Arctic Regions

Here is the earth we all live on. A mostly blue and green planet, which also has two large white areas: in the very north, and in the very south. They are giant ice caps, because these areas are the coldest on earth. Here, the ice never completely melts. This film is about the areas around the North and South poles, the arctic regions.

So, why is it so cold here? When rays of sunlight hit the Earth’s surface, close to the equator, they are concentrated on a small surface area that becomes very warm. But further north, or south, the rays of the sun become spread out over larger areas as they hit the Earth. This means the energy from the Sun gets spread out, and so the Sun does not heat the surface as much. And do you notice that the earth is tilted?

When the axis of the Earth leans away from the sun, no sunshine will reach this area. It’s wintertime in the northern hemisphere, and polar night around the north pole. The southern hemisphere, however, is now closer to the Sun. There it’s summertime, and on the South pole you can see the sun all day and night. There is midnight sun at the south pole.

Half a year later it’s the other way around: summertime and midnight sun around the north pole, and wintertime and polar night around the south pole. If you look at a globe, there is often a line here, near the north pole, and here, near the south pole. These lines show what areas have polar nights and midnight sun at some part of the year. The lines are called the north and south arctic circles. At the south pole there is a large continent under the layer of ice.

Only a small part of this continent is free of ice. This is Antarctica, which is twice as large as Australia. The weather here is harsh, cold and windy. Even in the summer, it can be minus 30 degrees Celsius. And here the coldest recorded temperature on earth was measured, minus 89 degrees Celsius.

There are some animals which have adapted to the harsh climate - penguins and seals, who live on the ice near the coast, and find their food in the ocean. No groups of people have ever made their homes in the Antarctic, but today there are scientists who stay there for parts of the year. Some of them are trying to understand how the world’s climate has changed over the years. Others are searching for fossils in the bedrock, to learn more about how animals have developed during evolution. Antarctica does not belong to anybody.

The states of the world have agreed that the area of Antarctica will be peaceful, and used only for scientific research. At the other pole, the North Pole, there is also an ice cap. Right at the North Pole, there is no continent, the ice floats on the sea. But there is some land in the area around the North Pole, which is called the Arctic. This land is sometimes covered by ice, and sometimes not.

The vegetation consists of grass, shrubs, moss, and lichen, but no trees. This pattern of vegetation is called tundra. There are also people here, who long ago learned to live in the harsh climate and protect themselves from the cold. They have fished and hunted for seals, birds, hares and other animals. The Inuit in North America, and the Sami in Scandinavia for example, are ethnic groups who live on the tundra, although today most often they live in modern homes.

At the seabed below the ice there are large amounts of oil and natural gas. These are valuable, and many countries - the USA, Canada, Denmark, Norway and Russia - claim the right to the seabed around the North pole. Unlike for Antarctica, an agreement does not exist for the North polar region. This is a conflict that is yet to be resolved. When drilling for oil and gas, the risk of environmental damage increases.

And this is not the only environmental threat to the Arctic region. In recent years the polar ice caps have melted, and decreased in size. If a lot of ice melts, the level of the oceans might rise and put large areas of land under water. And there will be less and less space for polar bears, seals, and penguins, all of which are adapted to a life on the ice.