Précis

King George Island, has been described as one of the strangest places on the planet. Located at the far north tip of Antarctica at the very bottom of the world, it's home to the closest thing this southernmost continent has to an international town, complete with a school, a post office and bizarrely, a Russian Orthodox church.

One of the world's largest and richest natural laboratories, Antarctica is also a place where scientists need the help of military police to go on a simple field trip.

Just try retrieving a biological sample from a three tonne snorting elephant seal.

There's a small window each year when the weather is "good" enough for research to take place and some might say what's being done is arguably the most important scientific work in the world right now.

The Antarctic Peninsula is one of the fastest warming regions on the planet, with average temperatures rising 2.8 degrees in 50 years.

The effects are dramatic, from melting glaciers to disappearing penguins.

"The animals are so vulnerable to the climate. They are like canaries in the mine and they are sending a message to the Earth."
- DR IN YOUNG ANH, South Korean station chief

Reporter Eric Campbell gains rare permission to travel around the island, visiting the Russian, Chinese, Chilean and South Korean bases.

It's one of the most visually stunning places he's filmed in, with humpback whales, towering ice caps, and vast colonies of seals and penguins.

Scientists say it's also a signpost of what the world has to do to avoid devastating climate change.

"We have essentially knocked the global climate system out of kilter. And I would say, rightly we should be scared about what's going to happen to humans." - Professor PETER CONVEY, British Antarctic Survey

But, as Campbell discovers, there's another reason why many countries are so keen to maintain their presence in Antarctica, and it's got nothing to do with their stated aims.

Aerial. Town on King George Island

Music

00:57

CAMPBELL: In the far north of Antarctica is one of the strangest places on the planet. It was once thought humans couldn’t survive here. Now there’s a town with a school and a post office. People from every

01:01

Man dives into pool

corner of the world thrive at a place that’s beyond extreme.

01:14

Men with seal

They risk their lives to study wild animals -

01:20

Dancing

and even go wild themselves.

01:24

GVs King George Island

This is a side of Antarctica you rarely see. Along with pristine wilderness, it’s gruelling expeditions in mud and snow -

01:28

Eric having dinner

and canned Spam for dinner.

01:39

It’s called King George Island where an eclectic group of residents is grappling with big questions.

01:42

Russian Orthodox priest in church

From a Russian Orthodox priest trying to save our souls…

01:51

Priest

RUSSIAN PRIEST: “A man who loves God and loves his neighbour would love his environment as well”.

01:55

Eric walks with Dr Ahn

CAMPBELL: … to scientists trying to save the world.

02:01

Seal on beach

DR AHN: “The living organisms they are so sensitive to climate change.

02:05

Dr Ahn

I would say they are like canaries in the mines to tell a warning to us”.

02:10

Map. Punta Arenas to King George Island/ Plane lands at King George Island

CAMPBELL: Every summer hundreds of scientists fly from the far south of Chile to the island’s gravel runway. It’s just a two hour flight once you’re airborne, though Antarctic weather can delay planes for days. The journey is safe enough though you land next to a transport plane that crashed on take-off.

02:19

Convey alights from plane

Peter Convey of the British Antarctic Survey is something of a greying rock star of polar science. He’s spending his 17th season on the ice.

PROF PETER CONVEY: “It’s an extremely good place for science,

02:50

Convey. Super:
Prof. PETER CONVEY
British Antarctic Survey

yes. Everyone calls it a natural laboratory, but there’s all sorts of different disciplines that are very relevant to what the world

03:03

Landscape/Animals

needs to know. It’s very good for applied research - it’s very good for climate related research - obviously anything to do with ice, anything to do with marine biology. There’s a major protein source in the Southern Ocean we’ve got to manage properly”.

CAMPBELL: After penguins and seals, scientists have become the most prominent species. This is the very tip

03:10

Eric to camera

of the Antarctic Peninsula where humans first came in 1819. Today its proximity to South America has made it the epicentre of scientific research. There are bases from no less than 14 countries dotted around the island, but it’s still a brutally hard place to live and work. These bases are actually run by the Chilean military to give scientists the brawn and muscle they need to do their jobs.

03:32

Party heads out to find elephant seals

This is how a typical day starts at the Chilean science station, Escudero.

04:00

Eric walking

CAMPBELL:  “How much further?”

CAPTAIN LUIS TORRES:  “Five kilometres.”

04:10

CAMPBELL:  We’re heading out with an archer, some biologists and a military commando in search of elephant seals.

04:17

Torres locates seals

04:23

Torres retrieving arrows

Captain Luis Torres has one of the most dangerous jobs on the island.

CAPTAIN LUIS TORRES: “Well, it’s a marvellous job”.

04:33

Biologist fires arrows

CAMPBELL: The biologists need to measure the level of toxins in the seals’ blubber. The only way to do it is to fire arrows into the herd.

CAPTAIN LUIS TORRES: “The arrow hits the animal and it takes a little fat and skin.

04:48

Torres retrieving arrows

Then we recover the arrow for the scientist to analyse in the laboratory”.

CAMPBELL: The arrows cause more annoyance than pain, but these three tonne mammals can be dangerous when grumpy.

05:02

One slip and Captain Torres could lose a leg. This time he just gets wet. It takes a certain dedication to do this work and a certainty that it’s important.

05:22

Torres

CAPTAIN LUIS TORRES: A new sample... a very good sample. Nice.

05:54

Torres and Solange

CAMPBELL:   The leader of today’s expedition and the one giving him the orders is Solange Jara Carrasco, a Chilean biologist from the University of Conception.

05:45

Solange collects samples

SOLANGE JARA: “Here we have a sample of tissue, skin and fat which is used to check for contaminants. An example of contaminants is pesticides known as ‘persistent organic pollutants’ and heavy metals”.

05:54

Penguins and sea birds, sea lions/landscape

Music

06:16

CAMPBELL: Even Antarctica is suffering from the developed world’s pollution. Airborne contaminants are working their way through the smallest fish to the largest mammals. But that’s only one consequence of global pollution. Far more serious is climate change.

PROF. PETER CONVEY: “We’re in the South Shetland Islands, that’s at the north of the Antarctic peninsula region and the Antarctic peninsula region, we know

06:20

Convey

it as maritime Antarctic, over the last 50/60 years has been one of the three fastest warming areas of the world”.

06:45

Icy landscape

CAMPBELL: Part of the reason is a simple knock-on effect. Warmer winters mean less ice, less ice causes higher temperatures.

06:52

Korean expedition

PROF. PETER CONVEY: “Now one of the main reasons that the warming’s so rapid here is... a consequence of warming here is.... that winter sea ice either doesn’t form or forms less and melts earlier, so you have the sea, you have a liquid sea, close to the coast and that has a buffering effect on temperature and that means you get that contribution to rapid warming that you get here”.

07:03

Penguins on shore

CAMPBELL: The average annual temperature on the peninsula has risen 2.8 degrees in 50 years – that’s the biggest rise in the southern hemisphere and a sign of what the future could hold.

07:21

Icy shoreline. Scientist collecting samples

PROF. PETER CONVEY: “It’s like we have a very complicated system, we’ve pushed it beyond the bounds of what it’s done naturally in the last at least several million years. We have essentially knocked the global climate system out of kilter and I would say rightly

07:35

Convey

we should be very scared about what’s going to happen to humans”.

07:50

Escudero base gathering

CAMPBELL: Climate change is now a key focus for all the science stations here. Chile’s Escudero base runs regular gatherings where scientists share their research. Peter Convey has to stay abreast of the findings. He’s a climate change adviser to the main international body SCAR – the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research.

08:03

Convey. Super:
Prof. PETER CONVEY
British Antarctic Survey

PROF. PETER CONVEY: “Even if we stop now, even if we miraculously could sort of remove all of the CO2 from the atmosphere and go back to square one, it’s not automatic that the system would return to the original state. We’ve pushed this out of stability and in many ways we don’t know where it’s going. If that’s not a serious problem, I don’t know what is”.

08:25

King George Island GVs/Map

CAMPBELL: If one place embodies the international concern, it’s King George Island. The airport, run by the Chilean Air Force is the logistical hub. Next to it is a small town for military officers and their families. Four of the stations from China, Chile, Russia and Uruguay are in walking distance of the town. The South Korean base is just across the bay.

08:39

Bellingshausen base

We’re staying at the Russian base, Bellingshausen named after the Russian explorer credited with discovering Antarctica. It’s the only place on the island with spare rooms. With so many scientists in such close proximity, there’s even something of an Antarctic social scene.

09:06

Escudero party

Every week or so the Chilean scientists at Escudero throw a party and every nationality is invited.

[at the party] “The boat’s

09:33

Eric to camera

just come in with some alcohol. It’s a big event”.

09:42

Party

Music

09:44

CAMPBELL:  The music’s Latin, but half the visitors can be Poles, Koreans – even Germans.

09:57

Marie at party

Marie Rummler is a research student from the University of Jena in Germany’s east. She’s doing a field stint at the Russian base studying penguins. She insists this is not a usual Antarctic night.

10:02

Eric with Marie and man

MARIE RUMMLER: “We have to work the next morning, when everybody else stays here. I think it’s more free to say next morning, ‘ah just sleep on’.”

CAMPBELL: “But you’re German!”

MARIE RUMMLER: “We are always working – every minute, every day”.

CAMPBELL: [clink glasses together] “Salut, Prosit!”

10:14

Group of German scientists set off for penguin colony

Next morning the Germans are up early to take us to a penguin colony.

10:35

Eric walks with Hans

Under their supervisor, Hans Ulrich-Peter, they’re studying how rising temperatures are affecting the penguin population.

HANS ULRICH-PETER: “Yes, there’s a big change in the penguin numbers, especially Adelie penguins”.

10:41

Adelie penguins

CAMPBELL: The island’s native penguins, Adelies, appear to be heading further south. That’s because it’s getting harder to find their main food source, krill, and that’s because krill feed on organisms under sea ice.

HANS ULRICH-PETER: “It means less ice in winter, it means less biotopes, less krill and less penguins”.

10:55

Gentoo penguins

CAMPBELL: But another group of penguins, Gentoos, recognisable by their coloured beaks, appears to be adapting.

HANS ULRICH-PETER: “Gentoos hate ice. It means if there if less ice, it is an advantage”.

11:16

CAMPBELL: The hard part is getting blood samples to work out exactly what the penguins are eating.

11:30

Netting penguins

This makes shooting darts into elephant seals look easy. The penguins’ bite isn’t the problem. It’s their wings. They’re pure muscle and bone and can pack a serious punch.

HANS ULRICH-PETER: “Gentoos are more strong.

CAMPBELL:  “Are you fond of penguins?”

MARIE:  “Does it look like this?”

HANS ULRICH-PETER:  “They are an interesting bird.”

11:36

Penguins

CAMPBELL: To lessen the stress on penguins, they’re looking at alternative ways to monitor the diet. One clue is penguin poo. Known as ‘guano’, it changes colour depending on what they’re eating.

12:11

Red suggests krill, all this white suggests they’re eating more fish. They’re certainly eating lots of something.

12:25

Eric and Hans

CAMPBELL: “You can really smell them, can’t you.”

HANS ULRICH-PETER: “Yeah.”

12:33

Penguins

CAMPBELL: Humans weren’t always so friendly to animals here or even to each other.

The first men who spent time

12:39

Eric to camera. Seals in b/g

in Antarctica came to this island for these and they clubbed seals to death in their thousands. After the hunters came the flag planters with Britain, Chile and Argentina each claiming sovereignty of the island and huge swathes of Antarctica.
Well, that all changed in 1959 when twelve countries signed the Antarctic Treaty. It put their territorial claims on ice and preserved the continent for peaceful scientific research. It was one of the most astonishing acts of international cooperation in modern history.

12:47

Pan over science station

Today the rivalry isn’t over who owns Antarctica, it’s who has the best science stations and it’s a constantly changing field.

13:22

Flags/Bulat and colleague

The Russian base, Bellingshausen was the pride of Soviet research when it was set up in 1968. Since the end of the Soviet Union, it’s fallen on hard times.

13:31

Bulat walks

Bulat Mavlyudov is the resident glaciologist. The station has no ice vehicle so he can walk for up to three hours across the island to measure the ice cap. The weather may look appalling, it doesn’t bother Bulat.

BULAT MAVLYUDOV: “Well living here it’s good. The weather is not really bad. Sometimes rain, sometimes sun, but our

13:43

Bulat. Super:
BULAT MAVLYUDOV
Glaciologist

meteorologists say by statistic that usually in a month, 22 days with cloud. But it’s an interesting place”.

CAMPBELL: He gets to spend time in places most people could only imagine. The rewards are greater than money which is just as well as their budget’s about to be cut again.

14:12

Bulat taking measurements

BULAT MAVLYUDOV: “Maybe in the future our country will have possibility to give more money for scientific results”.

14:36

Bulat

CAMPBELL: “But in the meantime you’re still working, still doing the job”.

BULAT MAVLYUDOV: “Yes we will try”.

14:44

Aerials. Orthodox Church

Music

14:51

CAMPBELL: While there’s little funding for science, patriotic Russians have raised money for salvation. Just above Bellingshausen is the last thing you’d expect to find in Antarctica. This Orthodox Church was built in Siberia in 2002 and transported log by log on a Russian icebreaker. There’s even a full time priest, Father Kirillov,

14:56

Father Kirillov inside church

who lives in a shed behind the church.

FATHER KIRILLOV: “They worked in Moscow to turn the idea of a church in Antarctica, into reality –

15:18

Kirillov interview

an orthodox church in Antarctica”.

15:27

CAMPBELL: “It’s like a fairy tale to see a church here in Antarctica”.

15:30

FATHER KIRILLOV: “Yes, many foreigners come here and say, ‘beautiful, very well… a truly stunning place…’. It’s wood – and in Antarctica wood can last for a long time – practically for eternity”.

15:34

Kirillov performing liturgy

15:48

CAMPBELL: The one thing lacking is a congregation. Two Russians from the base help him perform the liturgy, few of the others ever come here.

15:54

FATHER KIRILLOV: “Building a church is a quick job.

16:05

Kirillov interview

It’s educating the souls to love God and their neighbour that is a very lengthy process”.

16:10

Outside church

[liturgy]

16:16

Exterior. China’s Great Wall station

Music

16:28

CAMPBELL: China has been quick to take Russia’s place in Antarctic science. The Great Wall station is just a kilometre up the road. It boasts some of the best facilities on the island, from comfortable three storey buildings housing cutting edge laboratories, to an indoor basketball court.

16:31

Indoor basketball game

This was China’s first Antarctic base when it opened in 1985. China’s now building its fifth. It’s very much part of the international community here, the court a popular venue for friendly matches with Chilean soldiers. Ning Xu is the station chief.

16:49

Ning Xu interview

NING XU: “Absolutely. It is very much like a community. We help each other. We live peacefully and harmoniously here for the purpose of scientific research”.

17:16

Chinese signage in snow/Chinese flag/Station exteriors

CAMPBELL: But how altruistic is all this investment? China is a resource hungry nation. For now, the Antarctic Treaty bans mineral exploitation but in 2041 that moratorium is up for review. It’s a sensitive issue.

“Are you looking

17:37

Ning Xu interview

at minerals here that China might be able to get after 2041?”

NING XU: “We are not searching for minerals. We are mostly searching for animals and plants.

17:57

CAMPBELL: Ning Xu is quick to change the subject.

NING XU: “You look very handsome and you are very approachable”.

CAMPBELL: “Oh thank you”.

18:12

Ning Xu smiles/Station exteriors

Music

18:24

CAMPBELL:   There’s no doubting China’s cooperation. Whenever a container

18:38

Unloading container

comes to the Chilean bases, the Chinese bring down their heavy machinery to help unload it.

18:41

Dr Leppe at container unload with Chinese

After a month here as station chief, Marcelo Leppe is in awe at the assistance.

DR MARCELO LEPPE: “You don’t need an agreement at a high level to ask to the Chinese for the crane to move your container.

18:47

Leppe interview. Super:
Dr. MARCELO LEPPE
Chilean Antarctic Institute

This is with the Antarctic community something very special that is happening and I really believe that,

19:02

Unloading container

all feel under a different flag on this continent”.

CAMPBELL: But he also believes it would take just one country to break ranks on the mining ban for everyone to join in.

19:14

Leppe interview

DR MARCELO LEPPE: “I worry about that. It’s enough one country decide to exploit something and everybody came to exploit this resource.

19:22

Penguins

and this will be the end probably of the Antarctic Treaty”

19:32

Tourists alight from Zodiac

CAMPBELL: So far the only commercial activity that’s allowed here is tourism. Tour groups can fly down before joining cruise ships, but they can only stay a few hours or camp on the ice. There are no hotels in Antarctica.

LUIS ROSSEL: “Yeah, they are only allowed to put their feet on the land in a few places like this”.

CAMPBELL: “Yeah.

19:35

Eric with Luis Rossel

And you get to do it all the time every day.”

LUIS ROSSEL: “Yeah, I’m a lucky guy. I am a lucky guy. I’m taking photographs. It’s a dream. It’s a dream.”

19:59

Zodiac approaches cruise ship

Music

20:11

Luis taking photos

CAMPBELL: Luis Rossel is a diver and photographer for the Chilean Antarctic Institute, INACH.

LUIS ROSSEL: “This all wild

20:17

Eric with Luis Rossel. Super:
LUIS ROSSEL
Diver/photographer, INACH

and we mainly want to see some big mammals swimming between us, or big whales.”

20:25

View from Zodiac/Eric and Luis

CAMPBELL: He takes us out into the bay, where the wind chill can drop the temperature from zero to minus ten. But we’re soon rewarded.

20:34

Whale in bay/Seals

[spots a whale] “Oh my God”.

20:45

Glaciers

But further out, we see for ourselves the effect of rising temperatures on glaciers. When people first

21:07

Eric in Zodiac to camera

started coming to Antarctica this spot was encased in solid ice. But over the past 60 years, the glacier has receded by more than a kilometre and that’s the reality of global warming here,

21:16

Glaciers

you can actually see it happening.

PROF PETER CONVEY: “Glaciers are thinning and retreating very rapidly here. That is a direct consequence of regional warming.

2128

Convey interview. Super:
Prof. PETER CONVEY
British Antarctic Survey

The recent few decades of warming are very exceptional compared to any natural variations over a multi-thousand year time scale at least, if not a multi hundred thousand year time scale”.

21:37

Glaciers

CAMPBELL: The British Antarctic Survey says 87% of the peninsula’s glaciers have been retreating. But that’s minor compared to West Antarctica where an ice sheet stretching thousands of kilometres is showing signs of disintegrating. The exact cause is unclear but the effect on sea levels could be catastrophic.

PROF PETER CONVEY: “If you look at glaciers in the entire region, the direct consequences of

21:50

Convey

sea level rise for instance, are likely to affect around a billion people, because they live within a small number of metres of sea level. And that’s actually going to work in rich western countries as well as poor countries that we have this nasty habit of ignoring or prioritising more lowly. How many big European cities or American cities are on the coast?”

22:15

Frayed rope

CAMPBELL: But for now our problem is more immediate – it’s the weather. We stop off at the South Korean base

22:37

South Korean base/ Eric walks with Dr Ahn

expecting to hitch a ride back later. Within minutes the wind picks up and it becomes too dangerous to cross. The station manager, Dr In-Young Ahn invites us to camp on the couches until the weather clears. She’s used to being caught here by the elements.

DR IN-YOUNG AHN: “Well in some sense I would say

22:45

Dr Ahn interview. Super:
Dr IN-YOUNG AHN
Station Chief

it is like a gaol [laughs].”

CAMPBELL: “Because you’re trapped by the weather?”

DR IN-YOUNG AHN: “Yeah.”

CAMPBELL: “So people can spend days stuck here, unable to go anywhere else on the island.”

DR IN-YOUNG AHN: “Yeah of course it depends on how you think that this place is. It depends on your mind. You could be happy or you could be very depressed, yeah.”

23:07

Dr Ahn at computer

CAMPBELL: Dr Ahn was something of an Antarctic pioneer.

23:36

Female scientists working

DR IN-YOUNG AHN: “Now you see many female scientists at this station. I would say about one third are female, but back in the early ‘90s, I was the only female for the first five to six

23:42

Dr Ahn interview

years. I was surrounded by twenty, sometimes forty male scientists”.

CAMPBELL: “Is it unusual for a woman to be running a base here?”

23:59

DR IN-YOUNG AHN: “Definitely unusual I guess. Even in the whole world I guess, yeah. I was the first Korean woman who came to Antarctica and also the first female station leader in Asia, so I’d say it is quite unusual”.

24:11

Playing pool in King Sejong

Music

24:34

CAMPBELL: The station called King Sejong is now perhaps the most comfortable on the island. Dr Ahn puts great stock on the welfare of her isolated staff. Along with heated toilet seats, there’s an indoor

24:37

Eric on gold range/hydroponic garden

golf range. There’s even a hydroponic garden for fresh vegetables.

24:50

Dining hall

The dining hall would get four stars.

“Best food in Antarctica.”

Even so, it does start to feel a bit like gaol.

24:56

Eric by window to camera

Well we came here for an afternoon and we’ve now been stuck here for three days by the weather in the clothes we came in. We need to get back across the bay to the Russian base Bellingshausen. You can’t even see it from here. The forecast is just terrible. So you start to go a bit stir crazy.

25:09

GVs Landscape

Music

25:30

Russian dining hall

Eventually we make it back to the Russian base and its canned Spam and porridge. There are none of the comforts of the Korean or Chinese bases here, but there is one special luxury.

25:37

Eric in sauna. Being slapped with birch branch

Every Saturday the Russians power up the diesel generator to heat a small sauna called a banya. It’s not compulsory to use it and you don’t have to get the traditional beating with a birch branch.

25:51

[slapping with birch branch] “It stimulates the blood flow apparently”.

But they think you were mad if you didn’t.

26:15

Out of sauna, into pool

After the banya there’s an ice cold plunge pool to cool down.

[jumps into icy pool] “Oh bloody hell… ahhhh”.

26:19

GVs landscape

26:33

After ten days in Antarctica, it was time to go home but the fog rolled in again and it was three days

26:46

On to plane

more before our plane could reach the island.

26:53

View from plane

It’s a place that only the most dedicated scientists would want to call home, but in a time of global warming, with a looming threat of mining, all of them hope it can be preserved.

26:57

Wildlife

DR IN-YOUNG AHN: “I think it’s our very sacred duty as a scientist to keep this environment moratorium forever”.

27:11

Music

27:23

Credits

Reporter: Eric Campbell

Camera: David Martin

Editor Scott Monro, Brietta Hague

Producer: Brietta Hague

Executive Producer: Marianne Leitch

© 2015

www.abc.net.au/foreign

27:44