Biologist and filmmaker Jean Lemire has become the Cousteau of the icy southern ocean. With the series "Antarctic Mission: and "The Last Continent," Lemire takes us on a year-long journey aboard the icebreaking Canadian schooner Sedna IV as it explores the effect of global climate change. Both are out on DVD.
What Lemire finds is an Antarctic warming at an alarming pace, complete with receding icebergs, rising water temperature and the death of the tiny crustaceans that feed the penguins and seals who call the continent home. If the Antarctic seems far away and of small concern, Lemire reminds us that the continent is like a thermostat for the whole world, setting the temperature of the planet. As goes the Antarctic, so goes the Earth.
The cinematography is majestic and the personalities aboard the Sedna IV are engaging. "Antarctic Mission" and "The Last Continent" are beautiful to view but sad to consider.
