0:00:00.764,0:00:04.094
Let's go south.

0:00:04.094,0:00:10.539
All of you are actually going south.

0:00:10.539,0:00:15.229
This is the direction of south, this way,

0:00:15.229,0:00:21.749
and if you go 8,000 kilometers[br]out of the back of this room,

0:00:21.749,0:00:26.982
you will come to as far south[br]as you can go anywhere on Earth,

0:00:26.982,0:00:29.393
the Pole itself.

0:00:29.393,0:00:33.201
Now, I am not an explorer.

0:00:33.201,0:00:36.753
I'm not an environmentalist.

0:00:36.753,0:00:40.282
I'm actually just a survivor,

0:00:40.282,0:00:45.851
and these photographs[br]that I'm showing you here are dangerous.

0:00:45.851,0:00:51.976
They are the ice melt[br]of the South and North Poles.

0:00:51.976,0:00:53.516
And ladies and gentlemen,

0:00:53.516,0:00:59.944
we need to listen to what[br]these places are telling us,

0:00:59.944,0:01:06.190
and if we don't, we will end up[br]with our own survival situation

0:01:06.190,0:01:09.636
here on planet Earth.

0:01:09.636,0:01:15.668
I have faced head-on these places,

0:01:15.668,0:01:20.196
and to walk across a melting ocean of ice

0:01:20.196,0:01:23.330
is without doubt[br]the most frightening thing

0:01:23.330,0:01:27.117
that's ever happened to me.

0:01:27.117,0:01:33.064
Antarctica is such a hopeful place.

0:01:33.064,0:01:39.695
It is protected by [br]the Antarctic Treaty, signed in 1959.

0:01:40.845,0:01:47.100
In 1991, a 50-year agreement[br]was entered into

0:01:47.100,0:01:52.855
that stops any exploitation in Antarctica,

0:01:52.855,0:01:57.695
and this agreement could be altered,

0:01:57.695,0:02:03.058
changed, modified, or even abandoned

0:02:03.058,0:02:07.907
starting in the year 2041.

0:02:09.527,0:02:12.299
Ladies and gentlemen,

0:02:12.299,0:02:18.267
people already far up north[br]from here in the Arctic

0:02:18.267,0:02:21.378
are already taking advantage

0:02:21.378,0:02:25.325
of this ice melt,

0:02:25.325,0:02:31.553
taking out resources from areas[br]already that have been covered in ice

0:02:31.553,0:02:34.961
for the last 10, 20, 30,000,

0:02:34.961,0:02:38.305
100,000 years.

0:02:38.305,0:02:41.578
Can they not join the dots

0:02:41.578,0:02:47.940
and think, "Why is the ice[br]actually melting?"

0:02:47.940,0:02:51.284
This is such an amazing place,

0:02:51.284,0:02:55.138
the Antarctic, and I have worked hard

0:02:55.138,0:03:00.293
for the last 23 years on this mission

0:03:00.293,0:03:04.297
to make sure that what's happening[br]up here in the North

0:03:04.297,0:03:09.716
does never happen, [br]cannot happen in the South.

0:03:09.716,0:03:11.508
Where did this all begin?

0:03:11.508,0:03:14.457
It began for me at the age of 11.

0:03:14.457,0:03:17.452
Check out that haircut. [br]It's a bit odd. (Laughter)

0:03:17.452,0:03:22.556
And at the age of 11, [br]I was inspired by the real explorers

0:03:22.556,0:03:27.320
to want to try to be the first[br]to walk to both Poles.

0:03:27.320,0:03:31.685
I found it incredibly inspiring

0:03:31.685,0:03:35.563
that the idea of becoming a polar traveler

0:03:35.563,0:03:39.910
went down pretty well with girls [br]at parties when I was at university.

0:03:39.910,0:03:41.878
That was a bit more inspiring.

0:03:41.878,0:03:45.500
And after years, seven[br]years of fundraising,

0:03:45.500,0:03:48.147
seven years of being told no,

0:03:48.147,0:03:54.393
seven years of being told[br]by my family to seek counseling

0:03:54.393,0:03:58.155
and psychiatric help,

0:03:58.155,0:04:04.112
eventually three of us found ourselves[br]marching to the South Geographic Pole

0:04:04.112,0:04:10.140
on the longest unassisted march[br]ever made anywhere on Earth in history.

0:04:10.140,0:04:13.874
In this photograph,[br]we are standing in an area

0:04:13.874,0:04:17.612
the size of the United States of America,

0:04:17.612,0:04:18.936
and we're on our own.

0:04:18.936,0:04:22.467
We have no radio [br]communications, no backup.

0:04:22.467,0:04:29.281
Beneath our feet,[br]90 percent of all the world's ice,

0:04:30.220,0:04:34.353
70 percent of all the world's fresh water.

0:04:34.353,0:04:36.095
We're standing on it.

0:04:36.095,0:04:40.762
This is the power of Antarctica.

0:04:40.762,0:04:44.268
On this journey, we faced[br]the danger of crevasses,

0:04:44.268,0:04:46.566
intense cold,

0:04:46.566,0:04:52.046
so cold that sweat turns[br]to ice inside your clothing,

0:04:52.046,0:04:53.834
your teeth can crack,

0:04:53.834,0:04:55.993
water can freeze in your eyes.

0:04:55.993,0:04:59.058
Let's just say it's a bit chilly.[br](Laughter)

0:04:59.058,0:05:03.229
And after 70 desperate days,[br]we arrive at the South Pole.

0:05:03.229,0:05:04.977
We had done it.

0:05:04.977,0:05:10.696
But something happened to me[br]on that 70-day journey in 1986

0:05:10.696,0:05:13.500
that brought me here, and it hurt.

0:05:13.500,0:05:18.615
My eyes changed color[br]in 70 days through damage.

0:05:18.615,0:05:20.652
Our faces blistered out.

0:05:20.652,0:05:25.644
The skin ripped off[br]and we wondered why.

0:05:25.644,0:05:29.173
And when we got home,[br]we were told by NASA

0:05:29.173,0:05:32.029
that a hole in the ozone[br]had been discovered

0:05:32.029,0:05:33.562
above the South Pole,

0:05:33.562,0:05:38.925
and we'd walked underneath it[br]the same year it had been discovered.

0:05:38.925,0:05:44.896
Ultraviolet rays down, hit the ice,[br]bounced back, fried out the eyes,

0:05:44.896,0:05:48.027
ripped off our faces.

0:05:48.027,0:05:51.371
It was a bit of a shock --[br](Laughter) --

0:05:51.371,0:05:54.877
and it started me thinking.

0:05:54.877,0:05:58.104
In 1989, we now head north.

0:05:58.104,0:06:02.743
Sixty days, every step away[br]from the safety of land

0:06:02.743,0:06:04.629
across a frozen ocean.

0:06:04.629,0:06:06.854
It was desperately cold again.

0:06:06.854,0:06:12.937
Here's me coming in from washing[br]naked at -60 Celsius.

0:06:13.823,0:06:18.304
And if anybody ever says to you,[br]"I am cold" -- (Laughter) --

0:06:18.305,0:06:24.040
if they look like this, [br]they are cold, definitely.

0:06:24.040,0:06:26.958
(Applause)

0:06:26.958,0:06:32.982
And 1,000 kilometers away[br]from the safety of land,

0:06:32.982,0:06:35.646
disaster strikes.

0:06:35.646,0:06:43.401
The Arctic Ocean melts beneath our feet[br]four months before it ever had in history,

0:06:43.401,0:06:46.910
and we're 1,000 kilometers from safety.

0:06:46.910,0:06:52.684
The ice is crashing around us, grinding,[br]and I'm thinking, "Are we going to die?"

0:06:53.411,0:06:57.614
But something clicked[br]in my head on this day,

0:06:57.614,0:07:04.706
as I realized we, as a world,[br]are in a survival situation,

0:07:04.706,0:07:09.070
and that feeling has never gone away[br]for 25 long years.

0:07:09.070,0:07:13.543
Back then, we had to march or die.

0:07:13.543,0:07:17.351
And we're not some TV survivor program.

0:07:17.351,0:07:20.282
When things go wrong for us,[br]it's life or death,

0:07:20.282,0:07:23.596
and our brave African-American Daryl,

0:07:23.596,0:07:27.474
who would become the first American[br]to walk to the North Pole,

0:07:27.474,0:07:32.064
his heel dropped off [br]from frostbite 200 klicks out.

0:07:32.071,0:07:34.231
He must keep going, he does,

0:07:34.231,0:07:39.061
and after 60 days on the ice,[br]we stood at the North Pole.

0:07:39.061,0:07:40.555
We had done it.

0:07:40.555,0:07:45.825
Yes, I became the first person in history[br]stupid enough to walk to both Poles,

0:07:45.825,0:07:48.217
but it was our success.

0:07:49.387,0:07:53.247
And sadly, on return home,

0:07:53.247,0:07:56.382
it was not all fun.

0:07:56.382,0:07:58.123
I became very low.

0:07:58.123,0:08:04.412
To succeed at something is often harder[br]than actually making it happen.

0:08:04.412,0:08:08.525
I was empty, lonely,[br]financially destroyed.

0:08:08.525,0:08:10.870
I was without hope,

0:08:10.870,0:08:14.585
but hope came in the form[br]of the great Jacques Cousteau,

0:08:14.585,0:08:19.981
and he inspired me to take on [br]the 2041 mission.

0:08:19.981,0:08:23.153
Being Jacques, he gave me[br]clear instructions:

0:08:23.153,0:08:27.550
Engage the world leaders,[br]talk to industry and business,

0:08:27.550,0:08:31.489
and above all, Rob, inspire young people,

0:08:31.489,0:08:36.344
because they will choose the future[br]of the preservation of Antarctica.

0:08:36.344,0:08:40.730
For the world leaders, we've been[br]to every world Earth Summit,

0:08:40.730,0:08:45.095
all three of them,[br]with our brave yacht, 2041,

0:08:45.095,0:08:49.925
twice to Rio, once in '92, once in 2012,

0:08:49.925,0:08:53.547
and for the Earth Summit in Johannesburg,

0:08:53.547,0:09:00.859
we made the longest overland voyage[br]ever made with a yacht,

0:09:00.861,0:09:05.040
13,000 kilometers around[br]the whole of Southern Africa

0:09:05.040,0:09:11.518
doing our best to inspire[br]over a million young people in person

0:09:11.518,0:09:16.580
about 2041 and about their environment.

0:09:16.580,0:09:23.495
For the last 11 years,[br]we have taken over 1,000 people,

0:09:23.499,0:09:26.518
people from industry and business,[br]women and men from companies,

0:09:26.518,0:09:30.893
students from all over the world,[br]down to Antarctica,

0:09:30.893,0:09:34.002
and during those missions,[br]we've managed to pull out

0:09:34.002,0:09:39.652
over 1,500 tons of twisted metal[br]left in Antarctica.

0:09:39.652,0:09:43.111
That took eight years,[br]and I'm so proud of it

0:09:43.111,0:09:50.246
because we recycled all of it [br]back here in South America.

0:09:50.246,0:09:53.754
I have been inspired[br]ever since I could walk

0:09:53.754,0:09:57.051
to recycle by my mum.

0:09:57.051,0:09:59.528
Here she is, and my mum --

0:09:59.528,0:10:03.175
(Applause) --

0:10:03.175,0:10:05.872
my mum is still recycling,

0:10:05.872,0:10:10.847
and as she is in her 100th year,[br]isn't that fantastic?

0:10:10.847,0:10:13.197
(Applause)

0:10:13.197,0:10:16.439
And when -- I love my mum.

0:10:16.439,0:10:17.559
(Laughter)

0:10:17.559,0:10:20.780
But when Mum was born,

0:10:20.780,0:10:27.119
the population of our planet[br]was only 1.8 billion people,

0:10:27.119,0:10:29.070
and talking in terms of billions,

0:10:29.070,0:10:32.738
we have taken young people[br]from industry and business

0:10:32.738,0:10:34.944
from India, from China.

0:10:34.944,0:10:40.724
These are game-changing nations,[br]and will be hugely important

0:10:40.724,0:10:45.544
in the decision about[br]the preservation of the Antarctic.

0:10:45.544,0:10:52.393
Unbelievably, we've engaged and inspired[br]women to come from the Middle East,

0:10:52.393,0:10:58.551
often for the first time they've [br]represented their nations in Antarctica.

0:10:58.551,0:11:01.066
Fantastic people, so inspired.

0:11:01.066,0:11:04.322
To look after Antarctica,

0:11:04.322,0:11:10.658
you've got to first engage people[br]with this extraordinary place,

0:11:10.658,0:11:14.858
form a relationship, form a bond,

0:11:14.858,0:11:17.621
form some love.

0:11:17.621,0:11:21.080
It is such a privilege[br]to go to Antarctica,

0:11:21.080,0:11:22.427
I can't tell you.

0:11:22.427,0:11:24.006
I feel so lucky,

0:11:24.006,0:11:27.233
and I've been 35 times in my life,

0:11:27.233,0:11:31.951
and all those people who come with us[br]return home as great champions,

0:11:31.951,0:11:33.899
not only for Antarctica,

0:11:33.899,0:11:37.543
but for local issues[br]back in their own nations.

0:11:37.543,0:11:43.891
Let's go back to where we began:[br]the ice melt of the North and South Poles.

0:11:43.891,0:11:46.433
And it's not good news.

0:11:47.713,0:11:51.689
NASA informed us six months ago

0:11:51.689,0:11:56.688
that the Western Antarctic Ice Shelf[br]is now disintegrating.

0:11:56.688,0:11:59.113
Huge areas of ice --

0:11:59.113,0:12:03.385
look how big Antarctica is[br]even compared to here --

0:12:03.385,0:12:07.926
Huge areas of ice [br]are breaking off from Antarctica,

0:12:07.926,0:12:10.761
the size of small nations.

0:12:10.761,0:12:15.166
And NASA have calculated[br]that the sea level will rise,

0:12:15.166,0:12:17.340
it is definite,

0:12:17.340,0:12:20.753
by one meter in the next 100 years,

0:12:20.753,0:12:24.288
the same time that my mum[br]has been on planet Earth.

0:12:24.288,0:12:25.978
It's going to happen,

0:12:25.978,0:12:30.309
and I've realized that [br]the preservation of Antarctica

0:12:31.649,0:12:36.194
and our survival here on Earth are linked.

0:12:36.194,0:12:38.088
And there is a very simple solution.

0:12:38.088,0:12:43.607
If we are using more renewable energy[br]in the real world,

0:12:43.607,0:12:49.469
if we are being more efficient[br]with the energy here,

0:12:49.469,0:12:53.765
running our energy mix in a cleaner way,

0:12:53.765,0:12:58.611
there will be no financial reason[br]to go and exploit Antarctica.

0:12:58.611,0:13:00.670
It won't make financial sense,

0:13:00.670,0:13:07.366
and if we manage our energy better,[br]we also may be able to slow down,

0:13:08.366,0:13:10.506
maybe even stop,

0:13:10.506,0:13:13.547
this great ice melt that threatens us.

0:13:13.547,0:13:17.097
It's a big challenge, and what[br]is our response to it?

0:13:17.097,0:13:21.069
We've got to go back one last time,

0:13:21.069,0:13:22.965
and at the end of next year,

0:13:22.965,0:13:26.800
we will go back to the[br]South Geographic Pole,

0:13:26.800,0:13:31.052
where we arrived 30 years ago on foot,

0:13:31.052,0:13:36.777
and retrace our steps of 1,600 kilometers,

0:13:36.777,0:13:42.827
but this time only using[br]renewable energy to survive.

0:13:42.827,0:13:48.386
We will walk across those icecaps,[br]which far down below are melting,

0:13:48.386,0:13:53.295
hopefully inspiring some[br]solutions on that issue.

0:13:53.295,0:13:55.720
This is my son, Barney.

0:13:55.720,0:13:58.511
He is coming with me.

0:13:58.511,0:14:03.261
He is committed to walking[br]side by side with his father,

0:14:03.261,0:14:07.275
and what he will do is[br]to translate these messages

0:14:07.275,0:14:12.900
and inspire these messages[br]to the minds of future young leaders.

0:14:12.900,0:14:14.939
I'm extremely proud of him.

0:14:14.939,0:14:18.421
Good on him, Barney.

0:14:19.623,0:14:25.609
Ladies and gentlemen, [br]a survivor -- and I'm good --

0:14:26.198,0:14:33.535
a survivor sees a problem[br]and doesn't go, "Whatever."

0:14:34.686,0:14:38.846
A survivor sees a problem[br]and deals with that problem

0:14:38.846,0:14:41.919
before it becomes a threat.

0:14:41.919,0:14:47.967
We have 27 years[br]to preserve the Antarctic.

0:14:47.967,0:14:50.482
We all own it.

0:14:50.482,0:14:53.262
We all have responsibility.

0:14:53.262,0:14:58.232
The fact that nobody owns it [br]maybe means that we can succeed.

0:14:58.232,0:15:03.051
Antarctica is a moral line in the snow,

0:15:03.051,0:15:06.598
and on one side of that line[br]we should fight,

0:15:06.598,0:15:12.311
fight hard for this one beautiful,[br]pristine place left alone on Earth.

0:15:12.311,0:15:14.472
I know it's possible.

0:15:14.472,0:15:16.492
We are going to do it.

0:15:16.492,0:15:20.370
And I'll leave you with[br]these words from Goethe.

0:15:20.370,0:15:22.497
I've tried to live by them.

0:15:23.977,0:15:29.858
"If you can do, or dream you can,

0:15:31.262,0:15:34.234
begin it now,

0:15:34.234,0:15:41.026
for boldness has genius,[br]power and magic in it."

0:15:41.026,0:15:42.590
Good luck to you all.

0:15:42.590,0:15:44.750
Thank you very much.

0:15:44.750,0:15:49.115
(Applause)