The awe-inspiring and breathtaking pictures of life and survival on our melting polar worlds

Daily Mail ^ | October 15th 2011 | Craig Mackenzie

[Cardhu]

These stunning images reveal a remarkable glimpse of life at the ends of the earth. Our melting polar worlds have been captured in breathtaking pictures by the BBC for this autumn's landmark natural history series Frozen Planet. It is the last chance to see the world's greatest wildernesses before they change forever, according to narrator Sir David Attenborough.

'The pictures captured behaviour and phenomena that had never before been recorded,' said Sir David, 85. 'Those pictures will become increasingly valuable as time passes.

'For this may well prove to be our last chance to record, in their full splendour, these astonishing wonderlands that have existed for hundreds of thousands of years before humans reached them and which now, within a century, may change beyond

[Eagles6]

True. We are between ice ages and toward the end of this warm period. Soon enough a large part of the northern hemisphere will once again be a ‘polar wilderness’.

[yorkie]

"Isn't she - the female of the species is always cute except in birds"

I wonder if the male of this species thinks she is cute?

Female Naked Mole Rat

[runninglips]

I will say this, God help us all if the planet starts a significant downturn in temperature. Many will starve, many will die, and that is not opinion, but fact.

[ml/nj]

A giant iceberg hundreds of metres across which would dwarf most of the world's buildings. It collapsed from Store Glacier on the west coast of Greenland.

It is instructive to read about how and why icebergs come about. There's plenty of snow and ice in Maine but there are no icebergs calving from its coast.

ML/NJ

[Cardhu]

OMG - How do they ever reproduce?

[yorkie]

How do they ever reproduce?

Well, you see, the male gets... uh.......and the female ... uh ........Wait a minute - didn't your parents tell you how reproduction occurs?

[Cardhu]

didn't your parents tell you how reproduction occurs?

Yes they did but they sort or mentioned something about luving - I wonder if these naked mole rats are blind.

[yorkie]

"luving"?

I thought that was something only 'wimmin' believed in....besides - what does vision have to do with 'luving'?

To the naked mole rat - I'll bet she is the most beautiful thing in the world. If he is blind, he can feel the hairy warts, at least. LOL!!!

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

It’s dark down in the tunnels.
:)

[RedMDer]

[Cardhu]

YUK!

[running_dog_lackey]

-—Our melting polar worlds have been captured in breathtaking pictures by the BBC for this autumn’s landmark natural history series Frozen Planet.-—
Is the BBC solar powered? Why don’t they save the planet by broadcasting an appeal to their viewers to turn off their TVs and never watch them again. Then they can shut down the power to the BBC and go home and sit in the dark.

[Hunton Peck]

Now, now. Don’t look a .gif horse in the mouth, much less a .gif bear!

[Cardhu]

Then that explains the evolutionary minimalism

[Cardhu]

:)

[tiapam]

"My arm still hurts where my wife punched me."

LOL!

[yorkie]

albie - the BEST post (bar none) of the day!!!

[tiapam]

Wonderful pictures....Thank you!!

[Cardhu]

Thank you tiapam - I am off to bed now.

[truthguy]

Yet it sometimes seems we get better (truthful, balanced) coverage of our politics from the Brits than the American press. Why is that?

Your partially correct. Sometimes the British Press will cover stories the American Press won't touch. For example when we have riots here that have a racial component, the British Press is more likely to point out this, whereas the American Press is so PC it's sickening. And the Brits love it when they can show America having problems. They thrive on that.

But the British Press is very lousy covering American Politics. They really don't understand American Politics very well. I know a Brit who has lived here for over 25 years and just got American Citizenship about 5 years ago. He's a bright and educated fellow. But he told me that he didn't understand American Politics until he had lived here 10-15 years at least. It took that long.