A Journey to the End of the World

There’s something about standing at the edge of a glacier, where the air bites and the silence roars louder than any city.

2050 takes you to the raw, untamed edges of our planet—Greenland and Antarctica, where feeling small isn’t just a sensation—it’s the norm. This documentary takes viewers on an intimate journey to the Arctic and Antarctic, where climate change is not a distant threat but a visceral, present reality.

Through the eyes of International Polar Foundation’s founder Alain Hubert, UC Irvine glaciologist Eric Rignot, Adrien de Gerlache’s granddaughter—heir to Belgium’s first scientific Antarctic expedition, and polar researcher Simon Steffen—whose father, the renowned glaciologist Konrad Steffen, tragically passed away in a Greenland crevasse—the film is both a scientific exploration and a poignant tribute.

The visuals stun: vast ice sheets stretch endlessly, shrinking the human figures who traverse them.

Then come the numbers, stark and sobering.

Greenland is losing roughly 250-300 gigatons of ice per year. A gigaton is a billion tonnes of ice, 9,000 tonnes of ice per second on average. That’s the mass of 4,500 elephants vanishing in a blink from Greenland’s ice alone.

Simon Steffen, Scientific Researcher at International Polar Foundation

Yet that’s just part of the story: in 2024, the world lost 450 gigatons of ice, folding in Antarctica and alpine glaciers, a 50% leap beyond Greenland’s toll.

If Greenland’s ice sheet melts entirely, sea levels would rise by about 7 metres worldwide. Antarctica? If its entire ice sheet dissolved, seas would surge 60 metres—enough to drown much of Belgium in a watery grave.

The documentary quickly draws you back into the emotional, reminding us of the power of nature and the weight of loss amid our changing global climate. Simon Steffen relives the day his father slipped away.

Losing him to climate change is tough. But I think we are all aware of the risks involved. If he can fall victim to climate change, we can all fall victim to climate change.

Simon Steffen, Scientific Researcher at International Polar Foundation

It’s a gut punch, a reminder of nature’s might and our fragility.

But there’s a refusal to wallow in despair. The film finds glimmers of hope: “If you want to protect populations, you have to begin now.” Planning for 2050 means leaving 80% of untouched reserves in the ground to meet Paris Agreement goals.

The film’s most haunting refrain, drawn from my notes, lingers long after the credits roll.

“You could lose this part of the world before you really get to know it.”

Dr. Eric Rignot, Distinguished Donald Bren Professor of Earth System Science at the University of California, Irvine

It’s not just a film for science buffs or tree-huggers—it’s for anyone who has ever marvelled at a snowflake, a glacier, or wondered what’s worth fighting for.

2050 is a survival story—of ice, of people, of a planet that is cracking, but not yet cracked. It’s alarming, sure, but it’s also alive with wonder. Nature’s resilient, shifting faster than we do. Out there, in the cold, something is still whispering that we’ve got a shot. Don’t sleep on it.