All language subtitles for The.Polar.Sea.S01E01.720p.WEB.x264-CRiMSON Eng

GORDON PINSENT: This is not
another tidy story.

This is a journey into a
world of contradictions.

We're going to a place
far from you

that touches you every day

making your weather crazy...

(INDISTINCT RADIO CHATTER)

...raising the level of oceans

and offering us
more oil to burn.

You may know the Arctic
from Native legends

or sailor's stories,

but today's truth is
stranger than myth.

Across the polar sea today,

all certainty is melting

beneath the feet
of ancient beasts,

and a remote culture
finds itself,

suddenly striding
a global stage.

Viewed through many eyes
and revolutionary cameras,

this is a journey into a world
you have never seen before,

because, until now,

it did not exist.

(DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING)

PINSENT: Our journey begins
in the port of Vikings.

Our voyager is
an unassuming man,

in an ordinary grocery store.

He planned to stay home
this summer,

but that is not his fate.

His name is Richard Tegner.

He's 62, an architect
from Stockholm, Sweden.

Mix the eggs, water,
oil and cake mix...

(SPEAKING SWEDISH)

RICHARD TEGNER: I wouldn't
consider myself adventurous.

I live a steady life.

I have my employment
and my family.

(INDISTINCT CHATTERING)

I met Kerstin 15 years ago.

Before that
I didn't have any kids

so I got my first child
at the age of 49

and the next one
was a few years later.

PINSENT: Richard's family
is in Iceland to see him off

on an unexpected journey
with his childhood friend,
Martin Sigge.

TEGNER: One day,

my old friend Martin
asked me,

"Do you want
to come along with me

"to do
the Northwest Passage?"

"Uh, wow.

"Uh, no, no, no,
no, no, that's...

"That's far out
for me. No...

"No, not really."

(SINGING IN SWEDISH)

(LAUGHING)

(ALL TOASTING)

PINSENT: Martin had already
recruited an old army buddy,

now a businessman,
named Bengt Norvik.

(SPEAKING SWEDISH)

(SPEAKING SWEDISH)

He said, "Think of it

"because it's a one
in a lifetime opportunity.
And you...

"If you don't do it,
I suppose you might regret it

"and if you do it you will
have a wonderful experience."

So I talked to Kerstin,
and I talked to colleagues

and I sort of
slept on the question

and after a few weeks
I got back
to Martin and I say,

"Okay, I will join you."

I would like to say something
about my old friend Martin.

You get this opportunity
once in a lifetime
to do a trip like this

and thank you very
much, dear friend.

Well, thank you, Richard,
for your kind words.

TEGNER:
I think it's important

to say this because
we haven't really...

I haven't really
expressed it.
But I think...

MARTIN SIGGE:
A man's got to do what
a man's got to do.

The crew's got to do,
what the crew's got to do.

SIGGE: I couldn't ask
for any better crew

than Richard and Bengt.

My best...

A few of my
absolute best friends.

You should know
that there is a line of people

back in Sweden and
internationally that all say

"Well if anyone of you

"need to get off,
you know,

"I'm prepared to
join instead."

Despite the title
on your advertisement...

SIGGE:
Man wanted for...
Yes.

SIGGE: Uh...

What did you say?

"Man wanted for a
hazardous journey...

"Bitter cold...

"Bitter cold," and, uh...

"Fame" and
something as a reward

if successful coming back.

(ALL LAUGHING)
MAN: Yes.

PINSENT: Richard's daughters
are not so amused

to think of him in danger.

(INDISTINCT CHATTERING)

TEGNER: I think they
are a bit worried.

Inez said when
she came onboard the boat,

"It's a small boat..."

SIGGE:
The boat's name is Dax,

which is a play on words
in Swedish.

It means, it's time now.

My father bought this boat

new in 1976.

It's a 31-foot, ocean-going
sailing boat

and it's considered to be
one of the few boats

that can go
around the world without
any special reinforcements.

It's already been designed
for that from scratch.

PINSENT: Martin has been
sailing his whole life.

His preparations
for the Northwest Passage

have taken him 18 months.

SIGGE: It's not
a specific climate change

or Arctic interest
that I have.

It's the challenge.

If you take 100 people,
I'm probably among
the biggest risk takers.

PINSENT:
He plans to sail Dax

from Iceland to Greenland,

between the
high Arctic islands

and around Alaska
to the Pacific.

The route is
nearly 10,000 kilometers long.

It's a journey

that has only been made
by a rare few sailors

in the whole
of maritime history.

The great British Navy
first started probing the ice

for a passage to Asia
way back in the 1500s.

Britain spent 350 years

and the lives
of countless men,

only to fail.

The Northwest Passage

was not sailed
for the first time until 1903.

As recently as 1969,

the summer ice
was still so thick

as to block even
the mightiest ships.

Now, each summer's
midnight sun

melts more and more ice,

turning the Northwest Passage
into a new Everest

open even to amateurs.

(SEAGULLS SQUAWKING)

Garbage...

SIGGE: I'm trying not
to underestimate anything.

I think we
are well prepared.

We might even end up
over-prepared.

I think we've
thought of everything.

It's going to be interesting
to see what we didn't think of

because that's
probably something.

Bengt is an
extremely competent person

who has
the right kind of thinking

on how to manage critical
situations of all kinds.

BENGT NORVIK:
I'd like to say this was
the kind of opportunity

that I couldn't turn down.

To sail far away
in foreign waters,

it's exciting.

TEGNER: I'm the
least experienced sailor
of us three.

I have taken the role
of managing the food.

Chickpeas.

Tomatoes

to make tomato sauce

and we can make
chickpeas in tomato sauce.

Lemonade.

Full grain pasta.

It's, uh...

It's not very good.

Bengt and Martin, they are
more experienced in sailing.

I feel safe with their
knowledge on the boat

and I will learn more
during this trip also.

I have had
a kind of depression
for quite some time.

There was sort of
something missing.

(MAN SPEAKING SWEDISH)

TEGNER:
A couple of times during your
lifetime you ask yourself,

"What am I doing here on
this planet? And why?"

Your senses,
they talk to you.

They want to tell you,
do something about your life

and, uh,

here, opportunity
knocked on my door.

SIGGE: I often think
of what it's going to be like

to look back on your life.

(BOAT ENGINE STARTING)

If you ask people
what they regret,

a lot of that is
what they didn't do.

SIGGE: Okay...

(INDISTINCT AND
INAUDIBLE TALKING)

(INDISTINCT)

(SPEAKING SWEDISH)

(INDISTINCT CHATTERING)

TEGNER: Someone asked me
if I had a death wish

since they heard of this trip.

But I said, "No, it's
the opposite. It's the...

"It's the wish for life.

"For more intensity in life."

# Ah, for just one time

# I would take
the Northwest Passage

# To find the hand of Franklin

# Reaching for
the Beaufort Sea

# Tracing one warm line

# Through a land
so wild and savage

# And make a Northwest Passage
to the sea #

PINSENT: In addition to
his duties as cook,

Richard will
keep the ship's diary

and chronicle
the voyage of Dax.

(KETTLE WHISTLING)

SIGGE: The first day
was smooth.

The engine runs
as a little sewing machine.

And consumes
no oil at all and, uh,

hardly any fuel either.

(RICHARD TALKING)

Well, I would never dream
of mentioning that,

but you did it yourself.

(LAUGHS)

So now, I'm expecting a
good breakfast from the chef.

(RICHARD TALKING)
Okey-dokey!

Been running the engine
for 65 hours

and it's time to fill
one liter of engine oil.

Remember, this engine
is 37 years old.

SIGGE: While the
cylinder head covers

take care
of loosening the gasket.

It's a calm day.
There's no wind.

We are in the middle of
the North Atlantic Ocean,
I suppose.

I never thought that the
Atlantic could be this calm.

PINSENT:
Crossing the Polar Sea,

the sailors will encounter
travelers of all kinds,

but for now
their only companion

is a nearby Norwegian yacht
named Impulse.

(CLEARS THROAT)

(SPEAKING SWEDISH)

(SPEAKING NORWEGIAN)

SIGGE: Okay.

(TEGNER LAUGHS)

TEGNER: Martin is
fixing up his appearance.

The Tintin look.

TEGNER: The Tintin look.

(MAN TALKING INDISTINCTLY)

(MAN SPEAKING SWEDISH)

TEGNER: None of us
have seen any whales before

in the wildlife

so we were really

overwhelmed by this visit.

We saw them in
the distance first

and then they
seemed to be curious

and they came up
to the boat.

Family by family,

they came up with their kids

and swam with us for a while
and, uh, left us.

PINSENT:
South of Greenland,

the cold Arctic winds meet
the warm Atlantic waters

and brew up a storm.

(THUNDER RUMBLING)

(THUNDER CRACKING)

TEGNER: I was a
bit afraid and I thought,

"Well, is this...

"Is this the way
it's going to end?"

(WIND BLOWING)

(THUNDER CRACKING)

TEGNER: Martin,
he was not afraid.

He was more excited!

He returned to the cockpit,

"I... I...

"I'm almost high on this!"

I...
I saw icebergs.

(INDISTINCT TALKING)

TEGNER: We had read
that there used to be

a belt of ice
outside Ilulissat

and that you shouldn't be

scared by the look of it
because it's

not usually that compact

as it looks from a distance

but it was quite compact

so we had to spend
some time getting through it.

I liked that.

It's more of an
experience I think.

(SEAGULLS SQUAWKING)

PINSENT: To make port,
they must sail a maze of ice

sheered off
Greenland's glacier.

The weight of the glacier
pushes ice

out through fjords to the sea.

Icebergs were
always born this way.

But the glacier has never
shed so many, so fast.

It's one of many changes,
strange and sudden,

drawing legions of scientists
to the North.

(HELICOPTER BLADES WHIRRING)

PINSENT: This is Abbas Khan,
an expert in geodynamics.

He works for Denmark,

a coastal country
that is worried

about huge flows
of ice into the sea.

In the last decade,
the amount of ice

breaking off
Greenland's glacier
has doubled.

Scientists already know

that this is
global warming in action.

Dr. Khan wants
to understand

the particular mechanisms
at work,

their speed
and their consequences.

(DR. KHAN SPEAKING)

(CLATTERING)

PINSENT:
Every bit of ice

raises the level
of the global ocean a little.

So, bit by bit,

the danger grows for
all coastal communities,

tiny Arctic villages

and great cities alike.

(DR. KHAN SPEAKING)

(DRILL WHIRRING)

PINSENT:
Dr. Khan's work would astonish

the early 20th century's
Arctic scientists.

It was only 80 years ago

that they first determined
the enormity of this ice.

The pioneering German
scientist Alfred Wegener

led the way
with four glacier expeditions,

the last in 1930.

Wegener's team

used a new method
of bouncing seismic charges
through the ice

to learn that
it was an incredible

two and a half
kilometers thick.

Wegener died
on that expedition,

days after
this footage was taken.

But Arctic scientists are
still building on his legacy.

He was the first to suggest

that land can move
and continents drift.

The idea was ridiculed,
but proven true

when the invention of GPS

provided
accurate measurements.

Dr. Wegener's work
is being extended by Dr. Khan,

who tracks how much
Greenland's melting glacier

is unleashing
the continent beneath.

As the weight
of the ice shrinks,

the bedrock below is rising,

the land expanding upward

like an uncompressed sponge.

Dr. Khan calculates

that if all
of Greenland's ice melts,

the island will rise up

by another kilometer
above the sea.

(DR. KHAN SPEAKING)

PINSENT: What the melting ice
means today

is a rush of scientists
and explorers

to the villages
on Greenland's coast.

TEGNER:
Entering this harbor,

it made the
same messy impression

as the... The...

All the ice outside

because we couldn't see
any order

or any place to go,

it was just like jammed
with boats, everywhere,

so we stole a place.

South of Greenland
was really jumpy

and lot of wind and we...

We broke our fore-sail
and the motor

was not perfect

so we had to
change a few things.

PINSENT:
The sailors are in a region

unlike any other
in the Arctic.

Europeans and Inuit

have mixed here
for 1,000 years.

They have created
a unique cultural fusion,

seen most easily
in their food.

INUNNGUAQ:
I have lived here for six,
seven, eight years,

and, yeah, you can feel that

every year,
it's expanding
with the tourists.

It's coming more
and more and more

so that's good
for the tourism.

Especially because of the...

The global heating,
they're calling it.

TEGNER: I am not fat
from the beginning

but I have lost four kilos.

(LAUGHS)

I haven't weighed myself
but I'm...

My pants keep sliding down
all the time.

So we need a lot of
fat in the food I think!

So the first
dish here...

(CREW SPEAKING SWEDISH)

Oh, I have to!

I normally
never do it...

I despise those
who must

put pictures of what
they eat on Facebook

but this is
something special.

INUNNGUAQ:
This is a

traditional dish that
we have been

making in a new way.

This... Seal soup.

And, uh...

In Greenland
we call it suaasat.

And you, uh, make, like,
a pot with seal meat.

Usually the tourists

and people from all
the places in the world,

when they taste the suassat,
they always like,

"Now I try it."

But they never try it again.

Because...
(CREW LAUGHING)

(SPEAKING SWEDISH)

SIGGE: This is
very intimate food.

Tasty and different.

(SPEAKING SWEDISH)

SIGGE: Hmm?

This dish is muskox,

some peas, angelica.

Ooh!

(SPEAKING SWEDISH)

Mmm. Hmm!

Wow! Where is he?

It's so good!

It's the food that

makes you want to be
a better man.

It's the main city
of halibut here so...

In the summer
there are, like, 200...

Two hundred fifty
boats coming here so...

Because there is
so many halibut here,

so they are like "Wow,
let's get those fish".

So...

PINSENT: The crowd in
Illullisat's bustling harbor

is also filled out with many
groups of scientists,

which is lucky
for the Dax crew.

Their communication gear
was damaged on the voyage,

but here, they have
met people who can fix it.

GILBERT KLEIN: We do have a
little problem with
the internet connection

for the radio phone

and so
I am trying to fix it.

Gilbert is here
to make

investigations
about the gravity.

In fact we're trying to see
how Greenland,

the rock of Greenland,
is upcoming,

due to the disappear
of the ice.

So the mass of Greenland...

The mass
of the ice disappear,

and so the rock comes up
and we are measuring that.

And what about
the coast area?

The coast...

Yeah, the coast area
is coming up.
It's going down?

Uh, yes.

Well, it's a little bit
more complicated.

You have movements,
different movements.

Movements from the past
and movements from today.

But the main thing,
what you see today,

is that it's coming up.

PINSENT:
Part of the reason scientists

are now rushing to Greenland

is the expectation

that its newly exposed lands

are wealthy in minerals.

OLIVIER: This is, um,

what we call an

Absolute Gravity Meter.
Yeah.

So we will measure
the acceleration

due to the earth.

So basically it is different
from place to place.

It depends
on the altitude.

The further you
are away from the earth,

smaller is the attraction.

And so basically
you can use this instrument

to measure
the crust's motion.

The reason we have
that here is because
the ice is melting...

Mmm-hmm.
...and if the ice is melting,
the crust will go up.

And so basically
we would time the position

and we would know
the exact position

because we have a laser
that would tell you...

All the way?
All the way where you are.

(BEEPS)
KLEIN: Yeah. And what is the

main change?

OLIVER FRANCIS:
The main change
is we started

to detect a huge signal
since 2002.

When I speak about
a huge signal,

it's one centimeter
per year

of uplifts.

(OLIVIER SPEAKING FRENCH)

(DR. KHAN SPEAKING)

(OLIVIER SPEAKING FRENCH)

PINSENT: In fact,
Greenlanders are divided

between those
who want heavy industry

and those who fear it.

Nive Nielsen

is a prominent Inuk singer

who is urging Greenlanders

to question
industrial development.

NIVE NIELSEN:
I want people to think about

what could be the consequences

once you start
digging for oil and...

And mining in Greenland.

We are an indigenous people

who's been living on
and very close to the land
for so long.

It's just such a
big part of our culture

to be in this nature

and we are so proud
of this nature

and the cleanness of it

and it's so integrated,
a part of us,

it seems
contradictory to me.

We go fishing every summer,

um, since I was a kid so...

I'm not an expert at fishing

because you don't need to be
very good to fish here.

(LAUGHS)

I never understood why

people said that
it was boring to fish

but that's before I knew that

people didn't catch
much fish in other places.

Here it usually doesn't
take very long...

(SPEAKING NATIVE LANGUAGE)

I caught two!

(BOTH SPEAKING
NATIVE LANGUAGE)

We'll put away
the little ones.

(BOTH SPEAKING
NATIVE LANGUAGE)

(SPEAKING NATIVE LANGUAGE)

(WOMAN SPEAKING
NATIVE LANGUAGE)

(TUNING THE GUITAR)

NIELSEN: I decided
to write a song

'cause I wanted
people in Greenland

to have a discussion
and a debate

about the future prospects

of digging oil and mining

with uranium
as a by-product

or just mining in general.

(GUITAR PLAYING)

(SINGING IN NATIVE LANGUAGE)

NIELSEN: Our main industry,
or economy in Greenland

is based on fishing

and that
would be contaminated

and that's the livelihood
of a lot of people.

That is actually an economy

that is based
on something that reproduces.

If you are careful with it,
can be continual.

But oil,
it will run out at some point.

We are accustomed to
having a clean nature

and I think people
have a hard time imagining

what it would...

What it's actually like
once you've ruined nature,

but it's hard to come back.

The people here should

decide what kind of country
we want to be

and what kind of people
we want to be.

(CONTINUES SINGING
IN NATIVE LANGUAGE)

PINSENT: Nive's plea
echoes across the Arctic,

as people realize
that change is now inevitable

and nothing is any longer
quite what it seems.

TEGNER:
It was on my wishing list

to come here,
to this place

since I heard about it.

Now I understand
why people talk about it.

It's amazing.

It's really something.