A resounding yes. Is it right that the natural history unit spends millions on these capers? For not only is it frozen fauna as never seen before, but it is also educational as all these areas are desperately precarious on so many levels. In short, this series matters. A couple of years ago I was lucky enough to spend three weeks with some of the Frozen Planet crew in Antarctica.
We got stuck in the ice on that journey and were grateful we had those three on board as they could not have been more accommodating and entertaining. They had none of the precious prima donna nonsense so often associated with film crews and really earned their corn during that week-long icy-impasse. We were lucky enough to see some of the footage taken by helicopter of the emperor penguins which gave us some idea of the skill and commitment of these dedicated individuals.
Could it be the humpbacks rising imperiously among the millions of shearwaters, perhaps Armageddon of that huge glacier cave. Access to the Polar Regions, especially the Antarctic is a real challenge. British Antarctic Survey is pleased to have contributed its regional knowledge and science expertise to help facilitate BBC crew visits to its Rothera and Bird Island Research Stations in With help from the scientists on the ground, the series delves into the behaviour of animals on South Georgia and later heads to a recently collapsed ice shelf on the Antarctic Peninsula with BAS glaciologist Dr Andy Smith.
Toggle navigation. Polar Operations Our operational strategy Our operational teams Operational collaborations Engineering and technology Polar fieldwork opportunities How to apply Pre-deployment training. What is it like to spend a month filming the animals of a rainforest in Venezuela, from a platform 25m up a tree? In this programme for the Nature series on BBC Radio 4, John describes the experience of filming a young harpy eagle learning to hunt monkeys and its first surprising encounter with a sloth.
In March John spoke about making wildlife films to people at the Royal Geographical Society and to a smaller group, the following day, at the Linnean Society of London, where the natural history specimen collection and library of Carl Linneas are held. John filmed Amur falcons for the introductory programme, sparrowhawks and jays, harpy eagles and a sloth, and pine martens for the forests episode, peregrines for the coastal episode and snow geese for the plains episode. In November John delivered the Prologue at Nature Matters, an inspiring event which draws together artists and scientists interested in the natural world and its preservation.
The theme was 'Place and Belonging'. Anyone with an interest in wildlife, conservation and creativity would enormously enjoy these very stimulating annual events. The next one will take place in Stanford in November There are some details of the event here and the text of John's prologue to the event is here. The short film mentioned in the text is this one about finding beauty in nature. The webpage for the event is here. The passenger pigeon was once the most numerous bird in North America and perhaps the world.
Martha died in Cincinnati zoo in One human generation earlier her species had been counted in the billions. In this radio programme, produced by Sarah Blunt with wildlife sound recordings by Chris Watson, John explores how this unthinkable extinction happened and what we can learn from Martha's sad tale.
To lean more about Martha and listen to the programme you can visit the programme's website here. In October the Hebrides series was awarded the panda for Best Series at Wildscreen, the biennial wildlife film festival held in Bristol. The judges described it as, "a very well crafted series.
The filmmakers clear vision brought the landscape, wildlife and people together into a very engaging story. John presented several Tweet of the Day programmes on Radio 4.
You can listen to them here. The 3rd series of these programmes about filming wildlife was repeated on BBC Radio 4 in August If you missed it you can listen to all five episodes here. John was part of a team filming coastal brown bears in Alaska for a documentary feature for Disney Nature, released first in the USA in April You can see the trailer here.
Polar Bear Population Decline Lawson proceeded to regurgitate the popular myth that polar bear populations are thriving: "Had [Attenborough] wished to be objective, he would have pointed out that the polar bear population has not been falling, but rising. Figure 2: Subpopulation status of polar bears for and Source: Polar Bear Specialist Group The overall polar bear population is indeed declining, in large part due to the aforementioned rapid decline in Arctic sea ice. Clouds Will Not Save Us from Global Warming Lawson's next false assertion involves the cloud feedback: "Had [Attenborough] wished to be objective, he would have mentioned that recent research findings show that the increased evaporation from the Arctic ocean, as a result of warming, will cause there to be more cloud cover, thus counteracting the adverse effect he is so concerned about.
It's difficult to tell whether Lawson's assertion here is based on the myth that globally, clouds will dampen global warming as a significantly negative feedback which was debunked by most recently and thoroughly by Dessler : "the short-term cloud feedback had a magnitude of 0.
Screen and Simmonds conclude: "In short, we find no evidence of changes in cloud cover contributing to recent near-surface Arctic warming. Global Warming Continues Lawson then repeats one of the favorite climate denialist myths - that global warming has magically stopped: "Had [Attenborough] wished to be objective, he would have noted that, while there was indeed a modest increase in mean global temperature of about half a degree Centigrade during the last quarter of the 20th century, so far this century both the UK Met Office and the World Meteorological Office confirm that there has been no further global warming at all.
Lawson Reveals His Motives Lawson closes his article by spreading myths about climate solutions: "if there is a resumption of warming, the only rational course is to adapt to it, rather than to try happily a lost cause to persuade the world to impoverish itself by moving from relatively cheap carbon-based energy to much more expensive non-carbon energy.
Misinformation is not Objectivity In every case, Lawson's "objectivity" is nothing more than repeating myths and spreading misinformation. John Hartz at AM on 3 December, Riccardo at AM on 3 December, Albatross at AM on 3 December, Paul D at AM on 3 December, Dibble at AM on 3 December, Nicholas Berini at AM on 3 December, Daniel Bailey at PM on 3 December, Bernard J. Brian Purdue at PM on 3 December, John Russell at PM on 3 December, Paul D at PM on 3 December, Riccardo at PM on 3 December, AnotherBee at AM on 4 December, Icarus at AM on 4 December, Sapient Fridge at PM on 4 December, Phila at PM on 5 December, Stevo at PM on 6 December, Paul D at AM on 10 December, John Hartz at AM on 4 January, Forgot your password?
Although he is not quite as absurd as Monckton, his attraction to myths is very similar and his politics are never far below the surface. What is it with C conservative politicians and climate change? Why is a political tradition linked with conservation and good business based on hard-nosed facts being so misdirected? Is it because they are linked to the businesses that will have to change the most to combat climate change? Excellent article by the way. I'm quite keen on seeing Attenboroughs final Frozen Planet episode distributed as widely as possible.
So far the series has been wonderful. In addition to Donald A. Brown, Associate Professor Environmental Ethics, Science, and Law at Penn State University, a number of philosophers, scientists, and lawyers who work on the ethical dimensions of climate change participated in this event. That's because the Southern Ocean is at a lower absolute latitude that the Arctic Ocean, and is outside of the permanent polar high. This means that it's a wet area a lot of precip as opposed to a dry area.
Increasing global heat drives a more rapid hydrological cycle, and the wet areas get more rain and snow, including the Southern Ocean. The temperature at which ice freezes is determined by the salinity of the sea water, and with more rain and snow the surface waters become fresher and freeze at higher temperatures. Thus more rain and snow makes the sea more likely to freeze, while the warmer temps make the sea less likely to freeze.
In the Southern Ocean, these two factors nearly balance out, but not quite. The slight increase of sea ice we observe is the correctly predicted outcome of these opposing forces.
It's expected to last another few decades, when increasing temps will win out.
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