GLACIER TONGUE NEAR THE KHAN TENGRI PEAK

During the Ice Age 700 million years ago, temperatures plummeted. The planet remained frozen and white for 20 million years before melting under a powerful greenhouse effect triggered by volcanic carbon emissions. Ice ages came and went, followed by cycles of warming. What remains of those periods are vast cold zones at the North and South Poles—natural coolers for Earth’s immense climate system.
In the polar regions, permanent ice is melting under the influence of global warming. Yet here, there are no factories, no machines. This warming is caused by my own carbon emissions. The fossil fuels—the oil my civilization depends on—are overheating the ocean. But this phenomenon has an even greater consequence. In the north, the melting of permanent sea ice is revealing open ocean. These dark waters absorb the sun’s heat, which the once-white ice used to reflect. And the cycle feeds itself—the warming accelerates on its own.
In Greenland and Antarctica, glaciers that once covered entire landmasses are melting, sending torrents of freshwater into the salty sea. The great oceanic current—the vast flow that circles the globe and regulates the climate—is slowly breaking down.
What will the consequences be? In all of human history, we have never witnessed a change like this before.

Excerpt from the film A Thirsty World
by Yann Arthus-Bertrand, Baptiste Rouget-Luchaire, and Thierry Piantanida
© 2012 Hope Production