Waubonsee Community College

The tipping point, produced by ABC Australia

eng

videorecording

For High School; College; Adult audiences

The tipping point

electronic resource

747799386

produced by ABC Australia

45

The Arctic sea ice, a plate of ice roughly the size of Europe, is disappearing. This film takes us on an ice breaker, in the company of scientists, through the fabled Northwest Passage. With our own eyes we see how polar bears, seals and arctic birds are struggling to adapt to the rising temperature and their shrinking terrain. But beyond our concern for the wildlife, there are very worrisome concerns about the effect on human life of the melting ice cap. The thawing permafrost will release methane into the atmosphere which, an expert tells us, is like a bomb that will explode. Also, the carbon released from the permafrost will further heat the atmosphere, advancing global warming. The immediate worry is that the melting sea ice will intensify the extreme weather caused, bringing more violent storms and cyclones to some regions and longer droughts to others. The Canadian Coast Guard predicts that it will not be long before the infamous Northwest Passage will be completely ice free. The political and economic implications of that are dramatic. The business world is eying the vast oil and mineral reserves locked beneath the melting ice. Several Arctic shipping routes, including one across the North Pole, are being seriously considered. It does seem like the five Arctic powers - Norway, Russian, Canada, Denmark and the United States- will be scrambling for strategic advantage in an area that could, at some point, provoke war

general