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Preview: Season 2026 | 1m 27sVideo has Closed Captions
Discover epic science in the most extreme places on Earth.
A story of scientific daring and discovery, grit, and human endeavor, where unlocking the mysteries of our icy worlds is key to unlocking the forces that drive our planet.
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
Extended Series Preview
Preview: Season 2026 | 1m 27sVideo has Closed Captions
A story of scientific daring and discovery, grit, and human endeavor, where unlocking the mysteries of our icy worlds is key to unlocking the forces that drive our planet.
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
Where to Watch Ages of Ice
Ages of Ice is available to stream on pbs.org and the PBS app.
♪ Throughout Earth's time, there have been multiple ice ages and were called these interglacial warm periods.
In the stage we are in the orbit around our sun, we should actually be entering a phase of cooling.
And it's not.
You see this rapid rise, that is definitely the human fingerprint.
And never in geologic history have we seen such a rise in such a short amount of time.
There's nothing quite like the Arctic to humble you, right?
You will suffer.
You'll get cold toes and feet, you'll get hungry.
You'll get thirsty.
You might be inherently cold all the time.
This kind of terrain has these hidden dangers as much as it has these hidden stories.
We're laying the groundwork for incredible research that will continue beyond our lifetimes.
The polar regions can give us the pulse of the planet.
What is happening?
You're gathering intimate scientific data on the surface, beneath the surface, above the surface.
And unless we're here, we don't understand how the planet is faring or what's its health into the future.
Its this storminess, this activity, all this energy is just driving everything else that the oceans are doing.
There hasn't been a time where humans have lived, where it's been ice free.
And that's the experiment.
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Preview: S2026 | 4m 54s | Go behind the scenes of the epic three-year journey to film “Ages of Ice.” (4m 54s)
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Preview: S2026 | 1m 27s | Discover epic science in the most extreme places on Earth. (1m 27s)
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Preview: S2026 | 3m 59s | The polar regions are places of wonder and profound connection for the scientists who work there. (3m 59s)
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Clip: S2026 | 2m 22s | Glaciologist Alun Hubbard stands at the edge of a perilous moulin on the Greenland ice sheet. (2m 22s)
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Clip: Ep3 | 3m 39s | Austrian scientist Dr. Birgit Sattler studies the microbial life that exists in ice. (3m 39s)
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Clip: Ep3 | 3m 54s | On Antarctica’s barren nunatuks, Dr. Ry Holland searches for microbial life. (3m 54s)
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Clip: Ep2 | 3m 58s | The team from Real Ice work with the Inuit community on a radical plan to refreeze sea ice. (3m 58s)
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Clip: Ep2 | 2m 18s | Dr. Melanie Lancaster is a marine mammal specialist and advocate for quiet Arctic oceans. (2m 18s)
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Clip: Ep1 | 4m 48s | Dr. Adrian McCallum and his team traverse the Greenland ice sheet on a 350 mile journey. (4m 48s)
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Clip: Ep1 | 4m 58s | Professor Alun Hubbard is studying the cause of meltwater on the Greenland ice sheet. (4m 58s)
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