Ready?! I'm scaling a glacier right now to show you 
a view that most people can never see of a   place we weren't even sure existed until 200 years ago. This... is ... Antarctica! And in 1985, it became the center of a global crisis. "The 
ozone layer still is disappearing." "A mysterious   massive hole." "The ozone is severely depleted." 
"Without immediate action, the sun we have always   worshiped, our children will soon fear." Directly 
over Antarctica, high up in the stratosphere,   was a massive hole. And if we hadn't done anything 
about it, today we'd be living in an alternate   world. By now, a hole would be forming over the 
North Pole as well. By 2040, that hole would be   over the entire planet. By 2065, skin cancer rates 
would be soaring. If you lived anywhere here, you'd   get a sunburn outside in five minutes. But that's 
not the world we're living in. In fact, you've   probably stopped hearing this story altogether. 
That wasn't by accident. It was a choice. In fact,   two choices, both of which dramatically changed 
the course of human history for the better. So,   let me show you how that happened and what's 
about to happen next. Because it turns out   this little sliver at the bottom of the map is 
actually the center of our whole planet. And you   need to see this right now because scientists 
say that we need to make the next big choice. I remember hearing all about the ozone hole as a 
kid. The situation seemed really dire even at 7   years old, but also really far away. "The problem 
is particularly bad in Antarctica." "A hole in the   atmospheric ozone." "Over Antarctica." "Antarctica." "A huge gap over Antarctica." And then one day the   news about it just stopped... and I stopped thinking 
about it. Until I got the opportunity to go to that   far away place. We're getting on the plane. Got to 
admit I'm a little bit nervous. Turns out getting   to Antarctica is a little sketchy. You can take a 
ship from the tip of South America, which is scary   because then you have to cross the Drake Passage, 
which is historically known as the deadliest ocean   passage in the world. Three oceans collide here. 
There are an estimated 800 shipwrecks somewhere at   the bottom of this passage. Or the other option is 
to fly on a plane like this one. We flew from Cape   Town traveling with the White Desert Foundation's 
Science Week, which supports scientific research   in Antarctica. The thing about the plane 
is it's also not without its scary things   because the runway that we're about to land on 
is made of ice. "Please fasten your seat belts." "Welcome to Antarctica." Fewer than 5,000 people are allowed on this 
entire continent right now. Almost all of   them scientists. No one owns Antarctica. It's an 
entire continent run by an international treaty   system for peace and science. But because it's so 
hard to get to, doing research here takes a huge   effort. It's typically limited to the Antarctic 
summer. Right now, it's summer and the sun never   sets. It's like 10:00 p.m. right now. 10 p.m. to 
me because all the time zones meet down here. So,   there's no official time zone at all. 
Researchers typically choose the time   zone of whoever gives them food, their supply 
base. And to make things even more complicated,   well... it's so slippery and so windy that the 
wind is pushing me backwards. Look at this! The wind is pushing me. The wind I'm 
not moving backward. It's just hard to   do anything here. And it wasn't any easier 
40 years ago when researchers first noticed   that ozone problem. We are gearing up 
for what should be about a 10hour hike. Now I got to put on these massive spikes to walk 
across this ice. I can report it is very cold and   very windy. I didn't quite realize what we were 
about to get ourselves into, but what we found at   the end was unlike anything I'd ever seen. Up 
here in the stratosphere, all over the Earth,   you'll find a bunch of molecules that shield 
us from radiation by absorbing harmful UV rays.   It's like a natural sunscreen for the Earth. This 
is the ozone layer. Scientists in this research   station have been watching it for decades. "One 
season, they just went, 'That's weird. is really   low. Like what's going on here?'" So, a small team 
set out to Antarctica to find out. "Leading the   team is Susan Solomon"... and I called up the 
researcher who led that trip. But back then,   she was a 30-year-old scientist with a question. 
"A lot of people didn't believe it at first. How   can this be happening? You know, what could 
possibly cause this?" What she was about to   discover would forever change the lives of you, 
me, and everyone else on this planet. And the   reason that she could figure it out was because 
of an incredible decision made decades prior that   changed the course of history. But while I'm here 
in Antarctica today, a very real problem is snow   blindness. Because of all the sun reflecting off 
the ice. Oh my god. Do not take your sunglasses   off. Snow blindness is a real thing. It's like 
looking at the sun. So I had to buy these special   sunglasses. And I'm buying them with this. This 
is my real Mercury card. Mercury is the tool that   we've used since we launched HUGE* If True to manage our 
finances. I started my Mercury account before I   launched this show. I feel cool. Do I look cool? 
Mercury really gets that what I want isn't just   money storage. It's financial tools that help 
me actually achieve our big, ambitious, creative   goals. It's why when we got the opportunity 
for this trip, we knew we could actually make   it happen. This was by far the biggest trip we've 
ever done. This was a ton of planning and a ton   of gear that we needed to buy. But with all of our 
finances in one place with Mercury, we could make   a budget and stay within it. They helped us get 
the equipment that we needed to stay safe and get   all of the incredible shots that we were dreaming 
of. It's all unbelievably intuitive and it's easy   to sign up. Mercury's been great for me and I 
think it would be for any entrepreneur or small   company. It's a financial technology company, not 
a bank. So, if you want to learn more about what   they can do, check the link in the description or 
go to mercury.com. And now I'm ready to go! If you   time traveled back to the 1950s, this incredible 
place of peace and science was almost a war zone.   It's the middle of the Cold War. Antarctica is 
some of the last unclaimed territory on Earth. So,   of course, countries are trying to grab it. If 
you look at a map during that time, it really   looks like pie slices with overlapping claims and 
two superpowers saying that they could just claim   it all. "Everybody was like, 'This is crazy.'" But 
then one day, a small group of scientists had a   different idea. If you ever find yourself doubting 
that a small group of people can change the world... It's April 5th, 1950. Some of the most famous 
geophysicists at the time gather together for a   dinner party. And someone says something like, 
'You know, we really should study what's going   on before they like destroy things in Antarctica.'
And they all agree. So they go to the governments   of the biggest countries fighting there and they 
say basically, 'Hey, could you just pause on the   claiming land thing like just for 18 months? You 
can get right back to it afterward. We promise.'  I'm paraphrasing here a lot. But this proposal 
actually works. "And they decided to run a massive   collaborative international program called the 
International Geophysical Year." Also known as   the IGY. It was an 18-month global effort starting 
in July of 1957. All of a sudden, these Cold War   rivals are suddenly setting up research stations 
all over the place, and they begin to uncover just   how important Antarctica really is. You can see 
this if instead of looking at your typical map of   the world, you flip it. Every year, ocean water 
freezes and melts around Antarctica. And that   causes these huge changes worldwide because as 
water freezes, salt gets pushed out and sinks,   driving all these global currents. The currents in 
California and India and Australia are all decided   in Antarctica. That's why scientists call it the 
heartbeat of the planet because this is actually   the center of the world. And the size of this 
continent is way bigger than you think. It's   bigger than all of Europe, bigger than the United 
States, twice the size of Australia. It's huge.   They also learned that the ice covering this huge 
continent was way thicker than we imagined. On   average, this ice is over 2 km or 1.3 miles thick. 
"Antarctica has a scary amount of water tied up in   its ice." Around 91% of the world's total fresh 
water is in the ice that I'm hiking across right   now. That if it melted, it would raise global 
sea levels by nearly 60m... ALL of this would be   underwater. Well, there goes my home. During the 
hike, there was an expression that the scientists   kept saying, which was 'nothing in Antarctica 
stays in Antarctica.' And the more I learned   about this place, the more I understood that. 
So, we're now about halfway to our destination,   and the landscape is getting more and more alien. 
And this is when we come across a little buddy. So they were figuring all of this out. And by 
1958, the IGY had been so successful that nobody   really wanted to stop and go back to the fighting. 
So they didn't. Our grandparents' generation chose   a different future. And in 1959, governments all 
around the world signed the Antarctic Treaty,   turning this place into the world's only 
science continent. You can see the treaty   happening in real time here. So, we just came 
from a UK camp. That's the Indian base right   there called Matri. And then beyond it, 
you can see the Russian base called Nova.   Today there are about 70 research stations all 
around Antarctica supporting scientists doing   all kinds of groundbreaking research. And during 
the IGY this particular base started collecting   constant data on ozone directly above Antarctica. 
And by 1985 they had 30 years of data to look back   on and could conclusively say there was a hole and 
we really needed to fix it. "Within a few years,   it was clear that ozone depletion was happening 
in the northern hemisphere, too. Now, it's getting   closer to home, and it's happening over places 
like Washington DC and Boston and Paris. You know,   it's not just an Antarctic problem." Dr. Solomon 
and her team ultimately concluded that the problem   was a chemical found in everyday products that 
were rising into the atmosphere, breaking apart,   and binding with ozone, and it would get worse 
if we didn't stop using them. So, our parents'   generation came together and chose a different 
future. Do you remember where you were when the   Montreal Protocol was signed? Do you like what was 
it? What was the experience like for you? "Well,   I was actually in Antarctica making measurements, 
so I was probably the last one to know. It was   an interesting feeling of being under the ozone 
hole, knowing that, you know, half a world away,   an incredible change had just occurred that really 
had a lot of potential to change things in the   future. And indeed, it did." By 2009, every single 
country in the world signed the Montreal Protocol,   effectively banning those chemicals. But the 
victory here wasn't just a ban. It was also   technological innovation to find replacements. 
"We found substitutes in every application,   whether it was foam blowing or spray cans or 
refrigerators, etc., etc. down the line." And now,   yeah, it's working. "We're actually seeing the 
ozone layer recover!" And we know that it's   recovering because of science still happening in 
Antarctica. Satellites measure ozone levels from   the sky, and scientists here still monitor 
ozone from the ground. The Indian base. I   know that they're doing ozone monitoring. So, 
they're watching how the ozone hole is healing   itself from that base right there. We are all 
very lucky for the work that you did. "No, no,   it's me that's lucky." But the science here hasn't 
stopped. It's always changing. And after 5 hours   of hiking across the ice, we're about to find 
something incredible...this is the Blue Rivers. This is unbelievably beautiful, first of all, 
and only exists in the Antarctic summers. So,   liquid water like this does exist 
on the surface on Antarctica,   but it's from the melt water from the 
glaciers. And it's likely in liquid   form for the first time in hundreds or even 
thousands of years. And I'm about to drink it. Man, that's good. That's really genuinely 
delicious. Don't worry, and don't try this   at home. The scientists with us told us that this 
water was safe to drink, there aren't any ancient   bacteria in what we were drinking. But while 
these seasonal rivers of glacial melt are normal,   something not normal is happening to the ice 
around the coasts. Further out around Antarctica,   the ocean water is in the part of its cycle 
where it's melting, helping power the oceans.   But during the winters now, less ice is 
reliably freezing around Antarctica. In 2023,   it crashed to the lowest level ever recorded, 
and it hasn't bounced back, which is starting   to disrupt those global currents that we all 
rely on. And this is just one small piece of   how important this continent is. Breakdowns 
in Antarctica will disrupt weather patterns,   meaning more intense storms, declines 
in global sea life and food supplies,   destruction to ecosystems. This is what we are now 
facing. This is our version of that moment right   before the Antarctic Treaty or the Montreal 
Protocol. But if you're thinking right now,   the Antarctic Treaty couldn't possibly have 
been signed today. You might be right. But   I've been thinking about something that Steven, 
the scientist here, has been saying, which is 'the   current future is not the future future.' Meaning 
the path that we're on right now doesn't have to   be the path that we're on tomorrow. And we're 
really at a tipping point. Our grandparents'   generation came together and instead of turning 
Antarctica into a war zone, they signed the   Antarctic Treaty. And our parents' generation came 
together and instead of allowing the ozone hole to   get bigger, they signed the Montreal Protocol. Are 
we really going to be the generation that doesn't   work together to solve the next problem? Bleep that 
like bleep that can't possibly be the generation that   we're going to be. As someone in that generation, not if we have anything to say about it. People   have worked together to solve hard problems 
before, and we're going to do it again. I left Antarctica feeling so inspired by 
what people can do when they work together.   If you want to see more optimistic science and 
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