand metres deep in places. They follow the path taken by Captain Scott including over the glacier Beardmore which must have been absolutely difficult for Scott and his expedition to traverse. Other scientific testing includes the use of micro submarines which are used to map the sea floor and look for new species. It can go further and where no man has been able to go before, the temperature under the ice is one degree below freezing so divers can’t stay submerged for too long but the technological advancements mean that we are now able to begin to explore the unknown depths beneath the surface.
Tonight’s episode also featured Mount Erebus, one of the most active volcanoes on Earth. It was first climbed by Ernest Shackleton in 1908. It is also one of the coldest places on Earth with a temperature of about minus thirty degrees centigrade. Under the snow and ice however can be found a magnificent cave structure that only a handful of experts have ever visited. There exist in each cave ice formations that can be found nowhere else on Earth, each cave has its own unique structures. The beautiful formations are produced by the volcanic hot air hitting the icy walls. The ice may also contain bacteria which are a new discovery to science and being investigated right now by scientists.
Mount Erebus volcanic cave
Back in the North Pole scientists are investigating the phenomenon of the aurora borealis or northern lights as it is also known. Although it is a magnificent spectacle little is known about the aurora other than that it is capable of knocking out satellite communications. Scientists send rockets into the earth’s atmosphere and the rockets release smoke above the aurora which allows them to work out how the lights affect our atmosphere. They constantly monitor the affects so that we on Earth can remain unaffected.
The final episode sees David Attenborough travel to both ends of the Earth an see for himself how the effects of our Earths rising temperatures has on the animals of our frozen planet and how they may be affecting the planet as a whole.
