(Geography) On thin ice

The Arctic sea ice is melting. The global climate is growing steadily warmer and in the Arctic this process is proceeding twice as fast as in the rest of the world. At the current rate climatologists expect the Arctic to be completely ice-free as early as 2050. This DVD shows the importance of the ice to the animals who live there especially the seal, which relies on it to give birth and to rest, and the polar bear which roams the ice searching for seals.

What will happen when the ice disappears? In some parts of the Arctic major changes in the sea ice are already making themselves felt. Summer ice, for example, has receded by almost one-third in the last twenty-five years and the animals for whom it is home are finding it increasingly difficult to cope with the disappearance of their habitat.

This programme focuses mainly on the ice-dependent seals, which are key species in the Arctic, and also the first to suffer as the icy platform on which their lives depend melts away beneath them.