Last Race to the Pole: will the reality show be the final North Pole trek?

The first unassisted expedition to the North Pole took place in 1990; 25 years later the effects of global warming mean the trip is almost impossible. A new TV shows takes a look at the 'final' race to the pole

You don't need to be in Paris this week to get in on the climate change conversation. Watching modern explorers attempt to get to the North Pole while an ice cap melts around them might be enough to get even the staunchest of global warming apologists thinking. That's the set-up for Melting: Last Race to the Pole, a reality show/expedition that details what its creators are claiming could be the final trip to the North Pole before the impact of climate change makes the journey impossible.

"The ice this year is so different from what I've experienced in the past," says seasoned polar explorer Eric Larsen in a new Animal Planet special premiering on Wednesday. In vertiginous footage, he bounces up and down on a sheet of Arctic ice so compromised it responds like a water bed - just moments before his partner Ryan Waters falls through.