Come on, come on, come on, come on!
I'm travelling through the Arctic, the Land of the Midnight Sun.
The most amazing view.
For thousands of years,
only the hardiest hunters and herders
lived in this inhospitable land.
But now the Arctic is warming faster than anywhere else on Earth.
Go back, go back.
As it thaws, new riches are being revealed.
This is what it's all about - the oil.
All eyes are turning north.
For one bright summer, I will live with the people of the Arctic.
Absolutely loving it.
This is the real thing.
I want to understand how their lives are changing
and discover what the future holds for this great wilderness.
The last stage of my journey is through the far north of Europe.
It's autumn,
and the people of the Arctic are getting ready for a long,
harsh winter.
I travel to Russia, to a remote village
surrounded by the greatest forest on Earth.
You really get a sense that you're in something very, very special.
I join the Sami,
some of Europe's last indigenous people, on their annual reindeer roundup.
Bruce made a very good job. He knew what he was doing.
They're 21st-century herders.
But does anything remain of their ancient way of life?
As the long night of winter draws in,
I travel to Svalbard, to the most northerly settlement on Earth.
And I'm hoping that some of the questions I've had in my mind
throughout the whole of my journey might finally get answered.
I'm in north-west Russia,
just south of the Arctic Circle,
heading deep into one of the largest ecosystems on the planet.
It's the boreal forest, which stretches right around
the northern hemisphere.
A third of all of the trees on Earth
are found in the vast evergreen forest that encircles the top of our world.
I'm travelling to a remote part of this great forest,
to the village of Nyukhcha in European Russia.
And on this final leg of my Arctic journey,
I'll be passing through northern Norway
on my way to Svalbard, in the High Arctic.
This is very different to Siberia, where I herded reindeer
under the midsummer sun.
The people here are forest people.
Their psyche and culture are rooted in these woods.
TRAIN WHISTLE BLOWS
But post-Soviet Russia is going through many changes.
Have traditional ways of life
been affected?
And are attitudes towards the forest
changing?
Just been eight hours on a train
and I've got a few more hours to do in this vehicle,
and all I've seen the whole journey is forest.
I'm heading to a remote village far from any other settlements,
not the kind of place you want to break down.
BANG, TYRES SCREECH
I really felt this tyre go when it went.
Proper pop, and we skidded a little bit.
And it's beginning to snow. Love it.
This is the first snow I've seen for months.
It really feels like winter is almost here.
Yeah, this is us? Fantastic!
Finally, we arrive in the village
of Nyukhcha, my home for the next
week.
Cool, man.
My lodgings are basic but surprisingly cosy.
Perfect.
600 or so people live in Nyukhcha.
I want to find out how important the forest is to the villagers,
so I'm going to spend the day with Katya, who knows it intimately.
She's known as the person who's out walking the furthest.
She's always seen at the far ends of the forest,
out on her own, just collecting stuff. And it's a real treat today,
cos she's taking me out on one of her excursions.
And I've no idea what we're going to find, but I know it's going to be an adventure!
TRANSLATION:
With winter drawing near,
the berries and mushrooms
are almost finished.
But 62-year-old Katya is the village's most determined forager.
Katya was recently widowed,
and her children
have long since left the village.
She says the forest
is like a friend to her,
and she knows all of its secret places.
OK.
Fly agaric mushrooms, with their red caps and white spots,
are the quintessential toadstool.
They're found throughout northern forests
and feature in the folklore of many northern cultures too.
Something's been eating it.
Fly agaric are toxic to humans, so Katya never eats them.
If we can't eat them, what are you collecting it for?
Katya wants to make a bottle of fly agaric ointment,
so we scour the forest, looking for the telltale flash of red against green.
Oh, beautiful!
Fairies just sitting on...
So pretty.
When we've got plenty of mushrooms for Katya's remedy, we head for home.
OK.
Katya, rarely have I seen
such a potent array of mushrooms in my life.
We're going to chop these up and put them in a bottle.
When they've broken down, they'll form an ointment, which Katya says
helps cure colds and rheumatism.
HISSING
That's a proper brew!
OK.
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union,
the state no longer provides full health care,
and so more and more people are returning to traditional cures.
Katya only uses fly agaric on her skin,
but her sister makes them into a potion.
You said you use it on your hands, and your sister was taking drops of it.
What was she taking drops for?
By taking fly agaric in this way,
Katya claims her sister cured herself of cancer.
This may seem hard to believe,
but one thing is for sure - fly agaric is a potent fungi.
And there was a time when we in Britain
may have been just as familiar with its healing properties.
I sometimes wonder what...
our ancient ancestral knowledge is, of such strong plants and fungi.
But we'll never know, because anyone that had knowledge such as this
was pretty much burnt at the stake or...
drowned on ducking stools at the advent of Christianity.
Russians have long believed forests like this to be places of magic.
As well as a spiritual significance,
Katya and many other villagers depend on it for their survival.
But the forest is under threat.
In recent years, summers have been very dry, then very wet.
And warmer winters have led to an increase in pests and diseases.
Millions of trees are dying every year throughout the northern forest.
Trying to keep this woodland healthy is forest warden Alexei Ivanovitch.
I'm going to help Alexei and his team
clear an area of dead trees,
so I've been kitted out Russian lumberjack-style.
Look at that - gloves and everything.
Thank you so much. I feel the part now. Check this out.
The easiest way to remove dead trees
is to get the villagers
to take them away as firewood.
OK.
Like almost all forest in Russia, this woodland is state owned.
If the villagers take more than their quota, they face stiff
penalties.
There's...
very strict regulations here...
LAUGHS
Thank you.
I'll start again!
There's...
..very strict regulations here. If you...
..if you get caught chopping a tree
that's not allowed, you get three to five years' imprisonment.
After paying a fee, a villager will come and cut these marked trees for firewood.
But Alexei wants to clear all the deadwood before winter,
so we're going to make a start today.
The branches must be burnt, as they're infested with the spruce bark beetle,
a parasite that's killing trees from Alaska to Siberia.
In the past, spruce bark beetles were kept in check by harsh winters.
A few days below minus 40 were enough to kill them off.
But one mild winter, and the parasites survive and multiply.
The temperature is falling every day,
and the first frosts are beginning to bite.
The villagers are preparing
for a long winter,
and Katya wants to insulate her bathroom
with moss she's gathered from the forest.
One thing I've noticed that...
everyone's really good at here... is insulating.
With just a few logs in a wood-burning stove,
they keep their house warm all night,
and when I say warm, I mean really warm.
I've just used a sheet most nights,
and it's been just about freezing outside,
and when you consider what the insulation is, it's really quite an amazing feat.
Where? All along here?
In there first.
OK, I'll use the fat one.
In just a few weeks, temperatures here will plummet and will stay below freezing
for up to six months,
so a good supply of firewood is essential for survival.
What are the winters like here - how cold does it get?
You say that the winters may be getting warmer.
Is this a good thing, do you reckon, or...
does it make little difference to you?
Tell me, you have to pay for your firewood -
is it expensive, even though it's so close?
With more than a third of her income
going on firewood,
Katya is left with around £3.50 a day to live on.
Her skill as a gatherer means she can just about get by.
But she says things are much harder now than they were in the past.
Russia is now a market economy, and everyone has to fend for
themselves.
Gathering in the forest is now more about competition than collaboration.
But for some of the older generation,
the communist ideals live on, and are worthy of celebration.
MUSIC PLAYS
THEY SING
This a festival to pay homage to the old people of the village
and to say thank you for their sacrifices over the years.
THEY SING
Katya says she's got nothing fine to wear
so has decided not to join the festivities.
This being Russia, a celebration wouldn't be complete without vodka.
BRUCE LAUGHS
Oh, go on, then, just a little bit.
It's ten in the morning,
and this...very sprightly lady opposite me is pouring out vodka for all of us.
I can see the way the day is going to go!
Most of these peoples' lives were spent under the Soviet regime,
and many believe things
were better back then.
And now what are most people doing here?
Market forces have shifted jobs
elsewhere,
and the young have followed them, leaving the old behind.
This may be the twilight of their years,
but the villagers still know how to have a good time.
I've got such big boots on, I do apologise.
I'm stepping on toes left, right and centre. I'm so sorry!
I'm enjoying my time in Nyukhcha, but there's a melancholy feeling
here.
Up to a third of the houses
are abandoned,
and every year, there are fewer children in the school.
The situation here is typical of the Russian countryside,
where the old outnumber the young.
Thousands of villages, the soul and heart of Russia,
are slowly but surely fading away.
As villagers leave the countryside, loggers are moving in.
Forest warden Alexei leases plots
to private timber companies.
Once the trees have been cut,
Alexei ensures that the company replants the area.
At the moment, he says only a small number of plots are cleared each
year,
so the forest has plenty of time to regenerate.
I know, in some parts of Russia, there's lots of illegal logging.
Do you think that's a problem in your province?
It's estimated that around a quarter
of the wood harvested
in north-west Russia is illegal,
much of it ending up in European paper mills.
At the same time, thousands of forest inspectors
like Alexei have been laid off, leaving huge areas open to abuse.
But for now, Alexei's supervision
and these poor roads
might just be enough to protect it.
This area was logged and replanted 20 years ago.
Alexei made sure his favourite tree,
the Siberian cedar, was sown
amongst the birch and the pine.
Alexei doesn't just love cedar trees - he confides in them.
You're like the policeman for the forest, Alexei.
What do people think when you say that you talk to trees?
When we stop off on the way home to cook some food,
Alexei opens up about his past and explains
why he has such an unusual relationship with this forest.
Most people that I've met in the community
haven't travelled very far,
but you...you've been many places. Tell me about where you've been.
- Vietnam. - Vietnam?
Kampuchea.
Kampuchea - Cambodia, really? Wow.
In his youth, Alexei was drafted into the Russian intelligence service -
the KGB -
and saw active service overseas.
What he witnessed and what he did have left deep emotional scars.
When he left the service, he returned home to this area
and sought solace amongst the trees.
And did the forest help? Did the forest help you get through it?
It's time for me to continue
my journey through Arctic Europe.
I've seen how important
the forest is to the people here,
on so many levels.
I just hope this intimate relationship is not lost
as Russia continues the rapid, often lawless exploitation
of its natural resources.
I'm heading north into Norway.
Over the last six months, I've visited many remote communities
where a close connection to nature
is still a part of everyday life.
But northern Norway is a very developed part of the Arctic.
I want to find out if any of the old ways have survived
in this most modern of landscapes.
So I've come to live with the Oskal clan. They're Sami -
reindeer herders and one of Europe's last indigenous peoples.
When we are working together with reindeer,
we get very good connections with... with us.
BRUCE: With your family...
With our family and cousins. And friends who work with you?
Yeah, we are all three cousins. OK.
We are like friends and, er, working together.
Family. Family.
The Sami are the original inhabitants of this region.
Once nomads, they followed great herds of reindeer
on their seasonal migrations.
But more and more people are moving into Arctic Europe.
The Sami way of life is under pressure,
nowhere more so than in the mountains around the city of Tromso.
I've come here to take part in the Oskal family's autumn reindeer roundup.
I've caught a glimpse
of a couple of deer on the horizon. It's going to be so interesting
to be right in amongst them and see the differences in
the methods of herding.
Johan Isak's ancestors have lived here for as long as 10,000 years,
but in his modern clothes, he looks like any other Norwegian.
What's life like for a 21st-century Sami?
The plan today, to have the reindeer over there.
We want to get the reindeer over there?
Over there.
OK, and where are they now? Just around the corner? They are all in this place.
OK, a bit foggy.
Foggy. OK.
The Sami tend their herd all year round,
but autumn is the busiest season.
It's a race against time to move the reindeer to their winter pastures.
After a brisk hike to the top of the hill,
we glimpse a small herd of 100 deer through the mist.
(That's it.)
(My first spotting of reindeer for a few months.)
(I've kind of missed them.)
REINDEER GRUNT
(They're so pretty.)
HE SHOUTS AT REINDEER
SHOUTS CONTINUE
We've got to try and get them to go that way.
Beautiful as they are, they're wilful creatures too
and, er,
they need a little bit of persuasion.
WHOOPING
WHOOPS AND SHOUTS
The job is done, and the reindeer
have been moved down slope towards the family's corral.
This is just one of many
small herds that must be gathered
before the migration, so we have a busy week ahead of us.
These mountains are full of dangers for the reindeer.
What do you think got these? Is this one or two?
Two. OK, that's another head, yeah?
Yeah. I think, um...
Difficult to say,
but when it was so close, I think this could be a predator's work.
Because there's two animals together?
Yeah.
Sure. And which predator do you think it might be?
I think it's hard to say, but...maybe lynx.
The Sami sell reindeer for meat at this time of year,
so predators can seriously affect their livelihood.
And do you mind if I ask, um,
how much money a grown deer represents?
It's hard to say, but, um, maybe 10,000 kroner.
10,000 kroner? That's £1,000...
Yeah. Sterling.
It could be more than just £1,000.
If this was a young female, getting ten calves,
so it could be more.
Though reindeer herding is now also a business,
these hills are wild and untamed,
and Johan Isak faces the same natural pressures his ancestors did.
Snow blows in off the Arctic Ocean, shrouding the mountains with mist.
Good visibility is essential to find reindeer,
so, for now, herding is on hold.
But there's plenty of work to do getting the corral ready.
You're a strong man! No, I was just a bit over-eager.
I...I didn't realise you could do one at a time!
LAUGHTER
I'm working with Danel, one of Johan Isak's many cousins.
Sami reindeer are almost wild
and are wary of humans and their structures.
To get them into this fenced area, the family have a secret weapon -
a nine-year-old stag with an illustrious name.
Elvis is so tame.
Almost like family.
THEY CHUCKLE
You see, it's a bell on this reindeer.
When we are gathering the herd,
it's a little tricky to get the reindeer coming down here and into the fence.
But if the herd hears the bell, they say like,
"Ah, there's Elvis. Elvis."
So they also go. Oh, Elvis,
you serve such an important job, man. He's very cool.
Elvis is the reindeer equivalent of the Pied Piper,
leading the herd into this most unnatural of environments.
The Oskal clan have about 2,500 reindeer,
spread out over a huge area.
That's too many to gather on foot, but the snow means they can now
switch to their favourite form of transport.
This is what we're here for,
out in the snow, looking for reindeer.
We've got two days to get them all together...
..and it's really exciting.
Danel and his cousins are skilful and fearless on their snow machines.
Sami boys start riding them
as young as ten years old,
when they're considered strong enough
to get themselves out of trouble.
CHUCKLES
He's quite a driver, and he's got balls of steel
and a pretty good engine.
I'm having a very nice day out.
We've found a fair few deer, at last.
There's a couple of hundred down there
and a couple of hundred more over there, probably.
The plan is to get the reindeer all in a big group.
We cannot fail.
We're hopeful. We are hopeful.
CHUCKLES
We are hopeful.
Well, Johan Isak is the most positive person
I've ever met in my life, it's brilliant.
Reindeer herding is ruled by the ever-changing seasons, and the Sami
have developed a philosophical, laid-back approach to life.
They just seem to shrug off stress.
We push the reindeer downhill, moving them closer
to the corral where the whole herd will be gathered before the migration.
WHOOPS
WHOOPING CONTINUES
With many streams to cross,
it's hard-going on men and machine.
REINDEER BARK AND GRUNT
The weather's turning now,
and the night's coming, so we're going to head back down the mountain
and hopefully have another day like today, tomorrow.
The next morning,
the weather's worse than ever, so no-one can go up into the mountains.
I'm invited to meet Berit Oskal, the oldest member of the family,
and grandmother
to Johan Isak and his cousins.
She lives in a typically Norwegian house,
but her attire is distinctly Sami.
How do you see the reindeer herding now
with your people, compared to when you were younger?
TRANSLATION:
Because they now have
snow machines and other vehicles,
the Sami no longer have to live
so close to their herds.
But though
they've settled in modern houses,
their culture is still very much alive.
We head back to the corral to wait for the weather to improve.
Another important member of the Oskal clan
needs to be kept in good condition for his big day.
BELL CLANGS
Here you go, here's that stuff you love.
Having lost a day to bad weather, the Oskal men are behind schedule.
Marshalling operations is Danel's older brother, Johan Anders.
We have to hope... hope for better...weather.
You see it's heavy weather, snow.
We have to...to cross our fingers.
CHUCKLES
Finally, the weather starts to clear.
The pressure is on, and everyone is expected to help out.
We've got to get all of the deer together,
so much so that they've given me a machine, and I'm involved as well.
So...so it's all to play for today, it's so important.
It's tough going at this time of year,
when the fresh snow is uncompacted, and I take many a tumble.
GROANS
Look at my binoculars. Do you think maybe I've had a crash?
LAUGHTER
Now I know why you don't see anything.
Yeah, exactly. I can't follow the deer,
and we know why - I'm always bloody crashing.
For the next few hours, we push small groups of reindeer down the valley,
until they form one big herd,
many hundred strong,
on the ridge overlooking the corral.
WHOOPING
I am knackered. My arms are pumped.
It just goes to show the skill that these guys have got.
I thought it was tough enough just sitting on the back
these last few days, but doing it yourself is so, so much harder.
When the reindeer are gathered, it's Elvis's big moment.
Johan Isak leads him to where the herd can see him.
But Elvis doesn't have to do all of the work.
The Oskal clan has discovered a very modern way of moving the reindeer.
SIREN WAILS
It's the most incongruous thing I've ever seen in my life.
All these wild animals, essentially being herded
by this noisy, bleeping helicopter,
and we've got to get them down off this hill
into where there's houses and streetlights,
and crossing a busy road, a main road, and then into the pen.
It's almost an impossible task.
That's why means like the helicopter have been brought into play.
SIREN WAILS AND BEEPS
There's no way we could drive a snow
machine down this steep,
forested slope,
so the best way to herd
is from the air and on foot.
REINDEER BELL JANGLES
Unbelievable!
After all this time, finally,
we got them in.
We got them in - a lot of work, a big, team, family effort,
a bloody noisy helicopter,
but the deer are in the pens.
Ah, what a relief.
Bruce made a very good job.
I liked the job he did, and it was like
he knew what he was doing.
CHUCKLES
It was good to get them into pens.
It was a relief, yeah.
And they crossed the road more easily than I thought.
Yeah, you know, with Elvis, it goes very well.
I've become fond of Elvis from feeding him this last week.
Elvis is a good reindeer.
Yeah, he's got a big part to play, I think.
Tomorrow, the reindeer will be counted and marked
before being moved to their winter pastures.
Each individual reindeer is owned
by a certain member of the Oskal
family.
The new calves that have made it through the summer need to be given
their owner's special ear mark. But first, we've got to catch them.
The hardest thing is identifying them, and the second-hardest thing
is identifying them in time
to be able to position yourself to get a shot.
But good fun trying.
So the first lesson in lassoing
is to try and get the right one.
And if you miss the right one, try not to get a big, strong one.
The whole clan is here to help out -
even the youngest members.
Reindeer herding is all about the family,
and bonds are reinforced on days like today.
You like it?
I loved it. Mm.
Yeah, it's really... it's really exhilarating.
Fantastic! Oh, thank you, my friend.
Very good. First one. I'll try again.
There's been a lot of stresses
and potential stresses in my time here this last week.
And every one of them, they've just...
Whatever comes their way, they deal with in an amazingly calm, stress-free way.
Still, at the moment at least,
that old cultural style of dealing with it
in a laid-back, philosophical way is strong.
MURMUR OF VOICES
Once caught, easily identifiable patterns are quickly and skilfully
cut into the calf's ear.
Now it's time for the Sami to decide
what to do with their animals.
Should they keep them as breeding stock
or should they sell them for meat?
They need to know their animals intimately to make the right call.
We just check now first.
See what it is. Male or female?
A female. This is a female, but this is so...
It's not so good calf.
I don't think it will survive the winter,
so I take it to the slaughterhouse. OK.
Yeah. And the slaughtering is here.
Oh, in there? Yeah.
And this is one of yours?
This is one of mine.
This calf was small. Yeah.
I think it can have problem in the hard winter.
Sure. So I sell this.
OK.
The cash Johan Isak will get from his slaughtered reindeer
is his main income for the year.
But the Sami are by no means wealthy.
Money is always tight, and rising fuel prices
and other costs are forcing many herders to give up altogether.
The Oskal clan has the added pressure
of being so close to Tromso.
The city is expanding fast,
and the family is being forced to move its corral
to make way for new developments.
They are now making like an, what do you call, harbour, in this area.
Big harbour. And they want us to move
to a new area further north, away from the town.
If it continues to be
that you're pushed and squeezed more and more,
what's at stake? You know, the reindeers
have to have lots of space... lots of space to find their food.
And I'm very anxious for the future.
The Sami are in a continuous battle for their land and for their rights.
But they have had many victories in the past, winning political
autonomy
and protection of their language.
The source of their strength is their herding way of life.
If this goes, they will lose the cornerstone of their culture.
MAN SHOUTS ORDERS
It's late into the night now.
Hopefully, there's just one more lot to bring in,
and then that will be this day's work done.
The reindeer that are not going to slaughter must now
be moved to the winter pastures.
These are in a more sheltered area 40 miles or so to the south.
In the past, the reindeer would have migrated over land.
But this way is now blocked by
houses and roads, and the Oskal family
has been forced to use
an alternative form of transport.
It's all worked out just perfectly,
and now is the beginning of the winter season for these guys.
They load up the boat and off to new pastures.
OK, this is it. Last little push.
Try and persuade these deer
onto the most unlikely of things - a big, metal boat.
The only way we're going to do it is usher them with this.
MAN SHOUTS ORDERS
With all the reindeer safely on board, it's time to set off
on this most unnatural of migrations. SHIP'S HORN BLARES
The boat is heavily subsidised by the Norwegian government
in recognition of the encroachment on the family's overland route.
In order for these animals to get to where they need to be for the
winter,
which is essential for their safety, for them to be able to survive the
winter,
they now have to be transported.
And the Sami would rather do this
than give up their tradition of herding reindeer.
So it's a necessary evil in the life cycle of these deer.
In the past, the reindeer would have
set the pace for the migration,
moving only when they were ready.
But the boat's departure date is fixed, so now the Sami
have to deal with that most modern of things,
a deadline, and all the pressures that it brings.
It's not long before we're approaching the family's winter lands.
These are further from the coast than the summer pastures
and more protected from the worst of the Arctic winter.
How are you feeling now you know the deer are about to leave?
I feel good. All safe?
Yeah, all safe, and I hope it will be a good winter this year.
What a wonderful sight.
So nice to see them off again, free, no pens, back into the wild.
The Oskal clan is having to adapt to the challenges of the modern
world.
But their sense of identity is strong,
and the way they have blended the old with the new is inspiring.
But they still have many struggles ahead of them.
TRANSLATION:
It's heartening that the Sami are able to maintain their herding lifestyle
in such a crowded part of the Arctic.
But my final destination is much more wild and remote.
I'm heading 400 miles north of the mainland, to Svalbard.
This archipelago is a Norwegian protectorate,
but hardly anyone lives here,
with polar bears outnumbering humans
by two to one.
My final destination is a day's boat ride away, up into the wilderness.
This is furthest north that I've ever been
and the furthest north that I'll be going on my Arctic odyssey.
As concerns have grown about our impact on the Arctic,
science has become one of the main activities in these islands.
I'm heading to Ny-Alesund, the nerve centre of polar research in Europe.
The people that I'm going to go and live with next are a very special breed,
and I'm hoping that some of the questions I've had in my mind
throughout the whole of my journey might finally get answered.
Over the last six months,
I've lived with people who are trying to adjust to a warmer Arctic.
The scientists working here are scrutinising such environmental change.
I hope I'm finally going to get an overview
on what's happening to the Arctic and its people.
Ny-Alesund is the most northerly permanently inhabited place on
Earth.
Ten different countries have state-of-the-art facilities here,
and much of their research is focused on climate change.
The air here should be some of the cleanest in the world.
But Dr Cathrine Lund Myhre, from NILU,
the Norwegian Institute for Air Research, tells me otherwise.
That's quite spectacular. Yes. It's very spectacular.
Is it as pristine as it looks?
It's not as pristine as it looks, actually.
If you really look at the details, it's not.
So there's hardly a village in hundreds of miles,
but still humans are having a large impact on it?
Yes, actually.
And if we look at these things here, this is the inlet for the climate gases.
How important is this little structure
for our understanding of global climate?
It has a crucial position in determining global
and northern hemispheric changes.
In recent years,
air sampled here has shown a significant increase in methane,
a potent greenhouse gas that's given off as organic matter breaks down.
As the Arctic warms, there are concerns that the permafrost,
the layer of soil that should be frozen all year round,
is thawing, releasing huge quantities of methane
and further accelerating global warming.
Even small increases in temperature
can have a considerable effect on this frozen world.
Studying a glacier on the edge of town
is a French team led by Dr Madeleine Griselin.
So what have we got here?
Here is an anemometer and pluviometer station.
Anemometer's for the wind? Yes.
And the plu is for rain? Rain gauge, yes.
OK.
They've got ten or so different types of measuring apparatus,
from thermometers to collecting precipitation, photography,
all sorts of different things.
This glacier's pretty well covered.
Madeleine needs to erect a support for a weather station.
This giant kettle will help her melt a hole in the ice.
But it also has another very important use.
We can cook sausage on the top.
LAUGHTER
Are you ready for a sausage? Oh, for a sausage? You bet!
Wow! My dear.
Merci.
Ah, j'ai aussi des petits chips!
And there you have it.
The northernmost steamed sausage...
ever, probably.
Measuring stakes are spread out all over the glacier.
In recent years, they've recorded significant melting.
In three years, the ice was...like that.
So in three years, you've lost four metres?
Yes. Just here.
The temperature here has risen by 2 degrees centigrade in the last 40
years,
with dramatic impacts.
The rest of the world
may be debating climate change -
some deny it's even happening at all -
but up here, it's all too real.
Before I leave Svalbard, I've arranged to meet Dr Kim Holmen,
who co-ordinates research
at the Norwegian Polar Institute.
He's a world expert
on change in the Arctic.
If anyone can give me an overview on what's happening here, it's him.
Isn't what we're experiencing just a natural warming of the climate?
Part of the signal is natural, but part of it is undoubtedly
human-induced.
I would argue that some of the changes we see are much more rapid
than anything we find in the historic records.
But just as a fellow human, what are your concerns for the future here?
The change in the Arctic is not only for the polar bear,
it's not only for the people that live in the Arctic,
but it is also important for much of the rest of the world.
Farming in China will be influenced, there is flooding in other parts
of the world that is likely coupled to these large-scale circulation changes
that an ice-free Arctic will create.
If the region continues to warm
at the current rate,
Kim and his colleagues predict that
the Arctic Ocean may be ice-free
in the summer within a few decades.
The impacts of this would be felt across the world,
and our weather will be very different to what we know today.
Are you worried, are you optimistic?
How do you see this ever-changing world?
I do believe that when more people understand,
more people see what is happening, that we can make a serious impression.
I certainly wish to spread knowledge in society,
because that's the key to changing attitudes and behaviour for all of us.
It's my last night in Ny-Alesund.
But the Arctic still has a few surprises in store.
A laser beam studying the atmosphere
lights up the sky.
It's a crisp, clear, cold night,
and the moon is full and as bright as I've ever seen it.
There's a laser beam shooting to the stars over there, and finally,
to cap it all, the magical Northern Lights have come out to play.
Through the darkness of winter, the aurora borealis dance and pulse
like a technicolour crown around the top of our world,
uniting the polar communities with one of nature's most beautiful spectacles.
It's a magical end to an emotional journey.
It's time for me to leave the High Arctic.
As I look back upon my six months here,
it's the warmth of the people I've met that will stay with me the most.
I've lived with hunters
and witnessed them struggling to keep their traditions alive.
CHEERING
And I've seen how vital
a close connection to the land is
for people's health and happiness.
The race for the riches of the north is on.
The starting gun has been fired.
EXPLOSION
Fortunes will be made.
But at what cost?
Many fear the impact this scramble for the Arctic will have
on this fragile land and all who live here.
We're in danger of losing a unique way of perceiving our world
and of living in harmony with nature.
The future of the Arctic is in our hands.
We need to treat it wisely...
..because what happens here will affect us all.
One of the biggest things I've learnt is that this isn't some pristine,
isolated ecosystem at the top of the world.
This place is absolutely part of the whole,
and what we're doing in the south is having absolutely an effect -
often quite negative - here in this ecosystem.
And so, whatever we do in the future,
we have to look at our planet as one.
Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk