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00:12Okay it's freezing. We are making our way to 9-0-0-0. I'm gonna try to find the
00:23North Pole. Look at that. Look how crazy that is. I don't know how it's okay to let me get
00:31off the
00:32boat and walk on the ocean. Oh geez. At least they'll find my body in a thousand years. Come on.
00:41I'm gonna find it. There is a geographic North Pole but it's a difficult thing to find because
00:52the ice is moving. It felt like I was chasing the North Pole. 97, 97, 98, 95.
01:06So it's 98 there. Hold on. I set out for 100 days and here I am looking for 90 degrees
01:18north.
01:23There it is. The North Pole.
01:33Here I am. Top of the world.
01:45There's not many people who have been from pole to pole. To actually reach the North Pole
01:54the North Pole was a delicious moment of accomplishment. But I knew we weren't finished.
02:06because my final goal wasn't to just get to the pole. It was to dive under it.
02:15What was I thinking when I said yes to that?
02:18Here I am.
02:35Here I am!
02:42Here we go!
02:44Here we go!
03:10Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls,
03:13our odyssey across the globe is coming to an end.
03:26I set out on this journey because my mentor, Dr. Counter,
03:31told me that the answers to everything important
03:34are out at the edges of our world.
03:38And man, was he right.
03:40It's been an incredible journey.
03:43We've discovered deadly creatures which could save millions of lives.
03:48That's insane.
03:50We've learned of rivers in the sky.
03:53We recorded a language on the verge of extinction
03:57and explored the secret of happiness in a land above the clouds.
04:03And now the final leg of our journey.
04:09I am putting my neck on the line for a discovery that could eclipse all of that.
04:15All right, we're landing, we're landing.
04:17Let me get myself.
04:25Hey.
04:26Hey.
04:28Allie, how you doing?
04:29Nice to meet you.
04:30How are you?
04:31Let's get in there.
04:32Thank you for coming all the way up here.
04:34I know.
04:34This is fantabulous.
04:36It is a very beautiful place.
04:38You know how to pick locations for sure.
04:40I do.
04:40I do.
04:41I'm very, very excited for you because it gets better.
04:44I'm ready.
04:45Let the games begin.
04:46Follow me.
04:46This way.
04:48My name is Alison Fong and I'm an oceanographer and sea ecologist.
04:59So you know, this moment in history, our planet is facing a very big crisis.
05:06By burning fossil fuels, we created an abundance of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere that is warming
05:15the earth and causing all sorts of extreme events.
05:23And so Will and I are embarking on a scientific expedition to the North Pole to see if there's
05:29anything that we can do about it.
05:32There used to be tons of snow covering these mountains.
05:35It doesn't look like there's a lot of snow here now.
05:38That's kind of the problem.
05:39I believe that living under the ice at the North Pole, there are some of the most efficient
05:45organisms on planet earth at removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
05:51If my theories are correct, then this could be a breakthrough for climate change.
05:58All right.
05:59All right.
06:00Here we go.
06:00Headed north.
06:02Oh, there we go.
06:04The only way to do this kind of work is to dive under that ice and collect samples.
06:17But first, we've got to get there.
06:20There she is.
06:22That's our ride to the top of the earth.
06:24That is a big, giant boat.
06:27She's a big icebreaker.
06:28That's what we need where we're going.
06:31Yeah, for me, an icebreaker is like, girl, your feet must be tired because you've been running
06:37through my mind all day long.
06:40How's that?
06:41I hope that's a better icebreaker than mine.
06:47The ambition of the entire journey is gigantic.
06:52You know, it was like, wow, we're on a scientific mission to help save the planet.
07:03And if somebody offered me that script as a movie, I'd be like, come on, man.
07:10Come on, really?
07:11Send that to Matt Damon because he's smart.
07:15Like, Matt's going to have to make that.
07:41Welcome on board. Nice to meet you.
07:43Welcome in my office, the best office in the world.
07:47Right, so this is my first time on an icebreaker.
07:51How does it break the ice?
07:53I'm not nervous.
07:54Yes.
07:54I'm not nervous.
07:54I'm just asking, how does the ship break the ice?
07:57We use the weight of the hull, 30,000 tons, and we jump above the ice and we break the
08:06ice to optimize this route to the North Pole.
08:10All right, so you feel confident that crashing the ship into the ice is going to be successful
08:15and you'll get us to the North Pole.
08:16Yeah, but you know, which is very important is don't take it for granted.
08:20We're entering a different world.
08:23Only ice and weather will decide.
08:27I'm just breaking down this mission, getting a sense of what we're doing.
08:31And so essentially, the captain, you see the captain?
08:34That's the captain right there.
08:35You see, right there.
08:36He's just going to slam the boat on purpose into the ice for a week until we get to the
08:42North Pole and he's pretty sure that the boat will be fine.
08:45And Ali thinks it's a good idea for us to get out of the boat and scuba dive under the
08:51North Pole.
08:53Between the three of us, one of us has made a really bad life decision.
09:01And I'm not sure which one of us it is.
09:05Welcome on board.
09:06My name is Eli.
09:08Eli.
09:08Yeah.
09:09I wanted to learn my way around the boat.
09:11All right.
09:12All right.
09:15Here we have which deck we're on and which main vertical zone.
09:18Okay.
09:19Some of these zones can be locked away if there's water intrusion or something like that.
09:22Oh, water intrusion.
09:24That's like when you're on a plane and they say, in case of a water landing.
09:28Yeah.
09:28It's like, Joker, there ain't no water landing.
09:30That means you crashed.
09:33What do these things mean?
09:35What are all of these?
09:36So it's basically the documents for abandoning.
09:38Everything on the walls is about the damn boat crash.
09:42I know.
09:43Damn.
09:44Where is the fun stuff on the damn boat?
09:48Okay.
09:48So I've been to the South Pole.
09:51I've been to Ecuador.
09:52I fought anaconda.
09:55And now I'm about to explore the dessert tray.
09:59Now this is how exploration is supposed to be.
10:03I was telling them from the beginning.
10:05I was saying, this is how we're supposed to be doing it.
10:07I'm going to see if that's strawberry or raspberry.
10:10That's what I need to know.
10:11This is going to be the first part of my expedition.
10:27This is your captain speaking from the bridge.
10:32We are just arriving at the edge of the sea ice.
10:48We, uh...
10:50We ran out of ocean.
10:53We ran out of ocean.
10:55We ran out of ocean.
10:57We, uh...
10:58...
11:02Oh.
11:03That was a big one.
11:07To watch the ship break the ice.
11:10It's not little ice.
11:12it's from the size of a car to giant apartment sized pieces of ice that is so thick
11:24it's really really loud and it's rocking the ship
11:42seeing the ice made it more real for me it made me realize just how crazy this expedition really
11:51is diving under ice is new for will but it's also new for me I've dove in warmer waters temperate
12:01waters that are cold but never this cold and certainly not frozen growing up in Rhode Island
12:09we have tons of coastline so the ocean was just a natural place for me to be I love understanding
12:17how things work and so science was a way of taking my natural curiosity and investigating the world
12:25around me when I told my parents I was going to be a scientist and not a medical doctor they're
12:29like
12:29why would you do that I was like there's something beautiful and amazing and awe-inspiring in the power
12:35of science and so I thought to myself what can I do where is it that I can really make
12:42a difference
12:44and it's microbes because microbes are the unsung heroes of our planet they're what makes this
12:50planet unique in our universe okay all right so you got your little bat cave this is where all the
13:01like
13:01real magic happens actually right so we're in the lab and I wanted to give you a chance to see
13:07what
13:07we're actually looking for under the ice okay but first let's uh work on the atmosphere here oh okay
13:19check this out this is a single cell organism called phytoplankton okay they're just absolutely incredible
13:29oh oh phytoplankton yeah um I knew everything that's uh when I was growing up phytoplankton was all
13:37we we talked about we would be on the corner in Philly and somebody would walk up and say yo
13:42man
13:42did you hear about phytoplankton and we would stop basketball games when when a new phytoplankton
13:49uh discovery was made it was the it was the biggest thing when I was growing up
13:57all right so take me all the way back to five years old okay so that is a phytoplankton
14:04yep so phytoplankton are tiny little plant-like cells trillions and trillions of them live in the
14:12ocean they're the reason that this planet is habitable for all the other living organisms that
14:18use oxygen wow around 2.4 billion years ago our planet's climate was transformed by phytoplankton
14:35through photosynthesis they harness the energy of sunlight
14:41they consume huge amounts of carbon and fill the atmosphere with oxygen
14:47making life possible for all of the animal kingdom
14:58phytoplankton are like the lungs of the planet so they clean the atmosphere of co2
15:07and they create oxygen yeah so that co2 doesn't get back into the atmosphere it stays trapped there
15:14for thousands of years we got to get phytoplankton their flowers they don't get their flowers no they
15:20don't it's like the trees the trees get all the props for us being able to breathe we know how
15:27efficient
15:28phytoplankton are at utilizing sunlight for energy but in the Arctic it's dark for half of the year so the
15:36big question has always been what do they do when there is no direct sunlight do they still have
15:42the potential to photosynthesize this area of research could transform our understanding of
15:48climate change that's why we need that sample this is a officially the wildest day of my whole life
16:02you know check this out
16:08that's a daggone polar bear
16:14that's my first polar bear right there
16:18i don't know why i'm whispering because he's a really long way away
16:22it just seems like you should whisper when you see a polar bear
16:27for multiple reasons
16:31craziness folks
16:42this is your captain speaking from the bridge
16:45as we got to the the north pole you know the excitement of that was very short-lived
17:00i was very insecure about the dive
17:04we're going to stop the ship and we're going to get off this ship
17:09and then we're going to stand on a piece of floating ice and then we're going to scuba dive
17:15under the ice yeah
17:19it's dangerous because you're going into an environment where maybe five to ten meters of ice
17:24are hanging over your head if you run into a problem you can't just go directly up you have to
17:31find that hole in the ice to properly resurface
17:37i generally do well with stress but i was very concerned that this time i had bitten off more than
17:48i could chew is that is that a storm in the distance are you worried we're gonna no no i'm
17:54just i'm trying to keep my eye out and i just want to be alert alert okay yes
18:03the idea of coming up and bumping into ice and knowing you can't get out right there if you had
18:11to
18:14i was really thinking to myself oh no is this the one where it goes wrong
18:29the weather's terrible now terrible terrible terrible
18:37the whole daggone trip coming down to this moment
18:50callum how are you feeling about today optimistic optimistic okay
18:54the word was optimistic but his voice didn't sound good
19:05good to go
19:09good to go
19:10stand by
19:19oh this is terrible this is absolutely terrible
19:28i ain't no professional diver but this don't seem like dive weather
19:37hey so how many people have you taken out to dive in this kind of weather oh you're the first
19:43one
19:45there's no way this is a good idea the weather was not good for the dive
19:53when we got there you know it was like a snowstorm rolled in this is ridiculous man
20:02you can't even see the damn dive site the captain with the weather coming in said it was a now
20:10or never
20:11kind of situation
20:15the boat is supposed to be leaving the captain has given us uh one shot then we got to go
20:22uh over here
20:23uh oh geez oh good heaven this was the highest fear point for me in the entire journey
20:35the thing is arctic weather can change in like a snap so 20 minutes from now could be bright sun
20:41beautiful never know or it could be worse or it could be worse or it could be worse it could
20:46be worse
20:46oh it could always be worse yeah
20:53this is exceptionally cold water so i don't want you guys completing this task any longer than 10 minutes
20:59if anybody gets any sort of serious leak the dive is terminated uh-oh come on you can do it
21:15that's better diving in general is a risky endeavor diving under ice is inherently more risky
21:25and in a very remote place you're really stacking the challenges okay i'm going but this research
21:35could change our outlook on the planet keep going in how can you not be all in
21:46oh my goodness freezing cold
21:58i was legitimately scared but i could tell the weather was coming in i could tell we were pushing
22:07i wanted it to be perfect and i wanted to get the sample and i could feel the the tension
22:24okay
22:25good to go hang on guys i got a problem
22:32okay sitting back down
22:38frozen the ice in there see yeah hot water's coming in
22:46my thing froze and it was right before i was about to jump in that's how cold it is at
22:52the north
22:57full seeing bubbles the dust was to be down there
23:11at this point will's taking more time than anticipated
23:17but because we're a team we're on standby until all of the divers are safely in the water
23:23they're gonna need more hot water guys time is ticking time is ticking away
23:29before i can actually do what i've come to do let's try again
23:42come on
23:45three two one go
24:04wow
24:12look at that jeez i could see under the ice sheet
24:20and it was like an upside down ice mountain range and the sun was coming through and all of that
24:31it was just stunning it was definitely those once in a lifetime kind of experience
24:45it was incredible it was absolutely incredible it was like going through a crystal castle
24:53all of the ice crystals are reflecting the light that's shining in on you
24:58it was literally incredible
25:01let's go towards the areas that look greenish along the bottom of this ice
25:07show me the way
25:10the dive was going well
25:12well i see the target samples that i want
25:17and all we need to do is swim two and a half meters and slurp a sample
25:23and all we need to do is swim two and a half meters and a half meters and a half
25:31meters
25:31now
25:33my valve
25:36no
25:37no
25:37no
25:37no
25:39no
25:39no
25:40no
25:40no
25:40no
25:41no
25:54no
25:56no
25:56no
26:00no
26:00no
26:05no
26:24There we go.
26:25There we go.
26:26Wow.
26:48Bumble down.
26:52Well, that was terrible.
26:56No samples.
27:01Literally, it's within my fingertips, right?
27:06And that's the hardest part about this.
27:08We have no samples.
27:16So it would have taken waiting at least until the next day to try again.
27:21And the weather was still relatively poor.
27:25We weren't going to be able to convince the captain to stay another day.
27:31So it was gut-wrenching when I actually felt the ship move.
27:36It was the realization that the opportunity was gone.
27:41Really gone.
27:47So we missed the sample.
27:52Yeah.
27:54Well, that sucks.
27:56Yeah, I guess that's putting it pretty lightly.
27:59And the hardest part about, I think, this is that when you're so close.
28:05I know. I know.
28:07We're like, you know, you could feel it.
28:08Yeah.
28:08Like, we were there.
28:10It was in our grasp.
28:13For me, to miss out on this is just, there's just a lot of feelings that I have about it.
28:20Yeah.
28:21To come all the way to the North Pole and miss.
28:26Yeah.
28:27I can see, you know, how heartbreaking this thing is.
28:33Yeah.
28:34It's like, yeah, it just, it feel, it feels like I slowed you down.
28:42For me, it feels like being in the way, you know.
28:49You know, there are a lot of moving parts.
28:51And when we got out of the water, and I was thinking about what it is that went wrong,
28:58and what part of the process could have been better, and could I have been better?
29:08But it's not your fault.
29:10You know, it's not any single person's fault for having not brought their very best to the work.
29:18Sometimes you fail.
29:19There's probably people all over the place who have failed somehow and doing something.
29:25Just not as big as us.
29:27That might be, that also might be true.
29:30It's a pretty, it's a pretty significant fail.
29:38Seeing Ali's disappointment in missing the sample, I realized Ali had missed a part of her life's work.
29:50Something that she may never have another opportunity to pursue.
29:54That's where it really started to feel bad.
30:16The second day, I'm sitting in my room, feeling horrible, and someone is communicating via the radio that we've been
30:23called by the captain.
30:27There's a good weather window, and so there's the opportunity to get back in the water under some ice.
30:33We've moved significantly further south, but it's still in the high Arctic.
30:40I'm definitely used to being the guy that takes the shot at the buzzer, but we're on an expedition that
30:50has a mission.
30:51And with a more experienced dive buddy, Ali's got a better chance to bring her discoveries back home.
30:59So, I'm gonna step aside.
31:05Step it in, in three, two, one.
31:09Ali.
31:18And we're there.
31:20And it's again, incredible.
31:25My dive buddy and I work quickly to collect material off the bottom of the ice.
31:32That's the moment where all of the hope turns into reality.
31:41We collected samples. We collected really, really good samples.
31:51Welcome back to the lab. Let's see what we got.
31:54See what you got.
31:55See what you got.
31:55So, I wanted to give you a chance to see some of the things that we found.
31:59Okay.
31:59When we're out there. You ready?
32:01Yes, I'm very, very ready.
32:03Okay.
32:03I'm excited.
32:04This is, this is the, the, uh, the part that I, I most enjoy.
32:08You most enjoy.
32:08I'm most enjoy, so.
32:09Is it because it's warm and not cold and not freezing and snowing in your nose?
32:14Yeah.
32:15Me too.
32:17Let me show you.
32:18Yeah.
32:20There.
32:21We put part of the sample that we collected in these bottles.
32:24Yeah.
32:25And these bottles are gas type.
32:27And we've been keeping them in an incubator that has a control setting for temperature and light.
32:32Right?
32:32So it's cold and it's low light.
32:34Oh.
32:34And we've been measuring all of the oxygen and CO2 that they've been using and creating.
32:40And if you look at the top.
32:42Yeah.
32:42Do you see those little dots?
32:43Yeah.
32:44So that.
32:44Those are gas bubbles.
32:45Okay.
32:45So that was gas bubbles all created within a sealed environment in the dark.
32:53That's right.
32:55This experiment shows that Arctic phytoplankton are incredible.
33:01They produce oxygen while consuming carbon at imperceptibly low light levels.
33:08So you can imagine like when people are designing and thinking about how do we like create cooler
33:13technology that might slow down climate change.
33:15They're looking at how you can create power out of things like CO2.
33:19Yeah.
33:20And sunshine.
33:21That's spectacular.
33:23These polar phytoplankton are some of the most light sensitive cells we've ever seen.
33:30If we can figure out how to harness their potential, it could revolutionize the future of green energy.
33:37But not only that, it could also help reverse climate change.
33:42Because they not only generate power, they do it by consuming CO2.
33:50But this single entity has all of the power to create an earth that is habitable for all of us.
33:57You have no idea that all of that is going on in a drop of sea water.
34:02It's a whole universe.
34:03It's a whole universe.
34:04It's a whole universe, yeah.
34:05It's a whole universe of microscopic life.
34:13It blows my mind that just a single drop of water could open up an astonishing new frontier for the
34:24future of our planet.
34:26I guess my mentor, Dr. Counter was right.
34:30The answers to everything important are at the edges of our world.
34:40And the point of all of our exploring is to return to the place where we started and know that
34:47place for the first time.
34:51Three, two, one.
35:07Traveling pole to pole has not only changed the way I see our planet.
35:12It's changed the way I see myself.
35:16I've been inspired by the truly extraordinary people I've met.
35:23To ask burning questions about our place on earth.
35:29Questions about our health, happiness, history, even our ultimate survival.
35:52I've been to the edges of our world, but coming home, it feels like my journey is just beginning because
36:01I'm even more curious now than when I first began.
36:04And that is a beautiful thing.
36:09To allora.
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