Barely a week goes by without a story about collapsing ice sheets, climate turmoil as the polar oceans unfreeze, and resident species are catastrophically impacted by things like giant rogue icebergs crashing into defenceless islands. It’s a story of almost constant gloom backed by the narrative that the poles are an untouched wilderness. In this recording of a live online talk Prof Mark Brandon, a polar researcher with extensive field experience, discusses his own and others’ research to identify the pressing polar issues. Mark is a polar oceanographer who has spent almost three years in Antarctica and the Arctic, pioneering the use of robots beneath sea ice. He has worked extensively on large broadcast projects including Frozen Planet and Blue Planet II. In 2012 he was awarded the Times Higher Education Most Innovative Teacher of the Year, and in 2020 was awarded an MBE for Services to Polar Science. He works out of the School of Environment, Earth and Ecosystem Sciences at Open University, UK.

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