Season 1
10 episodes · Dec 1, 2014
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S1E1The New Everest
Dec 1, 201443m"The Polar Sea" begins in Reykjavik, Iceland with Richard Tegner, an ordinary Swedish man embarking on an extraordinary expedition to cross the Northwest Passage with his friends.
S1E2Sailing Ice
Dec 2, 201443mIt is late July and the Northwest Passage is still choked with ice. In the small village of Ilulissat, Greenland, a motley collection of Arctic voyagers assembles to prepare for their expeditions while they wait for the sea to melt.
S1E3Legends of Food
Dec 3, 201443mThe explorers cross Baffin Bay to the tiny Inuit village of Pond Inlet. The new accessibility of this region has brought an unprecedented wave of tourists to Pond. For residents this is one of the many mixed blessings of climate change.
S1E4Wild Science
Dec 4, 201443mWe depart coastal civilization for Lancaster Sound, a wilderness teeming with whales, birds and bears which is now being swarmed by scientists racing to understand the biological effects of climate change.
S1E5Arctic Exiles
Dec 5, 201443mCrossing the Northwest Passage remains an immense challenge despite the melting ice. Halfway through their journey, some explorers break down and fall back, leaving others exiled.
S1E6Surviving Civilization
Dec 8, 201443mIn the little coastal village of Gjoa Haven deep in the Northwest Passage, modern life - driven by Canada's ongoing efforts to dominate this territory - has led to very mixed results.
S1E7Arctic Crossroads
Dec 9, 201443mLate August finds our explorers at the halfway point of the Northwest Passage in Cambridge Bay, racing against the return of winter. Undiscovered until the 20th century, this is an ancient crossing place where surreal contrasts abound.
S1E8Melting Land
Dec 10, 201443mRichard Tegner has hitched a new and luxurious ride and is sailing west along a melting coast. Climate change is turning the Arctic green and the consequences are as complex as they are frightening.
S1E9Striking Oil
Dec 11, 201443mEntering Alaska, USA, the Northwest Passage transforms from wild terrain into an industrial corridor lined with oil rigs. As ice melts, newly revealed oil and minerals create a bitter divide between petrol politics and reality.
S1E10A Passage to the Future
Dec 12, 201443mTwo months after they began their journey, our explorers finally exit the Bering Strait and complete the Northwest Passage, but not before passing one last astonishing impact of climate change: an entire community sinking into the sea.