Chapter 10 of 10 · 2'26"
The poles look like a world apart, but the arrivals tell a different story. People reach places expecting expanses of sea ice and find none, and boats now reach islands once permanently locked in the ice. Under the travel log is a harder claim: "Our planet is losing its ice," and that distant ecosystem "is headed for disaster."
❝ Monologue · 17 lines Expecting Sea Ice and Finding None
The Planet Losing Its Ice
The polar regions were beyond imagination. The speaker has watched Arctic summers warm: arrivals expecting sea ice found none, and boats now reach islands once locked in ice. The ocean can no longer absorb the excess heat from human activity. The planet is one degree warmer than when the speaker was born, summer sea ice is down 40 percent in 40 years, and the ecosystem is headed for disaster.
Remote habitats and scenery unlike anything else give way to a blunt turn: "But that distant world is changing." In one lifetime, Arctic summers have warmed. The visits that expected ice end in a flat report: "We have arrived at locations expecting to find expanses of sea ice and found none." Islands once "permanently locked in the ice" can now be reached by boat. By 2011, when Frozen Planet aired, the reasons were already well established. The ocean has long since been unable to absorb the excess heat from human activity. The world is one degree Celsius warmer than when the speaker was born, faster than any change in 10,000 years. Summer sea ice is down 40 percent in 40 years. "Our planet is losing its ice." The last line does not say the disaster is finished. This pristine ecosystem "is headed for disaster."
A1–C2 is the CEFR scale. Cards above the level you pick fade, and playback will not auto-pause on them.
“We have arrived at locations expecting to find expanses of sea ice and found none.”
It lets you travel with the expectation of ice, then cancels that ice in two words.
Formal
“We've managed to travel by boat to islands that were impossible to get to historically because they were permanently locked in the ice.”
Managed to admits the voyage once could not be done, and the because-clause names the ice that once forbade it.
Formal
“The ocean has long since become unable to absorb all the excess heat caused by our activities.”
Long since refuses the comfort that the ocean only recently ran out of room for the heat.
Formal
“As a result, the average global temperature today is one degree Celsius warmer than it was when I was born.”
One degree stops sounding small once it is set against the span of a single life.
Formal
“Our planet is losing its ice.”
The present continuous makes the loss current, and its ice makes that ice the planet's own.
Neutral
“This most pristine and distant of ecosystems is headed for disaster.”
The cleanest and farthest system is not described as already ruined, only as aimed at ruin.
Formal
The most remote habitat of all exists at the extreme north and south of the planet. I've visited the polar regions over many decades. They've always been a place beyond imagination... with scenery unlike anything else on earth... and unique species adapted to a life in the extreme. But that distant world is changing. In my time, I've experienced the warming of Arctic summers. We have arrived at locations expecting to find expanses of sea ice and found none. We've managed to travel by boat to islands that were impossible to get to historically because they were permanently locked in the ice. By the time Frozen Planet aired in 2011, the reasons for these changes was well established. The ocean has long since become unable to absorb all the excess heat caused by our activities. As a result, the average global temperature today is one degree Celsius warmer than it was when I was born. A speed of change that exceeds any in the last 10,000 years. Summer sea ice in the Arctic has reduced by 40% in 40 years. Our planet is losing its ice. This most pristine and distant of ecosystems is headed for disaster.
David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet: your progress
That's all 10 chapters of this film
← PreviousThose islands were permanently locked in the ice, which is why they were impossible to get to historically. The narration says boats have managed to reach them now.
One degree Celsius. The narration links that rise to the ocean no longer absorbing all the excess heat from human activity, and says the speed exceeds any change in the last 10,000 years.
The most pristine and distant of ecosystems — the polar world just described. The line says it is headed for disaster, not that the disaster has already fully arrived.
To place the changes in time: by the time that series aired, the reasons for them were already well established.
