Antarctica: A journey to the end of the earth to find answers about our planet's future
ITV News Science Correspondent Martin Stew reports from deep within the Antarctic Circle.
I'm the only journalist on board the RRS Sir David Attenborough, deep within the Antarctic Circle.
No British research ship has ventured this far south, this late in the winter, since Shackleton's ill-fated Endurance expedition.
History buffs will know that story didn't end well. Shackleton's ship was crushed by ice in the Weddell Sea, leaving his crew stranded for nearly two years, surviving on the ice and living off seal meat.
The fact that our journey south has been plain sailing through waters that, by rights, should be frozen solid is a stark warning of how rapidly our climate is changing.
Staring out into this frozen wilderness feels a world away from the UK's summer, but the scientists I'm travelling with insist we're far more connected than you might think.
The Southern Ocean captures vast quantities of carbon and heat, and it helps drive global currents, including the Gulf Stream.
Meanwhile, the sea ice surrounding Antarctica acts like a giant mirror, reflecting the sun's heat. And then there's the very real issue of rising sea levels.
Antarctica holds two-thirds of the world's fresh water. For years, it was considered relatively stable — a vast, ancient ice sheet that wouldn't melt for millennia.
But in recent decades, both landscapes and scientific opinions have shifted dramatically. The Antarctic Peninsula, which stretches towards Chile, is now warming faster than anywhere else in the Southern Hemisphere.
The fear is that this alarming trend will spread across the entire continent — a land mass nearly twice the size of Europe.
You might know the RRS Sir David Attenborough better by its famously suggested nickname, Boaty McBoatface — the humorous moniker voted for by the public.
But this £200 million icebreaker is no joke. It's a serious piece of engineering, carrying some of the world's leading scientists aboard the UK's largest floating research lab.
Their mission: to better understand how Antarctica's climate is changing, and what it means for the rest of the planet.
Six years ago, British Antarctic Survey scientists Professor Mike Meredith and Dr Rhiannon Jones watched as three million tonnes of ice broke away from a glacier before their eyes. Now, they've returned to study how underwater tidal waves — triggered by collapses on that scale — alter the ocean and accelerate warming.
Incredibly, while monitoring the same glacier, it happens again. This time, the collapse isn't as massive, but the fact it's happening in the depths of winter is even more alarming.
"To stand there and see it directly in front of us was incredible," said Dr Rhiannon Jones.
"It was all really unexpected, it really hit home that we're seeing some rapid changes to the region and we don't know what the consequences will be."
Professor Mike Meredith said humans are to blame.
"The retreat in sea ice is linked to the warming of the ocean and that's something that we know us humans are doing," he said.
"The implications of this are climatic in that it effects how reflective the surface of the planet is, so the planet's now absorbing more heat from the sun than it used to.
"It also removes a protective barrier from around Antarctica that can actually contribute to the destabilisation of the ice sheets."
Releasing vast quantities of ice into the ocean on this scale can directly impact global sea levels. The latest models from researchers at the University of Durham suggest the amount of ice lost from polar ice sheets has quadrupled since the 1990s.
We're currently losing around 270 billion tonnes of ice every year.
Even if we managed to limit global warming to 1.5°C — which, at present, we're not on track to do — sea levels will still be rising at a rate that will be difficult to manage by the end of the century.
According to Professor Chris Stokes: 'People need to be aware that sea level rise is likely to accelerate to rates that will be very difficult to adapt to — rates of one centimetre per year are not out of the question within the lifetime of our young people.'
Over the next fortnight, I'll be reporting live from Antarctica — bringing you not just the latest discoveries from the world of climate science, but also the personal stories of those who endure the cold, the darkness, and the isolation to study this remote, frozen continent.
From the wildlife to the wilderness, I'll do my best to share with you the stark beauty of this extraordinary place.
Please join me on the journey if you can.
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