II – Chapter 02

0100 [00:08:16] "In April of this year, the temperature over Greenland was much higher than normal. An engineer on one of the helicopters took a video during this temperature spike. " (Al Gore)

0200 [00:08:33] "Those are parts of the glacier just exploding with the high temperatures. " (Al Gore)

0300 [00:09:11] "Hey, Eric. How are you doing?" (Al Gore)

0400 [00:00:00] "Good to see you again. " (Eric Rignot, Dr.)

0500 [00:09:19] "So you see the line on...on the ridge here?" (Eric Rignot, Dr.)

0600 [00:09:20] "Yeah.... Yes." (Al Gore)

0700 [00:09:22] "The gray line is where the ice surface was back in 80s. Not so long ago." (Eric Rignot, Dr.)

0800 [00:09:27] "No. Not long ago at all. " (Al Gore)

0900 [00:09:32] "It's amazing to think that just 30 years ago where we are right now, it was all covered by the big ice sheet. " (Al Gore)

1000 [00:09:41] "I think a lot of us are a bit shell-shocked by some of the changes. It's...it's a bit hard to believe. " (Eric Rignot, Dr.)

1100 [00:10:05] "You ready for me?" (Al Gore)

1200 [00:10:06] "Yeah. Yeah, I'll hold the ladder. " (Bianca)

1300 [00:10:09] "Thank you, Bianca. " (Al Gore)

1400 [00:10:10] "Yeah, no problem, Al." (Bianca)

1500 [00:10:12] "Welcome to Swiss camp." (man 7)

1600 [00:10:19] "We have 20 automatic weather stations measuring the climate. Swiss Camp is just one of them. This is the cumulative height change of melt. " (Konrad Steffen, Dr.)

1700 [00:10:27] "Yes." (Al Gore)

1800 [00:10:29] "I see." (Al Gore)

1900 [00:10:30] "Since 2000 to now, we lost 12 meters of ice at that elevation. " (Konrad Steffen, Dr.)

2000 [00:10:36] "Wow." (Al Gore)

2100 [00:10:36] "That was our former station, level with the surface." (Konrad Steffen, Dr.)

2200 [00:10:39] "Yes." (Al Gore)

2300 [00:10:39] "Very deep pillars. We came back next season. That's where we are now. " (Konrad Steffen, Dr.)

2400 [00:10:49] "Be careful because I don't know how secure the snow bridge is. " (Konrad Steffen, Dr.)

2500 [00:10:53] "This is okay here?" (Al Gore)

2600 [00:10:54] "No. we have to walk around here." (Konrad Steffen, Dr.)

2700 [00:10:55] "Around there?" (Al Gore)

2800 [00:10:56] "Yes, yeah. " (Konrad Steffen, Dr.)

2900 [00:10:59] "And now you see how it starts. This is a tiny moulin here." (Konrad Steffen, Dr.)

3000 [00:11:04] "And when you stand one leg on each side you can see it starts to build a round hole. " (Konrad Steffen, Dr.)

3100 [00:11:14] "That would be a hole you don't want to step in, right?" (Al Gore)

3200 [00:11:15] "Yes." (Konrad Steffen, Dr.)

3300 [00:11:21] "So it's going straight down there?" (Al Gore)

3400 [00:11:22] "That's the big hole." (Konrad Steffen, Dr.)

3500 [00:11:47] "So the water rushes down and since it's heavier than ice, it pushes its way underneath the ice sheet. And we can measure how the ice is lifted up a few millimeters to a centimeter. And then the ice moves fast and you reduce the friction. " (Konrad Steffen, Dr.)

3600 [00:12:02] "And, in effect, the ice sheet starts speeding up in its flow toward the ocean. " (Al Gore)

3700 [00:12:07] "That's correct. " (Konrad Steffen, Dr.)

3800 [00:12:12] "So this is what makes the ice mass like Swiss Cheese. " (Al Gore)

3900 [00:12:15] "You call it Swiss Cheese. We call it Emmentaler. Because we has so many good Swiss cheeses, there is not just one Swiss cheese. " (Al Gore)

4000 [00:13:20] "It is frustrating that for many years, I...I've tried to communicate that we've got to act on the climate crisis. But it's not happening fast enough. If I said there weren't times when I felt this was a personal failure on my part, I'd be lying." (Al Gore)