RRS Sir David Attenborough central to discovering Antarctica's changing climate
The scientists aboard the RRS Sir David Attenborough are getting the data which drives global climate science.
The team have collected a certain type of moss they can share with scientists back in the Netherlands - just one example of scientists across the world working together.
Samples collected will be kept in a freezer to be analysed later.
What might look like mud to the average person is to Marine Chemist Dr Rhiannon Jones a gold mine of data.
'What we've previously seen is that glaciers are really important in the summer providing food to the ocean nearby through meltwater. But what we've seen in winter this time is it looks like there are different drivers of that food supply.'
During this journey, the RRS Sir David Attenborough has been mapping the sea floor, often passing through unchartered waters which used to be solid glaciers.
Measurements show walls of ice can stretch up to 200 metres underwater, making them even more susceptible to warming waters than previously thought.
Professor Mike Meredith, from the British Antarctic Survey, told ITV News that scientists have learned more about global warming during the journey.
'We've learnt a lot about how the ocean impacts the glaciers in Antarctica and how that works differently in the winter rather than the summertime.'
This new information will help forecast how Antarctica will change as climate change progresses.
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Metro
2 days ago
- Metro
How David Attenborough inspired the 'awe and wonder' in Jurassic World Rebirth
To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Filmmaker Gareth Edwards is back at the helm once more of a major franchise (although he hates that word, he tells me) sequel with Jurassic World Rebirth, following his foray into Star Wars with 2016's Rogue One. This time he's fulfilling a childhood dream by working on one of the most influential 'creature feature' series of all time, working with Steven Spielberg – 'I call him Steve,' he grins, acknowledging the surrealism of that scenario. Coming onboard to direct the next instalment in such a popular run of films Edwards, 50, did have lots of little ways he wanted to put his stamp on it – but also one clear desire to ground the movie in reality, despite the fact it's set 'on an island in the middle of nowhere with dinosaurs on it'. 'One of the great things about Jurassic was that it wasn't that we'd gone back in time to see dinosaurs, it was that they'd come to our time, and so I wanted some iconography of some location that was now,' he explains. 'I wanted, at one point in the movie, there to be dinosaurs in something that was very familiar to us, like the kitchen scene in the original Jurassic Park. So I needed to somehow crowbar into this scenario some imagery that you would watch it and go, 'I know that, that's where I live' – even though it's not.' Without giving too much away before people have seen the movie, Edwards plays clear homage to that terrifying scene from the 1993 film with the hunting Velociraptors as well as plenty of fun Easter eggs from that era. 'I think that's important for people to relate to and feel like these things have come to us,' he adds. Edwards also reveals the way he was inspired by legendary broadcaster and biologist David Attenborough, 99, and wanted to bring his influence in Jurassic World Rebirth to another pivotal scene. He admits 'the way it was written probably wasn't aspiring to this' – but for the filmmaker it was clear. 'Being from the UK, I grew up with David Attenborough documentaries, and on a Sunday night on the BBC or wherever, one of the great things is sitting and watching a natural history show, [where] there's beautiful majesty and awe-inspiring nature,' he recalls. 'And I was like, to get through a Jurassic and not have this awe and wonder moment somewhere…' That was obviously not an option for Edwards, and the result is glimpsed in the movie's trailer when Scarlett Johansson's mission specialist Zora Bennett and Jonathan Bailey's palaeontologist Dr Henry Loomis are seen glimpsing the 50-foot Titanosauruses for the first time. It nicely acts as a throwback to the original film too, when Sam Neill and Laura Dern's expert characters are thrilled to see their first live dinosaur (coincidentally accompanied by Sir David's late actor brother Sir Richard Attenborough as Dr John Hammond, the owner of the park and the company that cloned the dinosaurs). 'That's what you're trying to do, is just navigate it so that you feel like it's that journey that you would want as an audience member.'. Alongside his previous Star Wars responsibility, Edwards is known for original projects as screenwriter and director like Monsters and 2023's The Creator. He appears comfortable switching between studio-led franchise blockbusters and more indie fare, ceding complete creative control for the prior. 'There are certain franchises where I feel like I don't know what I'd do with that, and also I think we'd all disagree about what that is. And there are other ones where you go, the best version of that, I think, is exactly what the studio would want as well.' Jurassic World Rebirth fortunately fell in this latter category and Edwards was delighted to be surrounded by a team who 'challenged' him. 'You want people who go, really? And double check what you're saying and go, how about this? Or throw in new ideas. But you also want to agree on what's a good film. And if they list ones that are your favourites, then you're probably in a good place.' That is something he fortunately found with screenwriter David Koepp too, who was returning to pen a Jurassic film for the first time since 1997's The Lost World, after it was suggested that meeting with producer Frank Marshall and Spielberg wasn't the conversation he should be most nervous about. 'They said, 'Oh, if you think this was tricky, wait 'til you meet David Koepp – if you can get your ideas past him'.' But it ended up a 'blissful' partnership Edwards says, from 'the second we started talking' on Zoom and found that they loved 'exactly the same movies'. Edwards also admits he was expecting the screenplay to be locked, with no way for him to suggest any of his own ideas and tweaks. 'That's what I thought was going to happen. And instead, it was like, 'Okay, you know this scene where this happens – what if we did it in this location instead? And what if this happened during it?'' he shared of his discussions with Koepp. 'And he was like, 'Great!', and would write it and give it his own flourishes, and you'd go, 'Oh, that's better than what I would have written!'' But there were also sections where Edwards felt Koepp had things 'dead right' and he didn't want to touch it. 'We were really on the same page.' This was also of great benefit considering the condensed timeline of making the movie, with Edwards only announced as director in February 2024, before any casting was done, and filming beginning that June. Star and producer Johansson even revealed to me that sound mixing conversations were still happening just days before the London premiere. Even with such a tight turnaround though, they managed to assemble a cast including Johansson, Bailey, two-time Oscar-winner Mahershala Ali and Rupert Friend, as well as Netflix's The Lincoln Lawyer star, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo. 'You worry when you've got not much time that you're going to get the bottom of the barrel, a lot of people that didn't get a job!' laughs Edwards of the situation. Luckily, the films are so definitive – and come with Spielberg attached ('I think when he calls, people pick up the phone') – that it wasn't an issue. 'I think if it had been another project, we might have been a bit stuck.' Hilariously though, Edwards was not aware of Jurassic super-nerd Johansson and how she had already pitched herself to Spielberg. 'I remember being in one of those early conversations at Universal, and there's Steven Spielberg and Donna Langley and everybody, and all these actors [on pieces of paper] and all these names being said. And then Steven goes, 'Well, if I don't give it to Scarlett, she's going to kill me.' And I'm just like, 'What do you mean?' And he goes, 'Scarlett's a massive Jurassic fan and I went for a meal with her,' and he started saying how much she loved it and wanted to be in one. And I was like, 'Hang on, why are we doing this meeting? Scarlett Johansson wants to do this film? Like, what are we talking about? Can you call her?!'' More Trending With Bailey, too, Edwards recalls an enjoyably unsuccessful first meeting when he had been prepped with questions from the producers for the actor but instead spent the entire three-hour chat over a meal in LA just 'joking around' and talking about 'random stuff' before the Wicked star realised he had to go. 'And so he left, and I hadn't said a word to him about Jurassic. And then the producers were like, 'Did he like the screenplay?' And I'm like, 'Yeah, no, it's all good, we're all good, no he didn't have any notes, he loves the character…' the director laughs of his bluffing. 'But it's the kind of movie. There's only a couple of things like this where you just get everyone's full attention. And it was a new chapter in it as well, so everyone felt they could come and put their stamp on it.' Jurassic World Rebirth is in cinemas from July 2. Got a story? If you've got a celebrity story, video or pictures get in touch with the entertainment team by emailing us celebtips@ calling 020 3615 2145 or by visiting our Submit Stuff page – we'd love to hear from you. MORE: Jurassic World Rebirth leaves critics crying 'let the franchise go extinct' with rotten debut MORE: Tom Cruise's 'breathtaking' 90s sci-fi hit quietly arrives on Netflix MORE: 'Underrated' horror movie hailed by fans finally arrives on Amazon Prime
The Guardian
6 days ago
- The Guardian
‘It looks more likely with each day we burn fossil fuels': polar scientist on Antarctic tipping points
For more than 20 years, Louise Sime has worked at the British Antarctic Survey specialising in polar climate dynamics. She uses ice cores to reconstruct past conditions and predict future changes. She now leads several international Earth modelling projects. Why are the Arctic and Antarctic regions important for the rest of the world?They are one of the pillars of global climate stability, a giant store of frozen water, an essential 'biotic pump' that helps to store carbon, and an albedo shield that reflects much of the sun's light and heat back out to space. When and why did scientists become concerned about tipping points in Antarctica?It has become a major talking point in the past five to 10 years, though the possibility has been known for much longer. Up until 2016, the sea ice in Antarctica seemed relatively stable. Then everything started to change. At first, the decline was mostly in line with climate models. But suddenly, in 2023, there was an enormous drop. About 2.5 million sq km of Antarctic sea ice went missing relative to the average before 2023. The anomaly was of such a magnitude that it's quite hard for scientists to know what to make of it. It has been described as a five sigma event. What is a five sigma event?Something that may only happen once in 10,000 years, or higher, possibly once in several million years. It was so far outside of expectations that the statistics became really hard to handle. It was very startling. What was the cause? It's still not absolutely clear but it is probably associated with global warming and circulation changes in the oceans. In that year, there was an enormous atmospheric river event over East Antarctica, which was also a five sigma event. This coincided with the biggest heatwave on record, where we had a temperature anomaly in excess of 40C. What effect did this have on the region?When that much sea ice is lost, there are substantial knock-on impacts. While the ocean is covered by ice, the temperature above the surface can easily be -20C, -30C. But as soon as the water is exposed, then the surface temperature cannot go below -2C. And once the surface is opened to the atmosphere, then you start to get evaporation of water vapour. That means a sudden and substantial change of weather around Antarctica. What are the potential tipping points in the polar regions?Tipping points are broadly defined as abrupt changes that are irreversible, at least on human timescales. We know they are possible in polar ecosystems based on ice-core records going back 800,000 years. We are less sure where those tipping points are. That is because these regions are shaped by complex interactions. It also depends what scale we are talking about. Small, local tipping points may have already been passed on particular ice sheets or coastal ice shelves or possibly even sea ice. But it is less certain that the entire region is near a tipping point. What are ice sheets and why do they matter?Ice must cover at least 50,000 sq km of land to qualify as an ice sheet, also known as a continental glacier. They grow when there is more snow than melt-off, and shrink when there is more melt-off than snow or if they slide into the sea. We know this is a risk in Antarctica, because it's got a backward sloping bedrock. If the ice there is thinned, then at some point it starts floating in deep basins and begins melting from below. Then you would have a sort of catastrophic collapse. How do they differ from ice shelves?Ice shelves are floating tongues of ice that flow out from land glaciers over a cold coastal ocean. They range in thickness from 50 to 600 metres, and help to buttress land ice. We've seen examples where they catastrophically collapse because melt water accumulates over the surface and forces cracks into the shelves. An ice shelf that may have been there for hundreds or thousands of years can collapse within months, possibly even weeks. By themselves, the collapse of ice shelves doesn't add much to global sea-level rise, but it can remove the buttress on much bigger ice sheets, which can then slide faster into the ocean. West Antarctica appears to be the area of greatest concern. Why?This is the location of two huge and vulnerable glaciers: Pine Island and Thwaites. We know that their buttressing gate glaciers on the shore are thinning and retreating. That allows more of the ice sheet to flow into the ocean. Satellite images show this has been going on for some time and has accelerated at least since the year 2000. All of those glaciers are connected together so if they slipped into the ocean that would add about four metres to global ocean levels. But the key question is how long this will take. Looking at past records of change in Antarctica, it's likely to take hundreds of years. But a very large acceleration would be felt almost immediately and it would result in the global sea level going up much, much faster in the near future. How does this compare with the situation in the Arctic?The potential for Antarctica to increase global sea levels is scarier than for Greenland. Right now, they're both contributing similar amounts to sea-level rise, but in future, it could be Greenland goes up a bit and then Antarctica goes up catastrophically. Greenland has the potential to raise sea levels by five or six metres, but we don't expect this will come in the form of an absolutely catastrophic, abrupt loss. Most of the ice in Greenland is not below sea level so we can see what is happening and we expect it will melt in a linear fashion. By contrast, Antarctica has 80 metres of potential sea-level rise. We don't expect all of that, but it is harder to know exactly what is happening. Much of Antarctica is below sea level and affected by the ocean, which means it is less stable and harder to observe. We also know there are parts of Antarctica where warm water is encroaching on to unstable shelves and we know that ice could retreat in some of the sloping basins – for example in East Antarctica and Wilkes Land. We don't know where that tipping point is, but if we hit it, there will be an irreversible retreat of the West Antarctic sheet. How long may that take?It's safer to assume that parts of it could happen rapidly. We know that ice shelves can collapse in a matter of weeks or months. On a bigger scale, evidence from the past suggests West Antarctica is unlikely to catastrophically lose all its ice in tens of years. It could unfold over hundreds or even thousands of years, but once you cross the tipping point and initiate that process, it is possible that we'd immediately see a substantial acceleration and jumps in sea level. We need more study. Is it possible that this is already under way?Yes. Some studies have suggested we may have passed tipping points, so the loss of the West Antarctic ice sheet may now be inevitable because of the warming of the oceans. However, this is far from clear. Tipping points definitely exist and we may already have passed some of the minor ones, but there's also a good chance, in my view, that we haven't yet crossed the major ones in Antarctica. What would happen elsewhere if the Antarctic breaches these tipping points?A huge proportion of the global population lives very close to the sea level so if the oceans rise by several metres, I find it personally quite hard to think about the consequences. They would be devastating. How would it affect the climate?A huge amount of the carbon dioxide that is emitted today is being sequestered in the Southern Ocean. But that only happens if ecosystems work effectively as a biological pump that draws carbon dioxide into the depths via plankton, krill and other species. If we cross tipping points in Antarctica, it would undermine that ecosystem. That would change the trajectory of how much carbon dioxide remains in the atmosphere in the coming years, and likely increase global temperature, which will be felt by everyone. What is your gut feeling about whether we have crossed a tipping point in the Antarctic? It's unthinkable, but it's not impossible, and it looks more likely with each day that we continue burning fossil fuels. It's beyond worrying. What difference would it make if we stopped burning oil, gas, coal and trees? If we stop emitting carbon tomorrow, then it's quite likely that we would see no further decreases in Arctic sea ice. And it's quite likely that other parts of the global climate system would immediately stabilise and temperatures would stop going up. So even if we had passed some tipping points, it's very likely that we would not pass any others. Is there any way to reverse what's going on with a technological fix?Studies suggest geoengineering is speculative and could make things worse. I'm personally not against what-if modelling experiments: if we did have giant space mirrors, what would the climate of Earth look like at that point? But it's unlikely in my personal view that any of them actually would be usable. They shouldn't distract us from our primary goal which is to stop the burning of any fossil fuel as quickly as possible. How do you feel about the risk of a tipping point in the Antarctic?As a human being, I have so much trouble trying to think about the magnitude of the sea-level rise, that I'm not sure I have the capacity to really think it through. I really enjoy working on polar science generally. It's a privilege, but I don't really have a good answer for you. We scientists just do our best to encourage everyone to decarbonise, please, for my kids' future, as well as for everyone else's kids. Tipping points – in the Amazon, Antarctic, coral reefs and more – could cause fundamental parts of the Earth system to change dramatically, irreversibly and with devastating effects. In this series, we ask the experts about the latest science – and how it makes them feel. Tomorrow, Tim Lenton talks about positive social tipping points Read more
Daily Mail
21-06-2025
- Daily Mail
King Charles pays tribute to 'resilience' of antarctic research scientists
The king has recorded a personal message for Antarctic researchers as the southern hemisphere marks the shortest day of the year. While the UK enjoys its longest day of sunlight on Saturday, British scientists at the South Pole experience 24 hours of darkness. In a morale-raising message recorded for the BBC World Service's midwinter broadcast, Charles praised the researchers' 'critically important' work as well as their 'resilience and commitment' to their jobs. 'With the sun shying away from your horizon today, I particularly wanted to send my warmest good wishes to all of those serving at British Antarctic research stations this midwinter's say and, above all, to express the greatest admiration for the critically important work you do.' He then went onto talk a little about the researchers' work. The king continued: 'The scientific research that the British Antarctic Survey undertakes, alongside teams from across the world, is today more vital than ever, telling us stories of the past, the present and possible futures. 'Each observation, measurement and calculation you undertake adds to the world's understanding of the Earth's fragile systems and the role humanity plays, as we struggle to live in harmony with nature. 'I very much appreciate the resilience and commitment to duty you all demonstrate so effectively, and which embody the pioneering spirit that has characterised British polar exploration for generations. 'On the 70th anniversary of this midwinter broadcast, I send countless special thoughts for your celebrations today.' It comes a month after the King, a longtime environmental advocate, urged people to help save the planet during a charity fundraiser. He told the crowd: 'Collaboration is far better than conflict.' The monarch said the charity's work comes at a time when efforts are under way to 'develop an even greater ability to manage the human and animal conflict'. Charles said: 'If we're going to rescue this poor planet (from) continuing degradation, and restore some degree of harmony to the proceedings, we must also understand that whatever we take and exploit from nature. 'We need to give something back in return to enable nature to sustain us.' The BBC World Service's midwinter broadcast is part of a day of celebrations for personnel at British Antarctic Survey stations. These personnel are based at at Rothera, Bird Island, and South Georgia, and they join colleagues at other international bases across the continent to mark the day. Alongside the King's message, the programme consists of music requests and messages from home to those at BAS research stations. They traditionally feast, exchange presents, and watch the classic 1982 horror film The Thing, set in the Antarctic. This year midwinter coincides with sweltering weather back on British soil. This means the UK is preparing for thunderstorms which are set to mix with continued high temperatures on Saturday. These temperatures could reach all the way up to 34C in some areas. A yellow thunderstorm weather warning covering all of northern England, from Nottingham up to above Newcastle, will come into force from 3pm and last until 4am on Sunday. The Met Office warned the most intense storms could produce 'frequent lightning, large hail and gusty winds', along with a chance of flooding. Parts of eastern England could also see temperatures peak high enough to eclipse the 32.2C seen on Thursday and become the hottest day of the year so far.
