All language subtitles for Alien Deep with Bob Ballard 4of5 Oceans Fury NG 720p_ENG_Subtitles01

ROBERT BALLARD: I've dedicated
my life to exploring the unknown.

I've been places no one else
has ever gone.

I've seen life no human eye
has ever seen.

It's my passion.

I found the Titanic.

God damn!

I've survived crushing depths

and a rogue wave.

But even after 50 years at sea,

I'm as fascinated with the deep
as I was on my very first expedition.

You want to know
my most important discovery?

Well, it's the one
I'm about to make.

I'm Dr. Robert Ballard.

Come with me
into the alien deep.

NARRATOR: Everywhere we look

it seems the oceans
are unleashing their fury.

These could be flukes,
part of a natural cycle,

or signs of dangerous
global change.

BALLARD: Man has always been
challenged by the sea,

and just when we think
we've conquered its violent moods,

the planet seems to be
upping the ante.

But is that really the case?

And if so, why?

So that's what
I'm trying to find out.

NARRATOR: To most of us,
this is the ocean.

But when Dr. Robert Ballard
looks at the water,

he sees something
very different...

Something straight out
of a horror movie.

[thunder cracks]

Stronger storms, higher seas,

and lurking in the deep,

monsters with the power
to eat ships whole.

Few have met up with rogue waves
like these and survived.

Ballard is one of
the lucky ones.

BALLARD: Yeah, my first introduction
to a rogue wave,

ironically, was on the first time
I went to sea,

on my first
oceanographic expedition.

I was 17 years old,

and we were in
a tremendous storm

in the North Pacific Ocean.

We were in 45-foot swells,
15-meter waves were coming at us.

It was like
a roller coaster ride.

And I was up on the bridge,

and all of a sudden
this monstrous wave

just comes looming out of
the sea right in front of us.

Smashes right into the bridge,
destroys the bridge,

all the windows were knocked out,
blew out the portholes,

took away the mast,
and we almost sank.

And I was hooked for life.

What a, what a wave.

I was too young to be afraid.

I was in awe.

NARRATOR: Mariners have been telling
tales of rogue waves for centuries.

Massive walls of water that tower
over the seas around them.

1981.

A huge wave blasts an oil rig
off the Atlantic coast of Canada,

killing all 84 people on board.

1995.

Another rogue breaks over
a luxury liner's bow

and carries off a forward mast.

BALLARD: Lots of ships
that just vanish without a trace

are hit by rogue waves,
because you have absolutely no time.

It just happens,
you don't see it coming.

So you have no chance
to get off a message.

You just disappear.

NARRATOR: Which is why actual measurements of
these giants

were so hard to come by...

until one day in January 1995.

Hurricane force winds blast
a Norwegian oil rig.

Workers evacuate the deck.

But just below, pointing straight down
at the oncoming seas,

a laser range finder detects
one giant wave after another.

25 feet.

30 feet.

28 feet.

Then, at 3:20 PM,

the instrument spikes.

A 75-foot monster
hammers the rig.

The platform survives

and the world gets its first
incontrovertible proof

of just how big
rogue waves can be.

BALLARD: What you get is you get

two different wave patterns
that intersect.

And normally they cancel
one another out,

but if you do it just right,

you can get them to add up
and then...

have them shoot like that.

And that's a rogue wave.

And you don't want to be there
when that happens.

NARRATOR:
If, as Ballard suspects,

these waves,
and the storms that spawn them,

are getting bigger,

we're in for a rough ride.

Already, one large ship goes down
on the high seas every month.

Not to mention hundreds
of smaller vessels.

BALLARD: A ship a month.

Think about that.

And if the seas are
getting rougher,

that number's only going up.

NARRATOR: As a longtime mariner,

Ballard can guess where
the hotspots are likely to be.

The Cape of Good Hope is also known
as the "Cape of Storms."

JEAN PIERRE ARABONIS:
It is at the moment

the choke of shipping
in the world.

No one really wants to go through
the Suez Canal anymore,

because you've got to run
the gauntlet of the pirates.

Pirates are not predictable.

So take your chances
with the storms.

NARRATOR: Tucked away in
a remote field office

high above the Cape,

oceanographer Jean Pierre Arabonis
has made a career

out of predicting dangerous seas
and rogue waves.

His forecasts can mean life or death
for hundreds of sailors.

ARABONIS: I kind of built
my business around this.

I think I've got a bit of a feel

as to where these things
are going to occur

a bit more often
than anywhere else.

But it's a mixture of
science and intuition.

NARRATOR:
Arabonis sounds the alarm

when storms kick up swells
from the southwest.

Instead of just creating chop,

the waves barrel into a driving current
from the northeast,

which stacks them up into
immense walls of water.

ARABONIS: And that's where
you really don't want to be,

certainly when there's a storm,

when there's strong
southwesterly winds.

This whole area can become
completely unpredictable.

And if we can't predict,
you don't want to be there.

BALLARD: The captains,
often they have no choice.

Riding the current saves time,
and time is money,

so usually they'll take the risk
and plow right through it.

ARABONIS: It's very difficult
when you take a look at a ship

and it's 20,000 tons
and it's 200 meters long.

You think it's not vulnerable.

But it is.

In the right conditions,
that ship can fill up with water

and be gone in minutes.

BALLARD:
That's a terrible way to go,

and if storms continue
to increase in intensity,

it's gonna be a problem
all over the world.

Not just in South Africa,
but everywhere.

NARRATOR: If Ballard wants to know
about angry oceans,

there's one place to look.

And it's not out on the water.

This is Lloyd's of London,

one of the most important
insurance providers in the world.

BALLARD: Lloyd's really dominates
the insurance market

for maritime insurance.

I, myself, have insurance
from Lloyd's.

It just went up.

[chuckles]

NARRATOR: The firm has kept
records of shipwrecks

for more than 300 years.

BALLARD: Sunk in deep water.

Broke in two.

Cape Town Rescue Centre.

Bulk carrier out of Malta.

This is the log of the ships that
Lloyd's of London insured

that were lost at sea.

NARRATOR: 100 years ago,

most of the losses were
due to poor navigation.

This year, piracy is
also taking its toll.

But in the future,

Lloyd's anticipates that bigger storms
and stronger waves

will grow as risk factors
for ocean disasters.

It's confirmation
of what Ballard and others

think they're seeing
out on the water.

BALLARD: Every attempt is made

to limit a ship's
probability of sinking.

And Lloyd's is very keenly interested

in making sure that that occurs.

But then there's just
acts of God,

acts of Mother Nature,
acts of the earth.

And they are starting
to see trends

that the ocean's getting angrier.

NARRATOR: If the trends continue,
the results could be devastating.

90% of traded merchandise
travels across the high seas,

carrying some $13.5 trillion
worth of goods.

Nowhere are the stakes higher
than off the coast of Oregon,

where the raging Columbia River
meets the howling North Pacific.

Ballard has come to meet the men
who ply these dangerous waters.

Dan Jordan is one of these
boat pilots on the front lines.

If anyone were to notice
changes on the ocean,

it would be Dan.

His job-
steer massive cargo ships safely

through the roiling waters
and ever-shifting channel-

one of the most treacherous
stretches of water in North America.

BALLARD: They call it
the "Graveyard of the Pacific" for a reason.

Some 2,000 ships
have gone down here.

And these guys are out in it
365 days a year.

NARRATOR: The channel is the gateway
to the Pacific Northwest.

Thousands of ships and
billions of dollars' worth of goods

pass through here every year.

BALLARD: I think
very few people realize

how much of America's economy,
going in or going out,

is by sea.

You don't load wheat
on airplanes,

and there's no trains.

It stops here

and there's only one way
to get across the Pacific,

whether you're going
east or west,

and it's by ships.

NARRATOR: To guide the ships
through the channel,

the pilots first have
to get on board.

Option one is
a vomit-inducing jet boat.

Even on a calm day,
it can be lethal.

The team recently lost a pilot

when he fell from a ladder
in big waves

and the current
dragged him out to sea.

BALLARD: So, typical day
at the office for you?

DAN JORDAN: Typical day.

NARRATOR: Option two,
the safe option,

is dangling from a helicopter.

But with high winds, rough seas,

and a six-story supertanker
rocking and rolling below,

it doesn't seem all that safe
to Ballard.

MAN ON RADIO: Man's going out
the cabin door,

going out the cabin door.

Man is at the cabin door.

Man's going down,
man's going down.

NARRATOR: The seasoned explorer
has boarded lots of ships

in his 50 years at sea,

but never quite like this.

Once on board,
Ballard and the pilots

quickly find their way
to the bridge.

The pilots take command
of the ship

for the final leg into port.

BALLARD: You know,
you can steer your ship

all the way around the world,

but you need a pilot
for the last stretch.

The currents change,
they're changing all the time.

And only the pilot knows which route
to take on any given day.

JORDAN:
Well, you're always on edge.

Your senses are always alert
to what's happening,

but you also try
and keep it calm.

So even if it is a rough,
tense situation-

big seas or something
of that nature-

it's real important
to keep things calm.

NARRATOR: But even then,
bad things can happen.

Waves stall engines,

the wind pushes ships
toward the shoals.

In bad weather,
the three-mile transit can take hours.

Dan knows these waters
as well as anyone.

And lately, he's seeing
a disturbing change.

BALLARD: Weather patterns are,

I mean, obviously
changing dramatically,

and that there's actually increased
height in the swells?

JORDAN: Yeah, we've been watching
that for a few years now,

probably three or four years
in particular.

The scientists are all saying that
wave heights are increasing

and storm intensity's increasing.

And we are seeing
some evidence of that.

NARRATOR:
According to one study,

the biggest waves in this region

have risen 10 feet
since the mid 1970s,

and models project
that they may rise

as much as 50 feet
over the next 100 years.

That's the difference between
a three- and five-story building.

These increases, as well as
the bigger storms behind them,

cause Dan and his team
to shut down the port

several times every year.

BALLARD: Now that's something
they don't do lightly,

because if the port closes,
it backs up the whole country.

You've got cargo trains and trucks
grounded in their depots.

Your new cars don't
get to their lots.

Farmers in the Midwest
are sitting on their wheat.

It's surprising how fast
that can all happen.

I imagine it gets
sort of tense at times?

JORDAN: Yeah, there's always
a lot of pressure

to get things moving,
and that's part of our job.

BALLARD: It's a constant battle.

It's man against nature,

and maybe nature may be winning.

NARRATOR: One group, though,
is not overly concerned.

For them, the bigger the wave,
the better.

This is Teahupoo,

Tahitian for "broken skulls."”

One of the baddest, heaviest
waves on the planet.

Surfers descend on Tahiti
from far and wide

to challenge its power.

BALLARD: These guys are nuts.

They track conditions
all over the world.

They have a better idea
of what's happening

than most meteorologists.

In fact, if changes
are happening,

these are the folks who are probably
gonna notice them first.

NARRATOR: The master of
wave forecasting is Sean Collins.

SEAN COLLINS: I surf,

and I found a way to avoid
getting a real job

by starting a surf company.

NARRATOR: Once upon a time,
surfers were beach bums,

hanging out on the sand
waiting for waves.

Collins used science

and his almost innate knowledge
of storms and waves

to change that culture.

40 years ago,
he launched Surfline,

which incorporates satellites,
wave buoys and supercomputers

to predict the best surf waves
around the world.

Close to two million users
access Surfline each month.

COLLINS: I guess you could say

that we help supply the drugs,
so to speak,

to, you know, keep people
on their high of surfing.

NARRATOR: Tahitian pro
Raimana Van Bastolaer

is a self-confessed addict.

RAIMANA VAN BASTOLAER:
Some people have other things,

and me, my drug
is the ocean, you know?

That's what,
that's what we all live for.

NARRATOR:
Thanks to Sean's forecasts,

Raimana can start
preparing for a wave

up to three weeks
before it arrives.

VAN BASTOLAER:
Tuesday and Wednesday

we're gonna get
some good swell coming.

COLLINS:
We're forecasting this swell,

you know, to arrive in Tahiti

before the storm that generated
the swell even happened,

you know, so we're, you know,
about three steps ahead.

NARRATOR: The key is wind.

A wave here in Tahiti
begins where all waves do-

far out in the ocean where
wind blows continuously

over open water.

It starts as a ripple.

Pushed by the wind,
it travels and grows,

often combining
with other swells.

Add a big storm and
it can turn into a monster.

COLLINS: And then taking
all these wind speeds,

we're able to calculate
waves around the earth,

around the entire globe.

The ideal situation for Tahiti,

is when the storms start in this area underneath Australia
here.

NARRATOR: Across 5,000 miles
of open windblown ocean,

the wave can get big.

COLLINS: And it eventually gets up to,
you know, over 50 feet.

Obviously, if you're in a ship,

you do not want to be
in this area,

but us as surfers,
you know, we're looking this,

and we're all excited.

Everybody's making their reservations
to go to Teahupoo.

Raimana is on the phone,

"Hey, Brother Sean,
how's the swell looking?" You know.

And, you know, we're,
we're going to go chase it.

NARRATOR: Accurate wind speed measurements

are critical to the forecast.

A three-mile-per-hour miscalculation
in a storm off New Zealand

can mean a four-foot difference
in swell height

by the time it reaches Tahiti.

And it could arrive
one day early or late.

COLLINS: And you know,
as our customers are surfers,

if we're telling them
there's going to be a swell tomorrow

and it doesn't show up
till the day after tomorrow,

believe me,
they're going to hate us.

NARRATOR: Good thing
for Sean and Raimana.

Sean claims Surfline's forecasts
are 95% accurate.

Today, Raimana's got word that
big rollers are on their way in.

As it approaches Tahiti,

the wave is still
mostly underwater,

only feeling the bottom
when it gets shallow,

about a half mile offshore.

That's when Raimana catches
his first glimpse.

A dark, gray bump
on the horizon.

As the wave barrels toward shore

at speeds of up to
60 miles per hour,

the reef shapes it from below.

COLLINS:
All of a sudden, they just,

they just hit a wall underneath the ocean
that kind of stops them.

And all that inertia
just goes whoo, you know,

just throws all that energy straight up.

NARRATOR: It's the moment
Raimana's been waiting for.

VAN BASTOLAER: When she breaks,
you have the sound of it,

you know,
how it goes on the reef,

how it breaks, boom, boom, boom,

and you're like [inhales]
ah, ¢'mon, you know.

NARRATOR:
Millions of tons of force

breaking in three feet of water,
over a razor-sharp reef.

VAN BASTOLAER:
I'm going into that wave,

and then the whole thing
cover me.

And the next thing you know,

there's this spit,
we call it the spit,

you get sucked like this
[sucking sound]

And the whole thing,
my hair goes,

and my whole thing goes,
like, behind like this.

I'm like, "Come on, come on,
just let me, let me out."

And next thing you know,
it goes [blows].

And then somehow
she let me go and let me out.

You take it inside, you know,

you're just holding
for yourself.

You've got it, you made it,
and it's so stoked,

you're just letting everything
out over there.

[cheering, applause]

And then you go,
let's go again,

and then we're back again out,
you know?

NARRATOR: For surf waves,
the forecasting is working.

But predicting global changes
in the ocean and climate

is a lot tougher to do.

BALLARD: If we're really seeing the oceans getting more
violent,

can we figure out why,

and whether there is anything
we can do about it?

That's the real challenge.

NARRATOR: To predict if the oceans
really are getting angrier,

scientists need to look beyond
anecdotal evidence.

They need to understand how energy
moves around the planet.

Ocean currents are key.

That's why oceanographer
Bob Pickart and his team

are out here in the frigid
North Atlantic.

They're searching for a new arm
of the Global Conveyor-

one of the world's most powerful
current systems.

Climate models suggest
that the current

lies a few hundred miles
to the west,

off the coast of Greenland.

But Pickart is hearing reports
that it's also been spotted

way out here near Iceland.

BOB PICKART: We thought we sort of
had it figured out at this point,

and then, 10 and behold,
my Icelandic colleagues

a few years back went out

and accidentally discovered
another deep current

off the continental slope
of Iceland,

which is sort of, you know,

turned the community
on its ear a little bit.

NARRATOR: The Global Conveyor
is one of the most important features

on the planet.

It transfers heat
around the globe

and helps keep
our climate stable.

If Pickart can prove
his Icelandic colleagues right,

he'd force a rethink of
how the system works.

BALLARD: You know,
it's truly amazing.

We know the ocean currents have
a direct impact on our climate,

yet we don't know exactly
where all those currents are.

Despite our efforts
to model the climate,

it's just a prediction.

NARRATOR: As Ballard knows
from decades on the ocean,

it's an immensely
complex system.

BALLARD: The ocean is
anything but static.

If you were a water molecule

and wanted to travel
around the planet,

it would be like getting
in this roller coaster.

Lots of ups, lots of downs,

and it's a massive amount
of water that's moving.

NARRATOR: The ride begins
north of Iceland,

where cooling water sinks.

The drop is slow at first,
but as the current builds,

it gains momentum.

Through ridges and trenches,
over lava fields and endless plains...

the water hurtles southward
across the Equator...

...down the coast of South America
like a giant deep-sea river.

BALLARD: By the time this current
reaches the southern ocean,

it gets massive.

There's no landmass to block it.

So it builds and builds,

and ultimately flows with
the volume of 100 Amazon Rivers.

NARRATOR;:
At the bottom of the world,

the southern ocean acts
like a giant blender,

mixing the world's seawater.

BALLARD: Then it comes back north again,

and when it gets to the tropics,

it starts to warm up and
begins to rise to the surface.

It becomes the Gulf Stream now
and starts heading back home.

The whole circuit
takes 1,000 years.

NARRATOR: 1,000 years!

And yet the continual cycling
of all that heat and energy

affects everything from
long-term climate change

to daily weather forecasts.

BALLARD: We've got water rising,
falling, spinning,

circulating,
bumping into things.

And we try to take
all of those complex factors,

put them into a global model,

and come up with
a circulation system.

Our best shot.

NARRATOR: Of course,
models are only as good

as the information
they're based on.

And back in the North Atlantic,

Pickart is discovering
that we do, indeed,

have a new arm of the current
to worry about.

To find out what impact it has,
he now has to calculate

how much water it adds
to the Global Conveyor.

BALLARD: We're now hearing that
rising atmospheric temperatures

are going to alter
the ocean's circulation pattern.

And ironically,
Europe, for example,

will get colder and colder.

But we're not really going to know
until we better understand

how the entire system works.

NARRATOR: Pickart's work is
a step in the right direction.

PICKART: We're predicting that
about half of the dense water

is actually flowing in this current
that we just discovered.

So if that's the case,

we need to learn more about
where it comes from,

how it was formed, because
it's crucially important.

NARRATOR: While scientists like Pickart
race to understand

long-term changes to
the Global Conveyor,

others are already
feeling their impact.

In the deadly waters off South Africa,

generations of fishermen
like lan Cooke

have fished a segment
of the Global Conveyor

called the Aghulas Current,

which hugs
the South African coastline.

That's where the tuna are.

IAN COOKE: The fish sort of live
on the edges of the currents.

If we don't get the current,
we won't get the fish.

Just how it works.

Right weather, right water, that's it.

NARRATOR: Problem is,
recent climate patterns

seem to have forced
the current-and the fish-

further offshore.

COOKE: Very unusual.

It's almost like the current's
missing us, you know,

instead of the water
pushing in by us,

it's forcing us west.

And that makes it difficult.

NARRATOR: The shifting current
means more days at sea,

higher fuel costs,
and rougher water.

COOKE: Nine out of ten times,
when the weather's the worst,

that's the best fishing.

So, you know, we sort of fish, like,
on the limit of the fronts, you know?

On the leading edges of it,
so we try not to be there.

But, I mean, the weather changes
hourly here, so,

you get caught,
you get caught, you know?

NARRATOR:
It's a risk all fishermen take.

But the further out
they go to chase fish,

the greater the danger.

COOKE: We're adapting as we speak.

I mean, that's
what's happening now.

We're adapting to
the weather conditions,

the ocean conditions.

If you don't adapt,
you're going to drop out.

NARRATOR: And currents are
only part of the equation.

To truly understand how
the oceans are changing,

we have to look at all the ways

the ocean water gets
circulated and mixed.

For over a century, scientists
thought currents, winds and tides

did all the mixing-

not only churning
the roller coaster,

but also moving vast amounts
of heat, gases and nutrients.

BALLARD: All that mixing is what
keeps the oceans alive and fresh.

The problem is,
when you add it all up,

the energy needed to do it,

there's just no way currents,
tides and wind can do it all.

So clearly, there's got to be
some other input.

NARRATOR:
Bioengineer Kakani Katija

thinks she's homing in
on just that missing link.

KAKANI KATIJA: It's, you know,
kind of the human tendency

to study things that are, you know,
easily observable, right?

So, all of us can see
at the surface of the ocean,

you know, atmospheric winds,
winds create waves.

And what we don't see
is what's happening

in the mid layers
of the ocean.

What is happening deeper?

May I hand this to you?

NARRATOR: No matter how turbulent
surface waves and tides may be,

some estimate that only about
10% of their energy

trickles down to deeper depths.

Not enough to churn much ocean.

KATIJA: And that's where,
you know, potentially,

animals could be involved.

We're finding that
swimming animals

have the potential
to mix the ocean.

NARRATOR: Animals!

Everything from
jellies and sardines

right on up to tuna and whales,

all moving vast amounts of water
as they swim.

Kakani wants to measure
just how much.

It's called the butterfly effect.

When something small like this...

...ultimately gives rise
to something big...

...like this.

It's an effect
nearly impossible to measure,

let alone incorporate
into climate models

that tell us if the oceans
are getting angrier.

And yet here in these
remote waters of Panama,

Kakani Katija is trying
to do just that...

if she can get past
the venomous snakes.

KATIJA: There's one right there.

Don't come towards me.

So here in Panama,

one of the things
that we deal with here

are sea snakes in the water,

and as you can see right now,

they are hunting
around our boat.

So just a part of the day job.

NARRATOR: Tonight,
Kakani is investigating

gelatinous creatures
called salps,

which band together
in long chains.

Her plan?

Light up the water column
with a high-powered laser,

record the salps' motion,

and measure how much
water they disturb.

KATIJA: There is so much ambient stuff
in the water, you know-

it could be sand, silt,
detritus, name it-

they're illuminated
by the laser.

NARRATOR: By watching how
these particles move

as animals swim through them,

the team can calculate
how much water is being mixed.

When they first started
their research,

Kakani and her team
were startled

by the amount the creatures could move,

both by swirling it up
as they passed,

and by dragging it along
behind them.

KATIJA: This is a mechanism
that allows smaller animals

to achieve appreciable mixing
that was completely neglected.

NARRATOR: With every stroke,

they transfer energy into
the sea and mix it up,

as Kakani demonstrates using
a special fluorescent dye.

How much energy, though,
isn't intuitive.

KATIJA: The original thought
was only large animals

will be able to mix the water
around them substantially.

But what we're able to show
with some of our field measurements,

as well as some work in the lab,

is that smaller animals
are actually also able

to generate mixing
at those same scales.

BALLARD:
That may seem far-fetched,

but when you sit down
and do the math, you know,

there are billions and billions
of tiny animals

moving around in the ocean
all the time,

and, you know, that could add up to
a lot of water being churned.

NARRATOR: At the surface,

this energy gets swamped
by more dramatic forces,

like waves and tides.

But dip just 300 feet deeper

and you'll find a different,
calmer world.

Down here, it's easy to imagine
how even one small animal,

not to mention
countless millions,

can have butterfly-like effects.

KATIJA: If we can show that

the vast majority of
organisms in the ocean

are able to achieve
appreciable mixing,

I think it would be hard
to ignore that input.

NARRATOR:
An input that's hardly been considered,

let alone worked into existing
ocean and climate models.

Once she knows how much energy
each tiny critter can exert,

Kakani can scale up her findings

to measure the overall impact
these animals have...

the hurricane side
of the butterfly effect.

KATIJA: We're talking about the ocean.

[laughs]
I mean, it's huge, right?

I mean, the majority of Earth is ocean.

If indeed we are missing
a huge input of power,

because we've ignored the impact
that swimming animals have,

our view of the ocean
may be totally altered.

NARRATOR;
Whether it's wind, tides, currents,

or the collective swishing
of billions of fish tails,

understanding the forces
that keep the ocean in motion

is crucial to predicting
how it's likely to change.

And the picture that's emerging

is one of a hotter,
more energetic planet

and bigger, angrier seas.

The oceans have always been
a dangerous place for us humans,

and from what
Dr. Robert Ballard has seen

on his journey around the world,

things are only getting worse.

BALLARD: The earth is undergoing tremendous change
right now,

change that we haven't
experienced in the past.

NARRATOR: We've got a lot to learn
about how it all works.

But there is one common thread.

BALLARD:
The world's getting hotter,

and that's putting more energy
into the system.

So from there, you just have
to follow the trail,

and that leads you to more violent storms
and bigger waves.

NARRATOR: We know the world
is heating up.

We know heat energizes
the ocean and atmosphere,

powering more intense storms.

Bigger storms create
higher winds,

which in turn
churn up higher seas.

BALLARD: So whether
you like it or not,

global warming is happening.

And we know that humans are
behind at least some of this heat,

and maybe a lot of it.

We're burning oil,
we're burning coal,

and that all traps heat.

We know this.

We're seeing the effects.

NARRATOR: These effects
will impact everyone-

even people who crave
the big waves.

VAN BASTOLAER: You want it
and you don't want it, you know?

And you want it
because that's your job,

that's what I live for,
that's what I love it, too.

But you don't want it because
my house is next to the ocean,

and I don't want
to lose my house.

NARRATOR:
Neither do the 100 million others

who live near the sea.

If storms get more severe,

wave heights grow,
and sea levels rise as predicted,

those people could be
forced from their homes.

Damage to ships and coastlines
could cost trillions of dollars.

And that's just by
the middle of the century.

KATIJA: There's a lot
of questions that, honestly,

I thought have already
been answered

that we're nowhere near
understanding yet.

But it's clear, at least
in some of these instances,

that we are having
effect on the ocean,

and, you know, there are some things
that we can do now.

BALLARD: So really,
we have two choices.

We can move to higher ground,

design stronger ships,
and build higher seawalls.

Or, we face the facts and stop
adding more heat to the system.

The way I see it,

we have no choice.