OFF Florian Tolle et séquence: « I am a trained geographer and I’m a glacier specialist, here in Svalbard, on the island of Spitzberg, which is the biggest isle of the archipelago.

 

The polar glacier we have been studying is followed by french searchers since the 1960s, not necessarily all the time but it does give us a strong authority, as there is more than 50 years of data today, which is quite a unique thing”

 

-We’re really in the last bends of the Bédière. The ridges are nice here!

-Here, we’re at the end of the glacier and next year, it won’t be there anymore, as it will have melted. We’re in a spot that looses 2,50m to 3 metres each time.

 

Today, the Artic is nearly the guard of climate change, it’s the place where the current changes are of the biggest scope.”

 

 

Commentaire :

 

Spitzberg is a very singular and beautiful island. Lost in the Artic waters, 600 kilometres from the first costal line, half-way between Greenland and Norway, its related country. 

 

Only four human communities are settled here. Ny-Alesund is one of them. This unique village, with a restricted access, is an advanced base for the worldwide scientist.

 

Chinese, Korean, Indians, Italians, Norwegians, around fifteen nationalities, share their means and their knowledge to study the impact of global warming on this fragile territory, which already attracts commercial hunger…

 

…

That morning, under Amundsen’s stance, one of the polar exploration pioneers, who disappeared here in 1928, a group of German scientists seize their spring quarters.

 

IN Piotr qui discute avec une nouvelle arrivante : « I’m going to take your luggage and we’ll take them to the blue house »

 

 

This meteorologist and her three atmosphere specialists will spend several weeks on this piece of land, away from the rest of the world. They are part of Awipev, the Franco-German polar institute.

 

Both countries benefit from a common research base. Their researchers cohabit in this blue house. Each new mission starts with a briefing.

 

In Piotr qui briefe les nouveaux scientifiques :« Welcome to everybody, my name is Piotr. I work with Rudy, as the station manager. I’ve been here since April last year.

 

Piotr Kupieszewski is 32. This Franco-Polish researcher and his team watch over the scientists and make sure their work conditions are optimal.

 

ITV Piotr : « There is a lot of logistics to provide for the scientists. We are a building, a workshop for our logistician. There is quite a lot of engine fixing. And we also have containers from the continent with equipment for the scientists, for the logistics, to maintain the equipment. And also, mountain equipment.”

 

Making sure of the residents security is one of Piotr priority.

 

In Piotr qui briefe les nouveaux scientifiques : « We have a radio duty, you can always find us on the radio, on the channel P1. I will show you where to find our talkie-walkie and I will show you how to make them work. And also weapons, you must have a weapon license. You must pass a shooting module to carry a gun. Because you’re not allowed to leave the village without a weapon. » 

 

In Vegard Sand qui briefe les participants au cours de tir : « This video is from 2012. As you can see, there is a polar bear in the middle of the village. He comes and smells around the side of the blue house. It’s around 4 in the morning.

 

It’s a Chinese scientist from the Yellow river base who took these images. Generally, polar bears are only curious when they come close to us. But they are unpredictable and can change mood very quickly.

 

They introduce themselves in the cabins and eat whatever they can, including cans of food. Because they have learned that there is food in cans.

 

A polar bear can run very fast on a short distance. Usain Bolt runs 44km per hour I think… but you and I, with our mountain equipment, we aren’t as fast, so keep your distance.”

 

In Vegard Sand : « Fire! »

 

Like for the German team, the new comers must follow the shooting module. First with an alarm weapon and then real bullets.

 

In Vegard Sand : « You feel confortable? »

 

The human response to a possible polar bear attack, protected specie, is very supervised. Shooting is only allowed in last resort.

 

In Vegard Sand : « When you’re ready, 4 shots to the target… Shoot !!! »

In Vegard Sand : « It’s a good grouped fire ! You got it right 3 times, it’s quite good. You’ll be able to protect yourself if there’s a bear.”

 

Florian Tolle, from Franche-Comté, is used to the obligations of these inhospitable places. Passionate of mountaineering since his childhood, being an expert of glaciers was very early on an evidence for him.

 

With Jean-Michel Friedt, an engineer teacher-researcher, he comes here twice a year since fifteen years.

 

The best part of his work takes place of the slopes of the glacier where they measure the consequences of human impact on the polar environment.

 

In Florian Tolle: « Here, we’re right on the top of the glacier, so in winter it’s full of snow, it’s theoretically the zone where new snow appears. It’s the breeding-tank for the summer period, to protect the glacier and feed it.

 

We must reach the old ice, which is beneath the snow coat to drill a beacon again, which we’ll use to measure more or less the state of health of the glacier. We will drill it will steam. We do call it a pressure cooker, we’re going to put the water under pressure for the steam. We’re going to start gently. 

 

- Awesome, no?

 

- We’re alright, no?

 

We are going to drill 6 meters deep, and we’ll be ready to measure for years to come. Knowing that here, for the past 10 years, we’ve lost 50 centimetres to 1 meter of ice per year. We insert the beacon in the whole, it’s as simple as that. Praying for it not to block on the way, it’s easier.

 

There, it’s drilled for 7 or 8 years we hope, it depends on what will happen.

 

-Touch down, perfect. We’re good!

 

That will be one of our points of measure, there are 30 of them like that all over the glacier. They will allow us, on the one side to have a full check-up of the glacier and on the other side, to map it out, see how it goes.

 

-Okay, work properly, see you next year... »

 

For each mission, Florian and Jean-Michel live in Corbel, a French base created in 1956, cut from the rest of the researchers community. A perfect place to study the glacier.

 

In Florian Tolle: « Here, it’s a peculiar life. The life conditions can be a little austere for people that aren’t use to it.

 

-In JM : « I think I’ve got an image »

 

-In Florian Tolle : « You’ve got an image? Show me! »

 

In Florian Tolle: « And so, we’re in smaller team. Here, it’s 2, 3, 4 researchers maximum. »

 

-IN JM : « I’ve finally got a visual! »

 

In Florian Tolle : « The teams are very united, beyond the working bond, I think they are friends, nearly like family. For example, at the moment, there is my Austrian colleague Alexandre Prokop, who is specialised in field listing with a laser device, in order to do topography. And there’s Chinese colleagues, who work on similar issues, on the same glacier as us. We ended up by collaborating, so it strengthens our work and our interactions are strong. 

 

-During the mission, some will do more cooing, others will do the washing-up. We try to be complementary.

 

-I’m going to try cooking some beef, Corbel style. It’s just beef with some sauce, steamed.

 

-There are generations of researchers that have succeeded one another, so there’s a heritage side to it. When I come here, I know Corbel has come before, I know that my thesis supervisor renovated this at the end of the 70s, it gives a historical depth and an emotional aspect to these places. 

 

-And the status quo of the base, when we’re in Corbel, makes it that we’re under the Paris Agreement; it’s a little bit of France in a way. Inside the base, it’s like if we were in an embassy, so it’s French territory.

 

-In the village, we have the impression of a human community. Here, it’s an upside down zoo, I feel like I’m in a cage, there’s so much nature around, it’s so wild. I find that great, we’re eating and there can be a polar fox that comes by our window. There’s always some light acting on the sides of the mountains, the fjord and the glaciers. It’s very particular.

 

In Florian Tolle : « Diner is ready ! Come over Jean-Mi »

 

Between March and October, Ny-Alesund, the village, hosts up to 160 researchers. It’s managed by the Kingsbay, a Norwegian State company. Living and working here requires a couple of rules.

 

In this canteen, there’s a unique dish and radical timetables. 

 

IN Piotr : « All our meals are taken together, breakfast, lunch and dinner, we eat together in the canteen, which helps a lot to live together. It’s very interesting to meet the scientists who work on various interesting topics. 

 

We’re all here to ease the scientists’ work, to help them in their research and to participate in our long-term observation programs. It’s an important base for our own meteorological measures for example.”

 

IN Piotr : « I’m preparing a measuring radio to launch our meteorological measure balloon. We do that once a day. The balloon will go up to around 30 kilometres of altitude, so it can take maybe one hour and a half. We receive information every second. We can see the pressure, the temperatures and the air humidity.

 

I fix the measuring radio to the balloon full of helium. We’ve been doing that everyday since 1992, it’s been more than 25 years, we have a good dataset, yes good data.

 

Once the measures are done, we send them to the meteorological institute and it’s used for weather forecasting and also from climate research and environmental change.”

 

 

This cloud of data has delivered its first conclusions. In Ny-Alesund, the average temperatures has raised by 1.7°C, twice as much as the rest of the globe…

 

Spring has arrived one month early. Rain has melted parts of the snow, revealing here and there, the sleeping tundra of the long winter months.

 

Some rails appear, linking this ancient locomotive to the remains of a passed era.

 

Ny-Alesund was once a mining station, one of the first charcoal extraction sites in Spitzberg.

 

Closed since 1963, after two lethal explosions, the mine made way to the current scientific base.

 

However in Spitzberg, the charcoal mines haven’t all disappeared.

 

Longyearbyen, the archipelago capital, is a 20 minutes flight.

 

Created in 1906, to exploit the charcoal, the town now includes 2200 inhabitants and two mines, one in dormancy, the other in activity.

 

In Arild Olsen: « Life in Longyearbyen is ruled by the mining company. It was our heritage.”

 

Inside the mine, Arild Olsen, knows it well. After 11 years spent underground, worn out by the extent of the labour, he has become the spokesperson of the mining trade union, and then mayor of Longyearbyen.

 

In Arild Olsen: « The coal-fire power station was built in 1982. At the point in time, I think it was a good solution because most of the grounds were still very frozen. It was very difficult to supply energy. It was a very efficient method to provide power. At that time, we weren’t concerned by climate change.

 

It’s quite schizophrenic to be fed by charcoal here. We know that climate change happens quicker on the poles. We have seen change here, in recent years. Everything has speeded up for the last 5 years. Sometimes it’s -15°, and the next day, it’s 5°, it’s vary changing. We have an issue with mudslides and floods. Avalanches are problematic too. We didn’t have these problems before. We are waiting to replace our power plant and I hope it will be a renewable energy spring. 

 

In Per Nilsen: « I completely understand that charcoal isn’t the best source of energy on the long term, but the Norwegian State, which is the owner, has decided the stop Svea’s mine.”

 

Per Nilssen arrived in Spitzberg 30 years ago and he has climbed the ladder to become one of the supervisors of Mine 7. The last in activity of the archipelago.

 

In Per Nilsen: «I think it’s a petty. Numbers of minors have left these 2 or 3 past years. I don’t think they will struggle to find work, but they will have to leave Longyearbuen with they family and join the continent. It brakes the community. »

 

In Arild Olsen: «In some way, I find it sad, because we have something quite unique here in Longyearbyen. We have a large diversity of activity and it’s Longyearbyen’s strength. If we get rid of the scientists, society impoverishes. If we get rid of the tourist guides, society impoverishes. If we get rid of the minors, for sure society impoverishes and we won’t have enough power to change things in the future.”

 

 

Today, charcoal is still the main source of power for the archipelago, maintaining it, the unsolvable balance in between economic development and environmental protection. However, for Florian Toll, there is an emergency…

 

In Florian Tolle : «The year 2018, will be the 11^th consecutive massive assessment that we produce of the glacier. 2017 was the 10^th year, and it was again a very negative year. If I want to give a global stance to what has happened over this last decade, all the massive assessments have been negative, except once which was close to zero. Three of them were really catastrophic. The track record is without appeal, there’s no doubt and we observe that each year, the glacier is further back, in other words, it isn’t adapting to the climate it’s suffering from.

 

That glacier, when it melts quicker that it should, ads clean water to the sea and raises its level. It rises progressively and just like for climate, with small regular rises, it’s the poles that will trigger some problems.

 

That the glacier disappears will change the landscape, but what’s new and what we see today, it the speed in which it’s happening.

 

This domino effect of the glaciers melting, some scientists have looked into measure the direct impact it has on the living.

 

On Ny-Alesund’s harbour, Clara Hoppe, is ready to leave for the fjord. This German researcher from the University of Brême, is doing her fourth expedition for Awipev.

 

IN Clara en live et posée: « I work on the climate effect on phytoplankton. They are plants that grow on the surface of the sea. We try to understand how they adapt to climate change and the repercussion on the arctic ecosystem »

 

 

Phytoplankton, these micro-algae, that PEUPLENT the seas and oceans of the globe, contribute to creating more than half the oxygen we breathe.

 

IN Clara : « We are KB3 point, we’ve been doing measure for a long time here. It’s also the deepest spot of the fjord. Here, the currents mix up. It’s a more oceanic environment than by the coastline.

 

-It’s a very old research tool. Explorers were already using it over a hundred years ago. It enables to gather everything that is found in water. We set it up 25 meters deep and bring it back to the surface very slowly. We can see all the things that are in suspension in the water. The little dots are the animals and this brown colour is the alga that interests us.

 

-Can we turn on the beast?

 

-Yeah

 

-We come here every 2 or 3 days, and we do some sampling of the phytoplankton blossoming. It’s a bit like when trees get green quickly, the same thing happens to these little plants that live in the ocean. They grow very quickly in spring. It’s what is happening. And we try to understand the dynamic of this spring blossom, by measuring some physical, chemical and biological factors.

 

-We study around 25 different perimeters. The organism that interests us only measures a couple of thousands of millimetres, so we need a microscope to observe them.

 

-You see these little pearls that look like a necklace, like pearl on a thread. Phytoplankton is very interesting because it is that that produces a great part of our oxygen. Thanks to these little ocean plants, you can breath, much more than forests. Phytoplankton contributes immensely to the air we breathe.

 

-Here you can see species that were already observed last year, so I’d say it’s a normal spring period for the ecosystem. We can also see small animals. It’s a crustacean larva eating phytoplankton.

 

Some larva enjoying these plants, are at the origin of the region’s food chain. The infinitesimally small impacting the infinitely large, is Clara’s study transposable to the whole planet?

 

IN Clara : « If we compare with phytoplankton from other oceanic zones, ours is very resistant to climate change. It adapts better, it’s less sensitive. Then again, the sampling of the fjord nutriments shows that the phytoplankton offsets properly to its unstable environment. The fjord evolves very quickly year after year, but the phytoplankton adapts very well. I think that in this fjord, it adapts well to climate change.

 

Despite these comforting and quite surprising results, the Arctic ice continue melting early and quicker,

 

Opening to tourism, commercial routes and off shore drilling and promising oil deposits

Some threats on these zones, up to then protected…

 

 In Florian Tolle : « -The change that is happening here is a symbol of what we all do elsewhere, around the world. All our industrial production, our infinite usage of energy and power, has altered our life system and that has consequences all around the globe, despite the fact that our common vessel is quite strong.

 

We worship growth, we can grow forever, and the earth is limited. It is like a reversed aquarium in some ways. And also today, we aren’t in an era where nations can function… We can’t believe anymore that because you build a wall, you are protected, atmosphere doesn’t care, you can build a wall as high as you want, we will still be subject to atmosphere, so it isn’t easy because it’s requires something we do very badly, and we’ve never managed to do it properly: foresee. Coming back to a more reasonable approach, more than thinking about how we use it, instead of having more, we need try and have better. And that I think everybody would gain from it, wherever on earth, including this little glacier there, up to our daily lives. I think that’s where we should be aiming, every little steps counts and that is what will prevail and I hope we’ll be fast enough.”

 

 

 

FIN