Witness the extraordinary life of Dr. Lonnie Thompson, an explorer who went where no scientist had gone before and transformed our idea of what is possible. Daring to seek Earth’s history contained in glaciers atop the tallest mountains in the world, Lonnie found himself on the frontlines of climate change—his life’s work evolving into a salvage mission to recover these priceless historical records before they disappear forever.
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Short filmTranscript
00:00 In the old days, you took a canary into the mine.
00:04 If it dies, then it's time for you to flee the mine.
00:08 My first encounter with Lonnie, it was like I was meeting a real-life Indiana Jones.
00:16 Lonnie is a visionary. He saw that global climate history captured in these glaciers.
00:23 Lonnie was going where no scientist had gone before. It seemed to be impossible.
00:28 It's too high for human beings.
00:30 It's dangerous.
00:31 There's no way you're going to drill in this remote part of the world.
00:34 You're wasting your time.
00:36 Science can only advance when you do things other people think can't be done.
00:44 He was on a mission to find his place in this world.
00:49 I had no idea what I was getting into. I had never climbed a mountain.
00:53 I had no idea what it would take.
00:55 This was a huge departure from usual.
00:58 There was something wrong.
01:00 My doctor said, "You have one option and one option only, and that is to have a heart transplant."
01:06 You just keep going.
01:10 He was in denial.
01:14 I remember watching him struggle to breathe, thinking to myself, "You're not going to survive this."
01:20 Having gone through these near-death experiences, my message was to help bring together the world.
01:27 This glacier started disappearing before Lonnie's eyes.
01:33 He thought he could change something.
01:35 If he doesn't do it, nobody would.
01:38 Lonnie didn't come to climate change. Climate change came to him.
01:42 Humans can create it. Humans can solve it.
01:47 I don't believe there's anything that we cannot achieve.
01:52 [Climate Change]
01:56 (wind whooshing)