OceanXplorers (2024) s01e05 Episode Script

[James Cameron] The Ocean.
the last frontier on earth.
So much is unexplored
and unexplained.
To change that
a kickass team of insanely
talented specialists is
setting out to push the
frontiers of what we know
about our oceans.
[Zoleka Filander] Oh my gosh.
[James Cameron] Zoleka Filander,
deep sea scientist.
[Zoleka Filander] Being a
deep-sea researcher means
having front row tickets to
the best movie that everybody
wants to watch.
[James Cameron]
Melissa Márquez
[Melissa Márquez]
Straight ahead, 12:00.
[James Cameron]
Shark biologist.
[Melissa Márquez] We just saw
what no one has seen before.
[James Cameron]
Eric Stackpole
[Eric Stackpole] Scan now!
[James Cameron] Ocean
tech innovator.
[Eric Stackpole] I love
building tools that allow us
to see things in ways
we've never seen before.
[gasps]
[James Cameron] And Aldo Kane
[Aldo Kane] This is insane.
[James Cameron] Former
Royal Marine; special ops.
[Aldo Kane] It doesn't get
any more cutting-edge
exploration than this.
[James Cameron]
Their secret weapon
the OceanXplorer .
The most technologically
advanced research vessel
ever built.
There's never been a more
urgent need to understand
our ocean and the animals
that call it home
Because their
lives and ours depend on it.
This time
we're on the trail of the
Arctic's ultimate predator
[Team] Go, go!
[James Cameron] The polar bear.
[grunting]
[theme music plays].
[birds cawing]
The OceanXplorer is
deep inside the Arctic Circle
in Svalbard.
400 miles North of Norway
It's wild, remote, and frozen.
And Svalbard is home to
around 300 polar bears.
[sniffing, grunting]
[Eric Stackpole] Polar bears are
actually considered marine
mammals on account of how
much time they spend on ice.
[skin slapping]
[Zoleka Filander] Yeah,
extraordinary really.
[sniffing]
[James Cameron] Polar Bears have
evolved to thrive on the ice,
searching for pretty
much one thing
[sniffing]
Seals.
In one of the coldest
places on the planet,
calorie rich seal blubber
is the difference between life
and death for a polar bear.
[intense music]
[splashing]
But bears can only hunt
seals when the sea is frozen.
When the ice melts,
seal season ends.
The team is here
in late summer
The sea ice is almost gone,
tough times for the polar bear.
But recently it's
become a lot harder.
Their ice kingdom
is in danger
so the team needs to find
out if they can survive.
[Zoleka Filander] The Arctic
region is warming
four times faster than
any part in the world
and this is a huge problem
for the polar bears
because the summers are longer
and this means that
there's not enough sea ice.
[Melissa Márquez] But
that's just open water.
[Aldo Kane] Yeah.
[Eric Stackpole]
He's just wandering.
[James Cameron] When there's no
ice here, bears are forced to
search for food on land.
[Eric Stackpole] It's hard to
go here without thinking about
change, and how these pieces
of ice are dwindling away,
and specifically is going to
affect the behavior of the
Polar bears.
[James Cameron] With this
environment changing so rapidly,
the team's first
mission is to find out if
Svalbard's bears
still have enough to eat.
That means coming face to
face with one of nature's
most dangerous predators.
[roaring]
Aldo leads the aerial team,
with two experts who survey
the bears' health each year.
[Aldo Kane] Jon and Rolf are
both working for the Norwegian
polar institute up here in
Svalbard, so they've got this
study that's been going
for over 20 years now.
What they're struggling
to work out is, is how the
climate's changing is having
an effect on polar bears.
[Jon Aars] Almost every year,
you know they would have
continuous sea ice down to the
islands here, and as that part
of the year gets shorter and
shorter it gets harder and
harder to, to be a polar bear.
[helicopter whirring]
[James Cameron] Jon needs to
sedate and examine as many
bears as possible.
[Jon Aars] Let's go
over the fjord a bit.
[Aldo Kane] With the
climate changing, with sea ice
retreating further north, does
that mean there will be less
seals for the
bears here to eat?
[Jon Aars] The main thing
it's less seals that are
possible to catch.
[Aldo Kane] Right, right.
[James Cameron] They follow the
coastline looking for bears
that are on the
prowl for food.
[Jon Aars] Do you
see the fresh tracks?
[Aldo Kane] Yeah, yeah.
Bear!
There's a bear down there!
He's a big bear.
[James Cameron] Rolf is a vet
his job is to dart
the bear safely.
[dart shot]
The dart won't hurt the bear.
It should put it to
sleep in minutes
but it's not an exact science.
He looks out cold
but they can't be sure.
If he isn't fully sedated,
he could easily kill
Rolf and the team.
[tapping]
[Rolf-Arne Ølberg]
Yeah he's fine.
If you want to bring the
[Aldo Kane] Oxygen?
[Rolf-Arne Ølberg] Oxygen,
yeah you bring that and you
bring that there yeah.
You want to put it on?
[Aldo Kane] Yep wow.
[James Cameron] The blindfold
protects its eyes and helps to
keep it sedated while
Rolf takes its vitals.
[Rolf-Arne Ølberg] He's
got deep, good breaths.
[Aldo Kane] Beautiful.
Just the muscle
- Yeah.
- In these shoulders.
[Rolf-Arne Ølberg] Try with your
hands and compare with those.
[Aldo Kane] Yeah, you can see
just how specialized these are
for the way they hunt.
[Rolf-Arne Ølberg] They're
very specialized at waiting at
a breathing hole for a seal
and it's got to catch it and
drag it away.
[James Cameron] Rolf thinks
he's around 8 years old.
[Rolf-Arne Ølberg] Quite a
lot of the adult males you see
their broken
teeth, fighting a lot.
But this guy he's
got really nice teeth.
[Jon Aars] He's in
the prime of his life.
[Aldo Kane] He's in the
prime of his life really.
[Jon Aars] Yeah.
Try to see, yeah.
[James Cameron] By this point in
late summer, there's been very
little sea ice around Svalbard
for almost four months.
[Rolf-Arne Ølberg]
He's a little bit thin.
[Jon Aars] He's a bit below
average I would say, yeah.
[Aldo Kane] Yeah.
[James Cameron] A blood sample
will show whether this bear is
eating seals, or
something else.
[Aldo Kane] Each one of
these tubes will be tested for
something different?
[Jon Aars] Yeah, so you can
get some indication about what
they have eaten, if he's
eaten mostly seals or more
terrestrial food.
[Rolf-Arne Ølberg] Starvation
is, is the biggest um cause of
death for Polar Bears.
[Jon Aars] But what we suspect
might happen is that where
we've seen the effects of sea
ice loss, when things suddenly
get worse, it will be the
youngest and oldest bears
that will be affected first.
[peaceful music]
[growling]
[Aldo Kane] There he is
[growling]
so that's him back on his
feet now, he was under for
just less than an hour, the
guys have got all their
measurements done now,
given him the antidote to the
anesthetic, so
he's now back awake.
Um, he's standing there
just for a few more minutes
probably just while
he gets his bearings,
and then he'll head off.
[growling]
[grunting]
[peaceful music]
[helicopter whirring]
[James Cameron] There's another
bear that Jon is really
worried about.
A much older bear
that he knows well.
She's called Lyra.
Jon first met her
nine years ago,
as she emerged from
her den with new cubs.
[squeaking]
[crashing]
He's been
following her ever since.
But the GPS collar that he
fitted to keep track of Lyra
stopped moving.
It's a worrying sign.
Her collar data shows that
after a long summer with no
sea ice, she spent two months
walking almost 600 miles
up and down the coastline.
Jon believes she was
searching for food.
Then she stopped
moving altogether.
That was almost a year ago.
[Jon Aars] Should be somewhere
here, should be to the right
here, should be
just underneath.
[helicopter whirring]
So it's 20 meters now,
about here.
[Aldo Kane] Oh right.
There you go.
[James Cameron] Lyra
didn't make it.
[Jon Aars] What's sad is that
she had two small cubs when we
captured her last autumn.
[Aldo Kane] The cubs
you think are dead also?
[Jon Aars] They, they
are for sure dead.
[Aldo Kane] If she died then
[Jon Aars] Because there's
no, no way they could have
survived without her.
Hm.
[Aldo Kane] The mortality
rate is quite high then?
[Jon Aars] It's pretty high
among juveniles, so maybe
2 out of the 3 you know dies.
[Aldo Kane] Oh wow.
[Jon Aars] Within a
bit more than a year.
Yeah.
[helicopter whirring]
[Aldo Kane] Seeing a polar
bear that's starved to death
was really quite
emotional for me.
To think what she has gone
through, losing her two cubs
and wandering hundreds of
miles looking for food.
You hear about temperatures
rising and ice melting,
but this really brings it home
when you see the
fate of a family.
[dramatic music]
[James Cameron] For the rest of
the team, seeing the speed of
change here is
equally shocking.
[Eric Stackpole] The amount of
sea ice that we're losing just
from changes in the
environment is greater than
the amount of rainforest we're
losing in the last 50 years.
[James Cameron] Seeing this
loss makes their mission
even more urgent.
[Zoleka Filander] Climate
change is not really something
you can see
but here in Svalbard,
you actually get to see it
happening right in
front of your eyes.
[helicopter whirring]
[James Cameron] Aldo and the
helicopter team push on
they need to find out if other
polar bear cubs have survived
with so little sea ice.
[Chopper Pilot] There's a
bear, yeah that's a bear.
[Aldo Kane] A
mother and a cub.
[James Cameron] Both bears
are safely darted;
the team has to work fast.
[Aldo Kane] All good?
She's okay, she's fine?
[Jon Aars] Yeah she's fine.
[Aldo Kane] Good condition?
[Jon Aars] She's not too bad,
given that she has a small cub.
[Aldo Kane] And the cub is?
[Jon Aars] Doing well.
[James Cameron] Jon's relieved
to find a healthy family.
[Rolf-Arne muttering]
[Aldo Kane] Is it a male cub?
[Rolf-Arne Ølberg] Let's
see
That's a male yeah.
[Aldo Kane] Yeah, male cub.
[Rolf-Arne Ølberg] He will be
8 months, he was born about
new year's.
[James Cameron] Jon knows
this mother bear too.
He first met her seven years ago
when she was just a cub herself.
It's now her turn to try
to keep her baby alive.
[Aldo Kane] This cub will,
will still be breast feeding,
is that right?
[Rolf-Arne Ølberg] Yeah.
[Jon Aars] I just checked that
she had milk, so it's like
white milk, so I just note
that, which means she's
still doing ok.
Sometimes you know if they're
really food stressed,
they stop giving milk.
[Aldo Kane] And that
stress would come from the
environment and not
being able to eat?
[Jon Aars] Yeah from too
little food, too little to eat.
[Aldo Kane] And
the cub is fine?
[Jon Aars] Yeah.
[James Cameron] In fact,
he's on the heavy side.
[Rolf-Arne Ølberg] This
guy is a little chubby.
[Aldo Kane] Yeah.
[Rolf-Arne Ølberg]
There we go.
[James Cameron] Weighing mom
requires all hands-on deck.
[Jon Aars] A bit more so
she's almost on the back.
[grunting]
- There?
- Yeah.
[Rolf-Arne Ølberg]
Alright she's off the ground.
Okay.
[James Cameron]
She's 385 pounds,
that means she's doing ok.
Jon can now keep track of
both mum and cub with
her GPS collar.
[Aldo Kane] She's starting
to have some twitching.
[Rolf-Arne Ølberg] Yeah, you
gotta be careful, now is not
the time to put
fingers in her mouth.
[James Cameron] Rolf clears her
airway and makes sure she
can't bite her own
tongue as she comes around.
[Aldo Kane] It's good to see
them both back up and awake now.
[Jon Aars] Yeah.
[Aldo Kane] It's great to see
a well-fed mum and cub
at this time of year
but with no seals to hunt,
what are they eating?
[helicopter whirring]
[James Cameron] The team's
second mission is to investigate
if these bears are
adapting to hunt new prey.
[Aldo Kane] So Polar bears
have always been adaptive.
They're opportunistic,
they always have been.
But there isn't much else in
Svalbard and around Svalbard
for them to eat.
So we need to figure out
if they're switching to eat
something else.
[James Cameron] Eric's up first.
He's on the trail of an animal
that could be filling
the seal gap
[grunting]
walrus.
[Eric Stackpole] So, walruses
can weigh over 1,000 pounds
and they have this thick
blubbery layer just like seals.
[grunting]
Could that be what
the bears are eating?
That's what I
want to find out.
[grunting]
[James Cameron] With wildlife
cinematographer David
and polar safety guide Tom,
Eric heads for the
walrus haul out.
[Tom Lawton] If we do see a
bear in the area, if either of
you see anything that looks like
a bear, tell me straight away,
uh if I see a bear, I'll let you
know, but the first thing
we're gonna do if there is
a bear in the area is we're
gonna get back on the boat.
[Both] OK.
[David Reichert] Some
sort of animal poop.
[Eric Stackpole] Oh
yeah look at that.
Let's, you know what that is?
[Tom Lawton] Um.
I mean it's sizable.
[David Reichert] I know,
it's kind of a big animal.
- I mean it's not walrus poop
- No.
- And it's not fox poop.
- No. It's too big for that.
[Tom Lawton] It has fur in it
as well, I mean, so that means
it's a carnivore's poop.
I mean
[Eric Stackpole] This
could be polar bear poop?
[Tom Lawton] Yep.
[David Reichert]
They've been here.
[Tom Lawton] Yeah okay.
[David Reichert]
Something's been in this area.
[Eric Stackpole] Alright well
the, uh, the evidence is, is
mounting that
perhaps we've got bears.
[James Cameron]
As they inch closer,
they get a polar bear's eye view
of the walrus colony.
They've been spotted.
[Tom Lawton] Get down.
[Eric Stackpole] Alright.
[walrus bellowing]
[Tom Lawton] Don't move.
[walrus bellowing]
[Eric Stackpole] Look
at the size of them.
[walrus bellowing]
[James Cameron] They
beat a hasty retreat.
[grunting]
By the time they
reach the boat
they're not alone.
[walrus bellowing]
[Tom Lawton]
They're pretty curious
you might actually
wanna push off right now.
- Yeah?
- Yeah.
[Eric Stackpole] All right.
[snorting, grunting]
[snorting, grunting]
They're sluggish on land, but
in the water, that is their
turf and they know how to
handle themselves in it,
so they can be very, very
dangerous, especially to a
boat like this where you know
if they got aggressive with
the boat, it could
puncture the, the hull.
This is an inflatable boat
so these are these moments
where you don't really know
what nature's gonna do.
[Tom Lawton] We're done,
we're gonna get out of here
[Eric Stackpole]
All right, we gotta go.
[motor rumbling]
One encounter is not
definitive, but it seems very
unlikely to me that a bear of
any size is going to be able
to attack a fully
grown adult walrus.
[snorting, grunting]
[helicopter whirring]
[James Cameron] On the other
side of Svalbard, the helicopter
team is also
looking for clues.
[Aldo Kane] It really
does boil life down into the
absolute basics of, of
wandering around a barren
wilderness looking
for your next meal.
[Jon Aars] Yes.
Oh yeah absolutely.
[James Cameron] These bears
are definitely eating
something substantial.
[Aldo Kane] He is fat.
[Jon Aars] Yeah, super fat.
[James Cameron]
They spot a clue.
[Chopper Pilot] Oh is there some
sort of carcass down there.
[Aldo Kane] Just in
front of you, 12:00.
[Rolf-Arne Ølberg] Oh
there is something here.
[mysterious music]
[Jon Aars] That is
a reindeer carcass.
[Aldo Kane] Look at that.
Ah, there's another
carcass there, look?
[Jon Aars] Yeah.
This is uh interesting.
[James Cameron] Jon has only
ever seen bears scavenge
dead reindeer.
[Chopper Pilot]
Reindeer up here.
[Aldo Kane] Yeah,
lot of reindeer here.
[James Cameron] It's not long
before they see the evidence
they're looking for.
[Chopper Pilot] It's a bear.
On the hill right this
side of the snow line.
[Aldo Kane] Oh yeah, yeah.
He's on the move.
Yeah he looks fat.
[Rolf-Arne Ølberg]
He's very nice condition.
[Jon Aars] Yeah.
[Aldo Kane] He's sort of
stalking up these little
valleys to where
the reindeer are.
[Jon Aars] Perfect
terrain for a reindeer ambush.
[Aldo Kane] That's the thing
with the bears, they're not
really evolved for running or
for that sort of predation,
but I guess if the terrain
suits that's just like
classic ambush country.
[Jon Aars] Yup it is.
[Aldo Kane] It was thought
that polar bears couldn't
outrun something as fast as a
reindeer, but they're using
the terrain to
their advantage.
As a sniper it's my job to
close the distance to the
target using cover and that's
exactly what the bear's doing,
before it uses a
final burst of speed.
[James Cameron] It seems that
some of Svalbard's polar bears
have found ways to
hunt new species
in the long summer months
a possible lifeline as
their home gets warmer.
[camera shutter]
[camera shutter]
[Jon Aars] So that's
very interesting.
Professional reindeer hunter.
[Rolf-Arne Ølberg] Yup.
[James Cameron] Analysis of the
blood Jon's taken from the
sedated bears tells him exactly
what they've been eating.
Bears here are now consuming
a higher proportion of
land-based prey than before.
[Aldo Kane] So, I guess with
it becoming warmer up here
and less sea ice, they have
to adapt their behavior and,
and their hunting strategy.
[Jon Aars] So there is a
couple of things we've seen
studying these local Svalbard
bears, is that bears use much
more time on land, and we also
get evidence that reindeer
actually are taken by polar
bears, like what we saw,
you know the reindeer carcass.
[James Cameron]
Mission accomplished.
The team has witnessed the
evidence for themselves,
that polar bears might be
able to adapt and survive
in a warming climate.
It's a Hollywood ending
but nature doesn't
do Hollywood endings.
Polar bears in their prime
might be able to switch
from seals to reindeer.
But for new-born cubs,
that's just not an option.
[squeaking]
[James Cameron] Polar bear cubs
are totally dependent on
their mother's milk.
Mom gives birth in winter and
keeps her cubs in the den for
the first three months
while she nurses them.
When they all emerge in spring,
she's running on empty
and her cubs need solid food.
Her salvation comes in
the form of a unique,
frozen hunting ground,
found at the base of Svalbard's
massive glacial cliffs.
[Zoleka Filander] Glaciers are
an accumulation of snowfall
over thousands of years, and
this forms a huge ice sheet.
Where that ice meets the
ocean, it gives the sea ice
a solid structure to latch onto.
And it's the sea-ice
that's vital for
polar bear mum's in spring
It's where the
seals have their pup's.
For a starving polar bear mum,
these seals are the difference
between life and death.
[splashing]
[James Cameron] These feeding
grounds depend on
glaciers like this
reaching the ocean
and there's the problem
Svalbard's
glaciers are melting
fast.
[rumbling]
[splashing]
[rumbling]
[splashing]
If glaciers retreat onto land,
the sea-ice no longer has a
strong anchor, it breaks
up and drifts away,
taking the seals with it.
Nearly a fifth of Svalbard's
glaciers have now retreated
onto land.
If this trend continues,
do polar bears even
have a future here?
For their final and most
important mission,
the team wants to
answer the question,
how fast are these
glaciers retreating?
[James Cameron] The OceanXplorer
has arrived at the largest
glacier in Svalbard.
Austfonna.
This 3,000 square mile slab of
ice is ten times bigger than
New York City.
Every summer,
meltwater pours off it
and as the temperatures
increase, these waterfalls are
expected to get bigger.
Are these uncontrolled rivers
melting the glacier faster?
The team brings in top ice
scientist Andreas Alexander.
[Andreas Alexander] Hello,
nice to meet you
[Eric Stackpole] Andreas
Alexander is a glacial
scientist, he studies the way
the glaciers are changing
over time, and he's been doing
this for many years, so he's an
expert in all the subtle ways
glacial movement may be
affecting the
environment around it.
[James Cameron] Melissa Márquez
will also be helping Andreas
on this mission.
[Andreas Alexander] Glaciers
are changing up here very,
very fast, they're melting and
every year we get more melt.
What is happening at the edge
where the ice meets the ocean?
We don't know how much water
actually is flowing through
this channel, how fast is
the water flowing, at what
temperature is it?
And a big challenge that
we are facing is,
we can't measure it.
Lucky number 7.
[James Cameron] But Andreas
hopes to change that with a
new piece of tech
[Eric Stackpole] Oh my gosh.
[James Cameron]
This is a drifter.
[Andreas Alexander]
Here we go.
[James Cameron] The plan is to
drop it into a river 10 miles
inland on the glacier.
It will travel down the
rapids, recording the water
speed and pressure on the ice.
Finally, if the drifter
makes it to the front of the
glacier, it'll tell us
how much these rivers and
waterfalls are influencing
the rate of retreat.
[Eric Stackpole] For us to be
able to gather any information
from these drifters, they have
to be deployed upstream enough
so that they'll follow the
stream for enough distance to
collect good data and then
go over the waterfall
into the ocean.
[James Cameron] No easy task,
how do you get to the
headwaters of a glacier?
You walk.
[dramatic music]
[James Cameron] The rivers
form a dangerous maze
one wrong step and you
risk broken bones, or worse.
[Andreas Alexander]
Some rapids there.
[Melissa Márquez] Yeah.
[Andreas Alexander] Uh-oh
that's big.
[Melissa Márquez]
That's a big one.
[Guide] Whenever you're ready.
[Andreas Alexander]
Three, two, one.
[Melissa Márquez] Yeah.
[Guide] Here we go.
[Andreas Alexander] And
let's get out of this.
[Guide] Go, go.
[Andreas Alexander] Nice one.
Dig in the axe yeah.
[Guide] Stand on those toes
there you go, good work.
[James Cameron] After ten miles
of trekking they reach a
suitable deployment spot.
A river big enough to go all the
way to the front of the glacier.
[Melissa Márquez] I'm just
letting the boat know that
we've got these two drifters
that we're about to send out
and I've gone ahead and
sent the GPS coordinates.
[Andreas Alexander] Then we
are ready to deploy yeah?
[Melissa Márquez] Alright.
[Andreas Alexander]
And wish it the best.
Wish it good luck.
[Melissa Márquez] Good luck.
[Andreas Alexander] Ok and
three, two, one, and off you go.
Three, two, one.
[James Cameron] Two
drifters are away.
Waiting on the ocean, Eric and
Zoleka have the difficult task
of finding the drifters
if they've
survived the rapids.
[Eric Stackpole]
You can scan now
we're just waiting for this
terminal to show a signal.
I haven't heard
anything yet, nothing yet.
[beeping]
Oh, we've got
one we've got one.
Yeah, we got one.
It should be off our
port bow somewhere;
I think it's closer
to the glacier.
[Zoleka Filander] Oh my gosh,
the swell is not helping!
I can see it
my 12:00
I've got eyes on it.
[James Cameron] Both
devices have made it
out of the glacier
but they've landed
in dangerous waters.
[crashing]
[Zoleka Filander] Oh, calving
just happened, oh, oh my gosh.
[crashing]
[Eric Stackpole] So,
what is the plan here?
[OceanX Crew] We're gonna do a
drive by and try and pick it up.
[Eric Stackpole] Got it.
I mean look at this the whole
glacier is disintegrating as
we're up to it we really
have to be careful here.
He's got it,
he's got it, he's got it.
Great Job
okay we're ready for number two
if you're able to get that out.
Two of them in.
[James Cameron] For the very
first time, Andreas's drifters
have been successfully
retrieved from the ocean
after a glacier deployment.
In the ship's mixed reality lab,
the team is eager to see
what secrets they reveal.
[Eric Stackpole] This
basically shows what it looks
like just below the waterfall
when it reaches the ocean.
[James Cameron] Glaciers with no
waterfalls are insulated by a
layer of calm, cold
water at their base,
so they melt very slowly.
But here on Austfonna,
the drifter data reveals
a different picture altogether.
[Andreas Alexander] But what
we see now is you have the
fresh water coming in and
that fresh water destroys the
insulation layer of the cold
water, and what that will do
is create heat, and that
heat is what's melting,
what's driving the melt.
Well it's a combination of
warmer ocean water and then
the freshwater hitting and
creating the currents and
those currents are the ones
that are driving the ice melt.
[James Cameron] Scientists had
expected this glacier to
retreat at least
130 feet a year.
But from the new drifter data,
Andreas has calculated,
around each waterfall, the rate
of retreat could double.
And that's bad news
for polar bear moms.
They need glaciers to reach
the ocean so that sea-ice can
anchor to them and make a
stable hunting platform.
This revelation is
bittersweet for the team.
[Melissa Márquez] It's
this really big sense of
achievement that we've got
brand new data on how quickly
these glaciers are melting.
But what it's telling us,
well that makes me really
worried for polar bears.
If the climate keeps warming,
is there a limit to how much
more they can adapt?
[Aldo Kane] We've seen that
some of them can adapt,
but is it enough with their
world changing so quickly?
[sniffing]
[Eric Stackpole] This
isn't just about polar bears.
So much of the Arctic
is teeming with life.
It drives ocean currents,
it moderates our climate
So much depends on it.
[James Cameron] But the team
has hope for the future.
[Zoleka Filander] If the
world keeps to its promise and
limits temperature rise
to 1.5 degrees Celsius,
there should still be an ice
kingdom for polar bears.
[James Cameron] Svalbard's
polar bears are just about
hanging in there for now,
but for them to have
a real future
that's on us.
Captioned by
Cotter Media Group.