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Pole to Pole with Will Smith - Season 1 - Episode 07: The North Pole
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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?
02:18The North Pole
02:19The North Pole
02:24The North Pole
02:46Bay
03:10Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, our Odyssey across the globe is coming to an
03:26A set out on this journey because my mentor, Dr. Counter, told me that the answers to
03:32everything important are out at the edges of our world. And man, was he right.
03:41It's been an incredible journey. We've discovered deadly creatures, which could save millions of
03:47lives. That's insane. We've learned of rivers in the sky. We recorded a language on the verge of
03:56extinction and explored the secret of happiness in a land above the clouds. And now the final leg
04:06of our journey. I am putting my neck on the line for a discovery that could eclipse all of that.
04:15All right, we're going, we're landing, we're landing. Let me get my stuff.
04:25Hey. Hey.
04:28Allie, how you doing? Nice to meet you.
04:30How are you? Let's get in there. Thank you for coming all the way up here.
04:34I know. This is fantabulous.
04:36It is a very beautiful place.
04:38You know how to pick locations for sure. I do. I do. I'm very, very excited for you because
04:43it gets better. I'm ready. Let the games begin. Follow me. This way.
04:47Hi. My name is Allison Fong and I'm an oceanographer and sea ecologist.
04:58So, 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
05:14that is warming the 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.
05:35Doesn't look like there's a lot of snow here now.
05:38That's kind of the problem.
05:40I 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.
05:52If my theories are correct, then this could be a breakthrough for climate change.
05:58All right.
05:59All right. Here we go.
06:00Headed north.
06:02Oh, there we go.
06:03The 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 her 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
06:37running through 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.
06:55We'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.
07:14Like, Matt's going to have to make that.
07:41Welcome on board.
07:42Nice 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
08:07to 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.
08:22Only ice and weather will decide.
08:27I'm just breaking down this mission, getting a sense of what we're doing.
08:30And so essentially, the captain, you see the captain, that's the captain right there.
08:35You see, oh, 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 want to learn my way around the boat, so.
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 it is?
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, where 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.
09:54And 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, we ran out of ocean.
10:52We are just talking from the island here.
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
22:24it's okay
22:25good to go hang on guys you got a problem
22:32okay let's sit back down
22:38frozen the ice in there see yeah hot water's coming in
22:45my thing froze and it was right before i was about to jump in that's how cold it is at
22:52the north pole
22:57seeing bubbles
23:01don't supposed to be down there
23:08it's getting cold
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 it again
23:42come on
23:44come on
23:46three two one go
24:11look at that jeez i could see under the ice sheet
24:20and it was like an upside down ice mountain range
24:28and the sun was coming through and all of that it was just stunning
24:34it was definitely those once in a lifetime kind of experience
24:41alley tws
24:43holy this is amazing it was incredible it was absolutely incredible it was like going through
24:51a crystal castle all of the ice crystals are reflecting the light that's shining in on you
24:58it was literally incredible let's go towards the areas that look greenish along the bottom of
25:06this ice you show me the way the dive was going well i see the target samples that i want
25:17and all we need to do was swim two and a half meters and slurp a sample
25:43okay we got a problem
25:46okay
25:52my face mask went into free flow
25:58i started hearing abort dive abort dive
26:04and that's not what you want to hear
26:08this is it i have to surface
26:12break the ice break the ice
26:24there we go
26:31there we go
26:49one by down
26:52well that was terrible
26:56no samples
27:02literally it's within my fingertips
27:05right and that's the hardest part about this we have no samples
27:16so it would have taken waiting at least until the next day to try again and the weather was still
27:23relatively poor
27:25we weren't going to be able to convince the captain to stay another day
27:32so it was gut-wrenching when i actually felt the ship move
27:37it was the realization that the opportunity was gone really gone
27:48so we missed the sample
27:52yeah
27:53uh well that sucks
27:56yeah i guess that's putting it pretty lightly and the hardest part about i think this is that
28:03when you're so close and i mean we were like you know you could feel it like we were there
28:10it was in our in our grasp for me to miss out on this is just there's just a lot
28:17of
28:18feelings that i have about it yeah to come all the way to the north pole
28:25and miss
28:26yeah i can see you know how heartbreaking this thing is yeah it's like
28:36yeah 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 and um when we got out of the water and i
28:55was thinking
28:56about what it is that went wrong and what part of the process could have been better and could i
29:00have been better
29:08but it's not your fault you know it's not any single person's fault for having not brought
29:14their very best to the work sometimes you fail there's probably people all over the place who have
29:22failed somehow and doing something just not as big as us
29:27that might be that also might be true uh it's a pretty it's a pretty significant fail
29:38seeing ali's disappointment in missing the the sample i realized ali had missed
29:47a part of her life's work something that she may never have another opportunity to pursue that's where
30:15the second day i'm sitting in my room feeling horrible and someone is communicating via the radio that
30:23we've been called by the captain there's a good weather window and so there's the opportunity to get back
30:31in the water under some ice we'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 at the buzzer but we're on an
30:48expedition that has a mission and with a more experienced dive buddy ali's got a better chance
30:56to bring her discoveries back home so i'm going to step aside stepping in in three two one alley
31:18and we're there and it's again incredible my dive buddy and i work quickly to collect material off the
31:29bottom of the ice that's the moment where all of the hope turns into reality
31:40we collected samples we collected really really good samples
31:51welcome back to the lab let's see what we got see what you got see what you got so i
31:56wanted to give
31:56you a chance to see some of the things that we found okay when we're out there you ready yes
32:01i'm
32:01very very ready okay i'm excited this is this is the the uh the part that i i most enjoy
32:08you most
32:08enjoy enjoy so is it because it's warm and not cold and not freezing and snowing in your nose yeah
32:14me too let me show you yeah
32:21we put part of the sample that we collected in these bottles and these bottles are gas tight
32:26and we've been keeping them in an incubator that has a control setting for temperature and light
32:32right so it's cold and it's low light and we've been measuring all of the oxygen and co2 that they've
32:38been using and creating and if you look at the top yeah you see those little dots yeah so that
32:44those are gas
32:44bubbles okay so that was gas bubbles all created within a sealed environment in the dark that's right
32:55that's right this experiment shows that arctic phytoplankton are incredible
33:01they produce oxygen while consuming carbon at imperceptibly low light levels so you can imagine
33:09like when people are designing and thinking about how do we like create cooler technology that might
33:14slow down climate change they're looking at how you can create power out of things like co2
33:19yeah and sunshine that's spectacular these polar phytoplankton are some of the most light sensitive
33:28cells we've ever seen if we can figure out how to harness their potential it could revolutionize
33:35the future of green energy but not only that it could also help reverse climate change because they not
33:43only generate power they do it by consuming co2 but this single entity has all of the power to create
33:54an earth
33:54that is habitable for all of us you have no idea that all of that is going on in a
34:01drop of seawater
34:02it's a whole universe a whole universe of microscopic life
34:14it blows my mind that just a single drop of water could open up an astonishing new frontier
34:23for the future of our planet
34:26i guess my mentor dr counter was right the answers to everything important
34:33are at the edges of our world
34:40and the point of all of our exploring is to return to the place where we started
34:46our planet and know that place for the first time
34:51three two one
35:07traveling pole to pole has not only changed the way i see our planet it's changed the way i see
35:14myself
35:16i've been inspired by the truly extraordinary people i've met
35:23to ask burning questions about our place on earth questions about our health
35:32happiness 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
36:01because i'm even more curious now than when i first began and that is a beautiful thing
36:07and that's
36:26so
36:26so
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