1
00:00:00,764 --> 00:00:04,094
Let's go south.

2
00:00:04,094 --> 00:00:10,539
All of you are actually going south.

3
00:00:10,539 --> 00:00:15,229
This is the direction of south, this way,

4
00:00:15,229 --> 00:00:21,749
and if you go 8,000 kilometers
out of the back of this room,

5
00:00:21,749 --> 00:00:26,982
you will come to as far south
as you can go anywhere on Earth,

6
00:00:26,982 --> 00:00:29,393
the Pole itself.

7
00:00:29,393 --> 00:00:33,201
Now, I am not an explorer.

8
00:00:33,201 --> 00:00:36,753
I'm not an environmentalist.

9
00:00:36,753 --> 00:00:40,282
I'm actually just a survivor,

10
00:00:40,282 --> 00:00:45,851
and these photographs
that I'm showing you here are dangerous.

11
00:00:45,851 --> 00:00:51,976
They are the ice melt
of the South and North Poles.

12
00:00:51,976 --> 00:00:53,516
And ladies and gentlemen,

13
00:00:53,516 --> 00:00:59,944
we need to listen to what
these places are telling us,

14
00:00:59,944 --> 00:01:06,190
and if we don't, we will end up
with our own survival situation

15
00:01:06,190 --> 00:01:09,636
here on planet Earth.

16
00:01:09,636 --> 00:01:15,668
I have faced head-on these places,

17
00:01:15,668 --> 00:01:20,196
and to walk across a melting ocean of ice

18
00:01:20,196 --> 00:01:23,330
is without doubt
the most frightening thing

19
00:01:23,330 --> 00:01:27,117
that's ever happened to me.

20
00:01:27,117 --> 00:01:33,064
Antarctica is such a hopeful place.

21
00:01:33,064 --> 00:01:39,695
It is protected by 
the Antarctic Treaty, signed in 1959.

22
00:01:40,845 --> 00:01:47,100
In 1991, a 50-year agreement
was entered into

23
00:01:47,100 --> 00:01:52,855
that stops any exploitation in Antarctica,

24
00:01:52,855 --> 00:01:57,695
and this agreement could be altered,

25
00:01:57,695 --> 00:02:03,058
changed, modified, or even abandoned

26
00:02:03,058 --> 00:02:07,907
starting in the year 2041.

27
00:02:09,527 --> 00:02:12,299
Ladies and gentlemen,

28
00:02:12,299 --> 00:02:18,267
people already far up north
from here in the Arctic

29
00:02:18,267 --> 00:02:21,378
are already taking advantage

30
00:02:21,378 --> 00:02:25,325
of this ice melt,

31
00:02:25,325 --> 00:02:31,553
taking out resources from areas
already that have been covered in ice

32
00:02:31,553 --> 00:02:34,961
for the last 10, 20, 30,000,

33
00:02:34,961 --> 00:02:38,305
100,000 years.

34
00:02:38,305 --> 00:02:41,578
Can they not join the dots

35
00:02:41,578 --> 00:02:47,940
and think, "Why is the ice
actually melting?"

36
00:02:47,940 --> 00:02:51,284
This is such an amazing place,

37
00:02:51,284 --> 00:02:55,138
the Antarctic, and I have worked hard

38
00:02:55,138 --> 00:03:00,293
for the last 23 years on this mission

39
00:03:00,293 --> 00:03:04,297
to make sure that what's happening
up here in the North

40
00:03:04,297 --> 00:03:09,716
does never happen, 
cannot happen in the South.

41
00:03:09,716 --> 00:03:11,508
Where did this all begin?

42
00:03:11,508 --> 00:03:14,457
It began for me at the age of 11.

43
00:03:14,457 --> 00:03:17,452
Check out that haircut. 
It's a bit odd. (Laughter)

44
00:03:17,452 --> 00:03:22,556
And at the age of 11, 
I was inspired by the real explorers

45
00:03:22,556 --> 00:03:27,320
to want to try to be the first
to walk to both Poles.

46
00:03:27,320 --> 00:03:31,685
I found it incredibly inspiring

47
00:03:31,685 --> 00:03:35,563
that the idea of becoming a polar traveler

48
00:03:35,563 --> 00:03:39,910
went down pretty well with girls 
at parties when I was at university.

49
00:03:39,910 --> 00:03:41,878
That was a bit more inspiring.

50
00:03:41,878 --> 00:03:45,500
And after years, seven
years of fundraising,

51
00:03:45,500 --> 00:03:48,147
seven years of being told no,

52
00:03:48,147 --> 00:03:54,393
seven years of being told
by my family to seek counseling

53
00:03:54,393 --> 00:03:58,155
and psychiatric help,

54
00:03:58,155 --> 00:04:04,112
eventually three of us found ourselves
marching to the South Geographic Pole

55
00:04:04,112 --> 00:04:10,140
on the longest unassisted march
ever made anywhere on Earth in history.

56
00:04:10,140 --> 00:04:13,874
In this photograph,
we are standing in an area

57
00:04:13,874 --> 00:04:17,612
the size of the United States of America,

58
00:04:17,612 --> 00:04:18,936
and we're on our own.

59
00:04:18,936 --> 00:04:22,467
We have no radio 
communications, no backup.

60
00:04:22,467 --> 00:04:29,281
Beneath our feet,
90 percent of all the world's ice,

61
00:04:30,220 --> 00:04:34,353
70 percent of all the world's fresh water.

62
00:04:34,353 --> 00:04:36,095
We're standing on it.

63
00:04:36,095 --> 00:04:40,762
This is the power of Antarctica.

64
00:04:40,762 --> 00:04:44,268
On this journey, we faced
the danger of crevasses,

65
00:04:44,268 --> 00:04:46,566
intense cold,

66
00:04:46,566 --> 00:04:52,046
so cold that sweat turns
to ice inside your clothing,

67
00:04:52,046 --> 00:04:53,834
your teeth can crack,

68
00:04:53,834 --> 00:04:55,993
water can freeze in your eyes.

69
00:04:55,993 --> 00:04:59,058
Let's just say it's a bit chilly.
(Laughter)

70
00:04:59,058 --> 00:05:03,229
And after 70 desperate days,
we arrive at the South Pole.

71
00:05:03,229 --> 00:05:04,977
We had done it.

72
00:05:04,977 --> 00:05:10,696
But something happened to me
on that 70-day journey in 1986

73
00:05:10,696 --> 00:05:13,500
that brought me here, and it hurt.

74
00:05:13,500 --> 00:05:18,615
My eyes changed color
in 70 days through damage.

75
00:05:18,615 --> 00:05:20,652
Our faces blistered out.

76
00:05:20,652 --> 00:05:25,644
The skin ripped off
and we wondered why.

77
00:05:25,644 --> 00:05:29,173
And when we got home,
we were told by NASA

78
00:05:29,173 --> 00:05:32,029
that a hole in the ozone
had been discovered

79
00:05:32,029 --> 00:05:33,562
above the South Pole,

80
00:05:33,562 --> 00:05:38,925
and we'd walked underneath it
the same year it had been discovered.

81
00:05:38,925 --> 00:05:44,896
Ultraviolet rays down, hit the ice,
bounced back, fried out the eyes,

82
00:05:44,896 --> 00:05:48,027
ripped off our faces.

83
00:05:48,027 --> 00:05:51,371
It was a bit of a shock --
(Laughter) --

84
00:05:51,371 --> 00:05:54,877
and it started me thinking.

85
00:05:54,877 --> 00:05:58,104
In 1989, we now head north.

86
00:05:58,104 --> 00:06:02,743
Sixty days, every step away
from the safety of land

87
00:06:02,743 --> 00:06:04,629
across a frozen ocean.

88
00:06:04,629 --> 00:06:06,854
It was desperately cold again.

89
00:06:06,854 --> 00:06:12,937
Here's me coming in from washing
naked at -60 Celsius.

90
00:06:13,823 --> 00:06:18,304
And if anybody ever says to you,
"I am cold" -- (Laughter) --

91
00:06:18,305 --> 00:06:24,040
if they look like this, 
they are cold, definitely.

92
00:06:24,040 --> 00:06:26,958
(Applause)

93
00:06:26,958 --> 00:06:32,982
And 1,000 kilometers away
from the safety of land,

94
00:06:32,982 --> 00:06:35,646
disaster strikes.

95
00:06:35,646 --> 00:06:43,401
The Arctic Ocean melts beneath our feet
four months before it ever had in history,

96
00:06:43,401 --> 00:06:46,910
and we're 1,000 kilometers from safety.

97
00:06:46,910 --> 00:06:52,684
The ice is crashing around us, grinding,
and I'm thinking, "Are we going to die?"

98
00:06:53,411 --> 00:06:57,614
But something clicked
in my head on this day,

99
00:06:57,614 --> 00:07:04,706
as I realized we, as a world,
are in a survival situation,

100
00:07:04,706 --> 00:07:09,070
and that feeling has never gone away
for 25 long years.

101
00:07:09,070 --> 00:07:13,543
Back then, we had to march or die.

102
00:07:13,543 --> 00:07:17,351
And we're not some TV survivor program.

103
00:07:17,351 --> 00:07:20,282
When things go wrong for us,
it's life or death,

104
00:07:20,282 --> 00:07:23,596
and our brave African-American Daryl,

105
00:07:23,596 --> 00:07:27,474
who would become the first American
to walk to the North Pole,

106
00:07:27,474 --> 00:07:32,064
his heel dropped off 
from frostbite 200 klicks out.

107
00:07:32,071 --> 00:07:34,231
He must keep going, he does,

108
00:07:34,231 --> 00:07:39,061
and after 60 days on the ice,
we stood at the North Pole.

109
00:07:39,061 --> 00:07:40,555
We had done it.

110
00:07:40,555 --> 00:07:45,825
Yes, I became the first person in history
stupid enough to walk to both Poles,

111
00:07:45,825 --> 00:07:48,217
but it was our success.

112
00:07:49,387 --> 00:07:53,247
And sadly, on return home,

113
00:07:53,247 --> 00:07:56,382
it was not all fun.

114
00:07:56,382 --> 00:07:58,123
I became very low.

115
00:07:58,123 --> 00:08:04,412
To succeed at something is often harder
than actually making it happen.

116
00:08:04,412 --> 00:08:08,525
I was empty, lonely,
financially destroyed.

117
00:08:08,525 --> 00:08:10,870
I was without hope,

118
00:08:10,870 --> 00:08:14,585
but hope came in the form
of the great Jacques Cousteau,

119
00:08:14,585 --> 00:08:19,981
and he inspired me to take on 
the 2041 mission.

120
00:08:19,981 --> 00:08:23,153
Being Jacques, he gave me
clear instructions:

121
00:08:23,153 --> 00:08:27,550
Engage the world leaders,
talk to industry and business,

122
00:08:27,550 --> 00:08:31,489
and above all, Rob, inspire young people,

123
00:08:31,489 --> 00:08:36,344
because they will choose the future
of the preservation of Antarctica.

124
00:08:36,344 --> 00:08:40,730
For the world leaders, we've been
to every world Earth Summit,

125
00:08:40,730 --> 00:08:45,095
all three of them,
with our brave yacht, 2041,

126
00:08:45,095 --> 00:08:49,925
twice to Rio, once in '92, once in 2012,

127
00:08:49,925 --> 00:08:53,547
and for the Earth Summit in Johannesburg,

128
00:08:53,547 --> 00:09:00,859
we made the longest overland voyage
ever made with a yacht,

129
00:09:00,861 --> 00:09:05,040
13,000 kilometers around
the whole of Southern Africa

130
00:09:05,040 --> 00:09:11,518
doing our best to inspire
over a million young people in person

131
00:09:11,518 --> 00:09:16,580
about 2041 and about their environment.

132
00:09:16,580 --> 00:09:23,495
For the last 11 years,
we have taken over 1,000 people,

133
00:09:23,499 --> 00:09:26,518
people from industry and business,
women and men from companies,

134
00:09:26,518 --> 00:09:30,893
students from all over the world,
down to Antarctica,

135
00:09:30,893 --> 00:09:34,002
and during those missions,
we've managed to pull out

136
00:09:34,002 --> 00:09:39,652
over 1,500 tons of twisted metal
left in Antarctica.

137
00:09:39,652 --> 00:09:43,111
That took eight years,
and I'm so proud of it

138
00:09:43,111 --> 00:09:50,246
because we recycled all of it 
back here in South America.

139
00:09:50,246 --> 00:09:53,754
I have been inspired
ever since I could walk

140
00:09:53,754 --> 00:09:57,051
to recycle by my mum.

141
00:09:57,051 --> 00:09:59,528
Here she is, and my mum --

142
00:09:59,528 --> 00:10:03,175
(Applause) --

143
00:10:03,175 --> 00:10:05,872
my mum is still recycling,

144
00:10:05,872 --> 00:10:10,847
and as she is in her 100th year,
isn't that fantastic?

145
00:10:10,847 --> 00:10:13,197
(Applause)

146
00:10:13,197 --> 00:10:16,439
And when -- I love my mum.

147
00:10:16,439 --> 00:10:17,559
(Laughter)

148
00:10:17,559 --> 00:10:20,780
But when Mum was born,

149
00:10:20,780 --> 00:10:27,119
the population of our planet
was only 1.8 billion people,

150
00:10:27,119 --> 00:10:29,070
and talking in terms of billions,

151
00:10:29,070 --> 00:10:32,738
we have taken young people
from industry and business

152
00:10:32,738 --> 00:10:34,944
from India, from China.

153
00:10:34,944 --> 00:10:40,724
These are game-changing nations,
and will be hugely important

154
00:10:40,724 --> 00:10:45,544
in the decision about
the preservation of the Antarctic.

155
00:10:45,544 --> 00:10:52,393
Unbelievably, we've engaged and inspired
women to come from the Middle East,

156
00:10:52,393 --> 00:10:58,551
often for the first time they've 
represented their nations in Antarctica.

157
00:10:58,551 --> 00:11:01,066
Fantastic people, so inspired.

158
00:11:01,066 --> 00:11:04,322
To look after Antarctica,

159
00:11:04,322 --> 00:11:10,658
you've got to first engage people
with this extraordinary place,

160
00:11:10,658 --> 00:11:14,858
form a relationship, form a bond,

161
00:11:14,858 --> 00:11:17,621
form some love.

162
00:11:17,621 --> 00:11:21,080
It is such a privilege
to go to Antarctica,

163
00:11:21,080 --> 00:11:22,427
I can't tell you.

164
00:11:22,427 --> 00:11:24,006
I feel so lucky,

165
00:11:24,006 --> 00:11:27,233
and I've been 35 times in my life,

166
00:11:27,233 --> 00:11:31,951
and all those people who come with us
return home as great champions,

167
00:11:31,951 --> 00:11:33,899
not only for Antarctica,

168
00:11:33,899 --> 00:11:37,543
but for local issues
back in their own nations.

169
00:11:37,543 --> 00:11:43,891
Let's go back to where we began:
the ice melt of the North and South Poles.

170
00:11:43,891 --> 00:11:46,433
And it's not good news.

171
00:11:47,713 --> 00:11:51,689
NASA informed us six months ago

172
00:11:51,689 --> 00:11:56,688
that the Western Antarctic Ice Shelf
is now disintegrating.

173
00:11:56,688 --> 00:11:59,113
Huge areas of ice --

174
00:11:59,113 --> 00:12:03,385
look how big Antarctica is
even compared to here --

175
00:12:03,385 --> 00:12:07,926
Huge areas of ice 
are breaking off from Antarctica,

176
00:12:07,926 --> 00:12:10,761
the size of small nations.

177
00:12:10,761 --> 00:12:15,166
And NASA have calculated
that the sea level will rise,

178
00:12:15,166 --> 00:12:17,340
it is definite,

179
00:12:17,340 --> 00:12:20,753
by one meter in the next 100 years,

180
00:12:20,753 --> 00:12:24,288
the same time that my mum
has been on planet Earth.

181
00:12:24,288 --> 00:12:25,978
It's going to happen,

182
00:12:25,978 --> 00:12:30,309
and I've realized that 
the preservation of Antarctica

183
00:12:31,649 --> 00:12:36,194
and our survival here on Earth are linked.

184
00:12:36,194 --> 00:12:38,088
And there is a very simple solution.

185
00:12:38,088 --> 00:12:43,607
If we are using more renewable energy
in the real world,

186
00:12:43,607 --> 00:12:49,469
if we are being more efficient
with the energy here,

187
00:12:49,469 --> 00:12:53,765
running our energy mix in a cleaner way,

188
00:12:53,765 --> 00:12:58,611
there will be no financial reason
to go and exploit Antarctica.

189
00:12:58,611 --> 00:13:00,670
It won't make financial sense,

190
00:13:00,670 --> 00:13:07,366
and if we manage our energy better,
we also may be able to slow down,

191
00:13:08,366 --> 00:13:10,506
maybe even stop,

192
00:13:10,506 --> 00:13:13,547
this great ice melt that threatens us.

193
00:13:13,547 --> 00:13:17,097
It's a big challenge, and what
is our response to it?

194
00:13:17,097 --> 00:13:21,069
We've got to go back one last time,

195
00:13:21,069 --> 00:13:22,965
and at the end of next year,

196
00:13:22,965 --> 00:13:26,800
we will go back to the
South Geographic Pole,

197
00:13:26,800 --> 00:13:31,052
where we arrived 30 years ago on foot,

198
00:13:31,052 --> 00:13:36,777
and retrace our steps of 1,600 kilometers,

199
00:13:36,777 --> 00:13:42,827
but this time only using
renewable energy to survive.

200
00:13:42,827 --> 00:13:48,386
We will walk across those icecaps,
which far down below are melting,

201
00:13:48,386 --> 00:13:53,295
hopefully inspiring some
solutions on that issue.

202
00:13:53,295 --> 00:13:55,720
This is my son, Barney.

203
00:13:55,720 --> 00:13:58,511
He is coming with me.

204
00:13:58,511 --> 00:14:03,261
He is committed to walking
side by side with his father,

205
00:14:03,261 --> 00:14:07,275
and what he will do is
to translate these messages

206
00:14:07,275 --> 00:14:12,900
and inspire these messages
to the minds of future young leaders.

207
00:14:12,900 --> 00:14:14,939
I'm extremely proud of him.

208
00:14:14,939 --> 00:14:18,421
Good on him, Barney.

209
00:14:19,623 --> 00:14:25,609
Ladies and gentlemen, 
a survivor -- and I'm good --

210
00:14:26,198 --> 00:14:33,535
a survivor sees a problem
and doesn't go, "Whatever."

211
00:14:34,686 --> 00:14:38,846
A survivor sees a problem
and deals with that problem

212
00:14:38,846 --> 00:14:41,919
before it becomes a threat.

213
00:14:41,919 --> 00:14:47,967
We have 27 years
to preserve the Antarctic.

214
00:14:47,967 --> 00:14:50,482
We all own it.

215
00:14:50,482 --> 00:14:53,262
We all have responsibility.

216
00:14:53,262 --> 00:14:58,232
The fact that nobody owns it 
maybe means that we can succeed.

217
00:14:58,232 --> 00:15:03,051
Antarctica is a moral line in the snow,

218
00:15:03,051 --> 00:15:06,598
and on one side of that line
we should fight,

219
00:15:06,598 --> 00:15:12,311
fight hard for this one beautiful,
pristine place left alone on Earth.

220
00:15:12,311 --> 00:15:14,472
I know it's possible.

221
00:15:14,472 --> 00:15:16,492
We are going to do it.

222
00:15:16,492 --> 00:15:20,370
And I'll leave you with
these words from Goethe.

223
00:15:20,370 --> 00:15:22,497
I've tried to live by them.

224
00:15:23,977 --> 00:15:29,858
"If you can do, or dream you can,

225
00:15:31,262 --> 00:15:34,234
begin it now,

226
00:15:34,234 --> 00:15:41,026
for boldness has genius,
power and magic in it."

227
00:15:41,026 --> 00:15:42,590
Good luck to you all.

228
00:15:42,590 --> 00:15:44,750
Thank you very much.

229
00:15:44,750 --> 00:15:49,115
(Applause)