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And most of it would never happen without the help witting or unwitting of lawyers, accountants and incorporators, the people who actually create these Anonymous Shell Companies and help move the money. In fact, the u. S. Has become one of the most popular places in the world to do it. Tonight, with the e lp of hidden camera footage, were going to show you how easy it seems to have become to conceal questionable funds from Law Enforcement and the public. You need look no further for evidence than the changing skyline of new york city, where much of the priciest Residential Real Estate is being snapped up not by individuals but by Anonymous Shell Companies withth secret owners. Theres nothing illegal about it as long as the moneys legitimate, but theres no way to tell if you dont know who the real buyers are. It is one of the reasons Global Witness, a londonbased Non International corruption, came to new york city 19 months ago. It wanted to see how helpful u. S. Lawyers would be in concealing questionable funds. This hidden camera footage was shot in law firms across manhattan without the lawyers knowledge by the man in the gray coat with the german accent. Lawrence gabe so its ralph . Ralph kayser ralph kayser. Kroft ralph kayser is not his real name. Hes an investigator for Global Witness posing here as the representative of a Government Official from a poor west african country who wants to move millions of d dlars in suspicicus funds into the ununed states, and he needs the lawyers hp. Ross are you gonna tell me what country and what minister this is . Kayser i cant tell you. Its one of those mineral rich countries in west africa. There are not so many. Kroft attorney gerald ross and the other lawyers were told secrecy was essential, because the e rican minister had amassed his fortune collecting special payments from Foreign Companies mineral rights. Kayser so companies are eager to get hold of rare earth or other minerals. And so they pay some special money for it. I wouldnt name it bribe. I would say ffilitation money. Kroft kayser said it was all legal. He told attorney james silnat and the other lawyers that the minister was shopping for a townhouse, a jet and a yacht, but his name must not be connected to the purchases. Kayser if his name now would appear in connection with buying some real estate here and other items, it would look, at least, very, very embarrassing. James silkenat right. Because his. Presumably his salary in, wherever it is, would not cover the kinds of acquisitions were talking about. Kayser oh, for sure. Its the salary of a teacher here. And so how can we make surthat he ibeing able toto buy property here and to live a nice silkenat right. Any guesses as to how much money were talking about for the brownstone and the other items . Kayser i mean, the brownstone, talk about 10 million. For secondhand gulfstream, i could imagine 10, 20 million. A yacht would be at least 200, 300 million. Kroft the fictitious story of the african minister was cooked up in Global Witness london office, based on an actual Money Laundering case. The investigator phoned 50 new york law firms with experience in private Asset Protection and managed to get facetoface meetings with 16 different lawyers in 13 firms. Kayser im very frank. Its, i would say, gray money. I think somebody told me you name it black money. Kroft global w wness says the pitch was intentionally designed to raise red flags and to give the lawyers good reason to suspect that the ministers millions came from official corruption, and they all did. Kayser its only that the money is a bit, lets say. Gabe tainted. Gabe okay, thats a nice word. Okay. Kayser or, you gave another exexession . Koplik honest graft. Kayser honest graft okay, fine. So i have to be frank. Its honest graft. How would you name it . Ross some people call it bribes. Kayser nah, i wouldnt name it bribe. Ross never. Right, no, course not. Kayser because its a business deal. So, okay, bribe. Is actually bribe. Charmian gooch you know, the story of the fictititis african minister would probably have raised eyebrows for the average person on the street. Kroft Charmian Gooch is the cofounder of Global Witness, a public Advocacy Group that exposes corruption in the developing world. Previous undercover investigations exposed the global trade in african blood diamonds. This investigation, gooch says, exposes serious flaws in the u. S. Legal system that have made it a hub for international Money Laundering. Gooch what the lawyers laid out for us in some detail was all the different possibilities and ways in which it could be done. Kroft what youre saying is if you want to get dirty money into the United States, its not gooch what im sayininis thereris an open door and its pretty shocking and pretty concerning, because that money could be coming from anywhere. Kroft of the 16 lawyers that Global Witness recorded in these preliminary meetings, only attorney Jeffrey Herrmann flatly declined to participate and showed ralph kayser the door. Herrmann i have some real questions ababt that. Kayser yes . Herrmann under the foreign corrupt practices act. Kayser right. Herrmann and under the foreign corrupt practices act, bribing foreign officials is illegal. Kayser by americans. Herrmann by americans. Kayser but americans are not involved. So its money from other nation nationals, not american entities, not american nationals. Herrmann its not for me. Kayser pardon me . Herrmann its not for me. Kroft aside from that one firms, including 15 out of the 16 lawyers, not only heard ralph kayser out, they suggested ways that the suspicious funds could be moved into the u. S. Without compromising the ministers identity. Attorney James Silkenat was selected by Global Witness because at the time, he was president of the American Bar Association. Yet he and his colleague, hugh finnegan, provided what former prosecutors told us was a roadmap of how to conceal the source of the funds using layers of anonymous, interconnected Shell Companies in multiple jurisdictions. Finnegan presumably, we would set up a little bit of a series of ownersrso try and, again, protect privacy as much as anything else. Kayser yeah. Silkenat so company a is owned by company b, which owned jointly by company c and d, and your party owns all of or the majority of the shares of c and d. Kayser so we, we create several companies . Finnegan yes. K kser all in new yorkrkr different states . Finnegan well, like i said, quickly, youd go offshore. Kroft attorney john jankoff and his partner, lawrence gabe, recommended variations of the same strategy. Jankoff a lot of people in africa use the isle of man. Some of them use liechtenstein. Gabe so he wouldldust take his millions of dollars, put it in isle of man. Jankoff he can put it into a swiss bank account. The swiss will have it. And. And then. Gabe and then he comes to us. Jankoff and then he comes to us and says, i want to buy a townhouse. Kroft attorney marc koplik also suggested that the mimister could d ve his money out of west africa to europe, where it could be scrubbed in an anonymous corporate entity that his firm would be happy to set up. Koplik the money as it sits now, is it in his name . Kayser its in different names. Koplik okay. So it will come as those different names . Kayser i iluding his name, yes . Koplik so we have to scrub it at the beginning, if we can, or scrub it at the intermediary kayser so how to do this, intermediary . That means a bank in . Koplik well say luxembourg. Kayser luxembourg. Koplik we will set up an appropriate e tity call it clientoverseas. Com or whatever, and then that will send money into the United States. Kroft if that was a banker talking instead of a lawyer, he could be in serious trouble. Thats because under u. S. Law, bankers are required to report suspicious financial activity to the authorities. Lawyers are under no such legal obligation. Gooch banks in america are required to know their customer or required to be very cognizant of risk and to report on it if there. If there is an issue there around Money Laundering. And yet, absolutely bizarrely, american lawyers arent. This is clearly an issue. And i think our investigation has shown the potential for what could happen because of that lack of regulation. Kroft Global Witness says that anomaly is just one of the flaws in the u. S. Legal system laundering. And were going to call it here, anonymous, inc. Kroft another is the ease in which Anonymous Shell Companies can be set up here to conceal ownership of money and assets. Last year two million new corporations were set up in the United States, many with no offices, products or employees. Just an address and perhaps a bank account. Gooch in many states across america, you need less identification to set up and than you do to get a library card. Kroft gooch says Anonymous Shell Companies are like getaway cars for crooks, designed to put them as far way as possible from the scene of their crime. According to a world bank study, the u. S. Was the favorite place for corrupt officials to set up Anonymous Shell Companies. Gooch there was a verergood academic study and america came up as the easiest place to set up an anonymous company, after kenya, out of 180 countries. Kroft after kenya . Gooch after kenya. Kroft so did that study have decision to go ahead and do these undercover investigations . Gooch it inspired us. I mean, we almost thought, it cacat be this bad, can i i and, unfortunately, what wee found is it is. Kroft all of the attorneys expressed some concerns, like this one from gerald ross. Ross ive got to be very careful myself. I dont want to do something if it looks like im laundering money. And that would cost me my license andand i. Just dont do that. Kroft but later, he susuested that the queststnable money could be wired directly into his client escrow account, bypassing scrutiny from the banks. Ross when i get money from my other clients, it always comes here with some strange name on it. I dont even ask. Kayser and nobody ask . Ross it doesnt come from minister joe jones. It comes from the xyz account. Kroft john jankoff said they would need to get a legal opinion that the money was clean, then suggested that the minister use front men to open up overseas Bank Accounts. Name, then he needs what is known as a straw man. Practically spspking if the money leaves the country his name should not be attached to the wire. It should be other peoples names. Poncy and we know this happens. We know this happens. This is how Money Laundering occurs all over the world. But that does not mitigate the power of seeing it up close. Kroft we shohod the tapes to chip poncy, a former top official at the Treasury Department whose job was to stop financial crime, terrorist financing and Money Laundering. He says theres nothing wrong with lawyers setting up Anonymous Shell Companies to protect a clients privacy, but if its done to conceal criminal activity, thats when it becomes a problem. Poncy theres a clear pitch consistently presented in every one of these tapes of what amounts to an incredible number of red flags that scream corruption. Kroft dirty money . Poncy dirty money. Kroft bad actors . They have a need. Theyve got to move their money from a point where theyve received corrupt proceeds in this case to a point where ty can enjoy those proceeds. And to get em from. To get this money from point a to point b, they need help in laundering it, effectively. Kroft poncy says he was dismayed with the ease and the comfort with which attorneys seemed to be willing to turn a blind eye and discuss a matter that was likely to be illegal. Poncy whats essential to recognize is that this is after its been revealed that the potential client is representing an african minister with hundreds of millions of dollars of funds received through, effectively, bribes. Kroft this is more than legal advice . Poncy this is legal advice on how to evade controls, or at a minimum, very clear Global Standards on financial transparency to allow our countries to go after proceeds of crime. Kroft attorney marc koplik told the Global Witness investigator that he preferred using Money Managers and investment firms to move funds. Than using banks. Koplik and i would suggest three or four to you. Some are bigger. Some are smaller. The smaller ones are often more flexible and understanding and less concerned about their reputation. Because thth fly, to a greater extent, below the radar screen. Kroft sometimes the advice took the form of suggesting banks and countries that might be less vigilant about Money Laundering. Silkenat we would have to look into how far specific banks looked into, you know, the, you know, the know your customer laws and how fararhey would dig. Finnegan in manynyays, youd probably be better off with a smaller bank because. Kayser that would be a possibility. Finnegan because the bigger banks are much more serious about looking into that stuff. Kayser their reputation. Finnegan right. Silkenat and there may be other Banking Systems that are less rigorous on this than the u. S. Would be. Kayser what would it be . Silkenat the usual banking havens, i think, would be ones you would want to consider. We could provide you with a list of countries where the Banking Systems require less detail on ownership or source of funds. Kroft while James Silkenat, the former president of the American Bar Association, and his partner, hugh finnegan, listened to the pitch and suggested ways in which they might be able to help, they were also the most suspicious of ralph kayser and hisisfrican ministererbeginning just five minutes into the meeting. Silkenat we need to talk about the risks or just concerns about where he got the money and how to explain that. Kayser thats it. Silkenat there is. There are issues there. Woululbe involved here wouount be part of facilitating payments, but if thats really where the money came from and if there were, you know, crimes committed someplace else, that that starts to be an issue. Kroft they were alal the most cautious about moving forwd. Towards the end of the meeting, hugh finnegan, who is off camera here, said the firm would feel obligated to report anything it believed to be illegal. Finnegan bearing in mind of what you said, no american law was violated, no local law was violated, but, you know, if were aware that a crime is being committed, we e ve an obligation to report that. Kroft mr. Silkenat says, we need to talk about the risks or just concerns about where he got the money and how to explain that. Poncy that, that, and thats, thats a welcome. Kroft hes already been told how, where the money came from and how he got the money. Poncy correct. So itits a healthy recognition kroft if you could ask him anything about this meeting, what would it be . Poncy whats going through your head . Why are you continuing this conversation . Why not just say no . Is the business that important . Kroft neither silkenat nor finnegan would agree to an on camera interview. But they sent us a statement saying they only discussed generic information that could be found on the internet and that their conduct was entirely appropriate. Had the camera followed us after the meeting, they wrote, it would have shown us agreeing that kayser was disreputable and that we would not deal with him again. None of the other lawyers agreed to give us an on camera interview either. When we come back, well take a look at the legal and ethical implications of what youve just seen. Cbs money watch update brought to you by one of the worlds leading pharmaceutical glor good evening. The United Nations wants 860 million for iraqs humanitarian crisis. On tuesday b. P. Is expected to announce a 70 drop in profits. And former drug company c. E. O. Martin shkreli could face contempt charges if hes a noshow at thursdays pricegouging. Im jeff glor, cbs news. Every day you read headlines about businesses being hacked and intellectual property being stolen. That is cybercrime and it affects each and d ery one of us. Microsoft created the digital crimesesnit we use the microsoft cloud to visualize information so we can track down the criminals. When it comes to the cloud, trust and security are paramount. Were building what we learn back into the cloud to make people and orgagazations safer. James drove his rav4 hybrid into the frozen wilderness. The scent of his jerky attracted a hungry wolfpack behind him. To survive, he had to remain fearless. He would hunt with them. And expand their territory. Hed form a bond with a wolf named accalia. Become dedemother and nurse their young. James left in search of his next adventure. How far will you take the allnew rav4 hybrid . Kroft when Nonprofit Organization called Global Witness came to new york 19 months ago, it secretly recorded hidden camera interviews with 16 manhattan lawyers. Its investigator was posing as the representative of an african official trying to move millions of dollars of suspicious funds. Global witness, which specializes in exposing to see how much help the lawyers would provide in setting up Anonymous Shell Companies and offshore Bank Accounts to move the suspicious funds into the u. S. , and at the same time, protect the identity of the fictitious african official. Silkenat good to see you. Kayser good to see you. Kroft the undercover investigator, who called himself ralph kaysertold the lawyers that the minister had used his official position to collect tens of millions of dollars in special payments from Foreign Companies to help them obtain valuable mineral rights. He wanted to move the money to the United States to buy a house, a jet, and a yacht. Kayser so therefore, he wants to bring in the money into the u. S. So, starting with the brownstone and then, probably, buying a gulfstream jet. He wants to commission the building of a yacht, and buy, probably, more property. Kroft the story was intentionanay devised to raise red flags and lead the lawyers to believe that the ministers money was dirty. During the meetings, only one of herrmann, told him no. Herrmann this aint for me. My standards are higher. Kroft the rest expressed varying degrees of interest, with most of them offering advice on how it could be done. Koplik we do everything, soup to nuts. So, theres no limitation. We dont say, oh, we dont do windows, or we dont deal with the financial Money Managers, or whatever. No. We orchestrate and organize the entire thing. Were happy to take that responsibility. Kroft whats important to point out and it cannot be overstated is that none of the lawyers weve shown you broke any laws, in part because the african minister didnt really exist. There were no hundreds of millions of dollars, and Global WitnessCharmian Gooch said no so this is sort of a morality test . Gooch it wasnt. It was a. It was a test on the system. Kroft you know, people could make the argument, look, all listen to this person that came into their office. They didnt make a deal, they didnt sign up. They said, we need to do some more research. gooch and you know what . Theyd be absolutely right to y that, but theyd need to Say Something else, o, which is at those lawyers laid out, in often considerable detail, a myriad of different ways to bring money into america. Kroft none of the lawyers agreed to take on the african minister as a client, nor were they asked to. It was a preliminary meeting that ended with most of the attorneys expressing interest in continuing the diaiague, and some enthusiastic about landing the business. Silkenat im happy to chat whenever its possible to move the ball forward on this. Kayser fantastic, great. Silkenat good. Kayser thank you so much. Silkenat thanks for coming in. Kroft marc koplik and albert grant foresaw no problem as long as the money was clean, and gave no indication that t ty planned to do any checking themselves. They wenenso far as to discuss legal feeses koplik legal fs will be substantial, albert. Correct me im wrong 50,000 kroft koplik also suggested conducting a test in which a portion of the suspicious funds would be sent into the United States. Koplik a million dollars. Kayser a million dollars, so, as a test . Albert grant yeah. Kayayr because i said, probably you wouldldtart with around, 50 million, probably, i could imagine . Koplik i would say a million dollars. Kayser a million dollars. Koplik if anything goes wrong, itll be inful, but it wont be life threatening. Kayser right. Exactly. Kroft john jankoff and his partner, lawrence gabe, who is off camera here, also seemed willing to go forward. Jankoff we would orchestrate it. One legal fee to cover erything. Kroft however, gabe did express some concerns about the transactions. Kayser who can set up this structure . Could you do it . Jankoff yeah, your brother inlaw does it all the time. Gabe well, okay. But iii dont think he does it with money that may be questionable. And that we have to find out about. Kroft at the end of that meeting, they looked forward to the next conversation on the telephone, not on email. Gabe okay, give me a phone number where we can reach you . Kayser ah. Putting this in emails. Kayser sending an email with just an outline would be fine, as well, so its. Jankoff i dont like emails. Kayser you dont like emails . Gabe thats how you catch people. Kroft the hidden camera tapes raise all sorts of ethical questions not just about the behavior of the lawyers, but about the methods used by Global Witness in making them. We showed the footage to bill simon, a law professor at columbia university, who is one of the countrys top legal ethicists. Bill simon i think it draws attention to the fact that lawyers may be playing an Important Role in Money Laundering that requires more scrutiny. Kroft have you ever seen anything like this before . Simon no. Kroft never . Simon never. Kroft whats your overall impression of it . Simon any lawyers going to be uncomfortable about the fact that this was a sting in which someone lied his way into a Lawyers Office and secretly recorded statements a lawyer was. Thought he was making to a client. Thats kind of unprecedented and its kind of inconsistent with the bars norms about confidentiality. So im a little uneasy about on the other hand, i think that the tapes expose conduct of great public consequence. Kroft you think its valuable that the public sees it . Simon yeah. I think its very valuable. Confidentiality is for the benefit of the client, not the lawyer. But the lawyers benefit from it, because conduct that goes on under the protection of confidentiality is never scrutinized by the public. And wyers are never accountable for it. So the sting actually brings some accountability to conduct that ought to be accountntle. Kroft in its own report, Global Witness includes an opinion from two legal ethicists, including bill simon of columbia. It says that if attorneys marc koplik, john jankoff, and gerald ross had been responding to a real request, their conduct would not comply with the professional responsibilities of lawyers. It said d e attorneys displayeye a cynical and evasive attitudud toward law. The ethicists also noted that the rules are vague, and we do not expect that all lawyers will simon put thena. B. A. President James Silkenat and his partner, hugh finnegan, in a different category, even though they provided advice on how to move questionable funds into the e s. What makes silkenat different from the other lawyers . Simon silkenat was quite clear that he would not assist illegal conduct. And he even indicated at one point that he would report the client if he found the client engaged in illegal conduct. And then, also, silkenat was fairly clear that he would neeee more information before he agreed to represent the client. Kroft on the other hand, he clearly seems interested in this. Simon he clearly seems interested and even a little enthusiastic about it. Kroft anything wrong with that . Simon well, i find it regrettable, but i. Im not sure as a professional responsibility authority, i could d y it was inconsistent with his duties under thrules. Kroft simon says the only lawyer who truly fulfilled the ideals of the Legal Profession was Jeffrey Herrmann, who listened to the pitch, decided activity, and ended the meeting. Herrmann this aint for me. My standards are higher. Im not interested. Kayser do you. Do yoyoknow anybody who would be able to do so . Herrmann i dont think so, and i wouldnt recommend them either anyway. Kayser yeah, yeah. Herrmann because those persons would be insulted. Kroft Charmian Gooch says the point of Global Witness hidden camera investigation was not to target or entrap lawyers for bad behavior. The e oblem, she says, arereax laws and toothless regulations that make it ridiculously easy for criminals to launder 300 billion a year in the United States. Gooch this is real Public Interest information. How are you going to get that out to them if you cant show them whats happening behind closed doors . Kroft you couldnt have done this any other way . Gooch i think unless the public and policy makers can really see for themselves what gets said across the desk, across the table in a meeting like this, its kind of hard to really believe and take on kroft gooch says theres a simple solution, but its been politically impossible to achieve in the United States. Just ask carl levin, the longtime chairman of the senates permanent subcommittee on investigation. Until he retired last year, he spent years trying to pass a law that would require the states to collect one additional piece of information from people forming corporations. Carl levin one line whos the real owner. Not whos the agent forming it. Not whos the lawyer representing the owner. Who is the beneficial owner, the real owner . And itsits not at all complicated. Kroft but the bill has never made it out of committee, in part because of strong opposition from the American Bar Association. Kroft whats the American Bar Associations objection to this . Levin the lawyers are helping form corporations, and theyre afraid, i guess, that if you put a damper on the formation of corporations, that youre putting some damper on legal business. Kroft the irony is that the department and the u. S. Treasury have been among the worlds strongest proponents for cracking down on Money Laundering. Yet the u. S. Is one of the easiest places in the world to set up the Anonymous Companies that facilitate it. Gooch its a heck of a paradox, isnt it . And, you know, i think that the American Bar Association needs to get behind the need for regulation, in the way that european lawyers have had to do exactly the same. And i think that you know, it. Its. I think the American Government needs to answer that question. Kroft Global Witness may have inadvertently gotten a sassy answer to that question from attorney marc koplik in its hidden camera video. Koplik explained to the representative of the phony african minister why he never worried about government subpoenas. Koplik they dont send the lawyers to jail, because we run the country. Kayser do you run the country . Koplik still do. Kayser i love it. Koplik still do. Grant i should say some lawyers run the country. Kayser so, you are. You are some of them . Two of them . Of a privileged, privilege class in this country. Kayser so, howowwhat does it mean you run the country . It means you . Koplik we make the laws, and when we do so, we make them in a way that is advantageous to the lawyers. This is a cbs spopos update brought to you by the lincoln motor cocoany. Three topteneams were in action today in college basketball. Number three iowa took care of northwestern at home. Number six villanova got a road win against st. Johns. And number eight maryland held off ohio state. In the nba, the Los Angeles Clippers beat the Chicago Bulls 12093 behind 26 points and 26 minutes off ththbench from jamall crawford. For more sports news and information go, to cbssports. Com. Where taking care of yourself takes careref more than just t urself. Lease a 2016 lincoln mkz for 289 a month only at your lincoln dealer. When my doctor told me i have agerelated macular degeneration, amd we came up with a plan to help reduce my risk of f ogression. And everywywre i look. Im reminded to stick to my plan. 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Its up to two times stronger than imitators try roc retinol correxion night cream. After one week, fine lines appear to fade one month, deep wrinkles look smoother. And after one year, skin looks ageless. Alfonsi one of the most significant efforts to study changes in the climate has been taking place near the top of the world. Its a place called Petermann Glacier in greenland, one of the largest glaciers in the arctic experienced dramatic melting. It is a harsh and dangerous environment, and it has drawn some of the worlds leading climate scientists, who are only able to work there a little over a month a year. We wanted to see how that work is proceeding, how they are able to move equipment and people in such a hostile place, and what theyve discovered so far, so we went to the top of the world to find out. Our journey took us 700 miles above the Arctic Circle to the u. S. Thule Air Force base in northern greenland, built at the start of the cold war to watch for soviet missiles. It is an alien ldscape, home to curious arctic hares and packs of prehistoric looking muskoxs. From there, we flew even further. The destination Petermann Glacier. Its on the northwest coast of miles south of the north pole. To get there in a helicopter took us four hours over a rarely seen landscape that is both severe and serene. The last town wed see was qaanaaq, with 700 residents and more huskies than people. Locked in by ice nine months of the year, villagers have always hunted seal and narwhal to survive. Greenland is three times the size of texas, and 80 of it is covered in ice, but it now loses more ice than it gains in snowfall every year. We saw evidence of the imbalance everywhere blue gashes across the ice, rivers of rushing melt water, and the occasional thunderous crack of icebergs we still had 300 miles to go, and stopped twice to refuel along the way. These barrels were left behind for us by the scientists who made the trip to Petermann Glacier three weeks earlier. This is the ultimate self service gas station in the middle of nowhere. This will keep us going for how much longer . Malik jensen yeah, we can fly two and a half hours. Alfonsi our pilots, native greenlanders, kept a riflele nearby at t ch stop to protect us from polar bears. Have you seen polar bears out here . Jensen yeah, a lot. So now, its ready, always safe. Alfonsi finally, we arrived at Petermann Glacier. Ah, theres the camp. Alfonsi and spotted the ice camp below. Alan mix great to see you. Alfonsi so who dididou upset to get put out here . Keith nicholls i know the gods, the gods. Alfonsi Keith Nicholls is an expert in drilling in remote places. Would be really hard to beat. It feels like youre on another planet. Nicholls take a walk around here and you can be expecting scotty to beam you up. It is extraordinary. Alfonsi nicholls and a team of scientists were drawn to this remote sliver of greenland, in part, by these satellite images. In 2010, a chunk of ice four times the size of manhattan broke off. Then, two years later, another large chunk came down. The glacier has receded by 20 miles in five years. Nicholls and his team are trying to drill beneath it. This is a lot of work in difficult conditions. What do you hope to learn . Nicholls what were trying to learn is how the oceans are interacting with the ice, how theyre melting it, trying to predict how in the future that melting might change. Alfonsi to drill through the ice, they heated melt water from the glacier to make a hotwater foot thick ice. There has to be serious challenges to running equipment like this in this kind of weather. Nicholls the biggest challenge is that weve got water and its very cold. So, if we have water freezing in hoses, that can be devastating for the project. Alfonsi this is the moment the e ring machine struck the bottom of the e afloor. A halfmile beneath the ice, they made history. It was the first time anyone has ever collected sediment from beneath the ice shelf in greenland. Nicholls the ocean beneath the ice shelves is probably the least accessible part of the worlds s ean. And just getting access to that is a triumph, frankly, as far as were concerned. Alfonsi the ice shelf extends out from the glacier and floats on the ocean. They believe it acts like a dam, holding back the ice from sliding into the sea. If it goes away, sea levels go up. Is therere sense of urgency in nicholls Sea Level Rise is the big. The big question that were trying to get at. And Petermann Glacier, this experiment here, gives us an opportunity to get at those processes and try to understand the basic physics as to how that can happen. Alfonon our visit to the i i camp was cut short. Our pilots warned us something called ice fog was moving in and could strand us here for days. We hightailed it back to the helicopter, heading to another outpost of the expedition what the scientists call boulder camp, set up on the edge of Petermann Glacier. Shaun marcott and a team of geologists have been here for weeks, gathering samples from rocks. Shaun marcott so, this was probably deposited when the ice was maybe a few hundred to a few thousand feet thicker, and when it was deposited, youre probably talking about maybe 500, 600 feet of ice above us. Alfonsi above where we are right now . Marcott above where we are now. Peterman wouldve been much dropping these rocks all over the surface. Alfonsi to the person at home whos looking at you guys just chipping away at rocks and going, why should i care about this . Marcott we know that if you warm the planet up, glaciers respond, they melt. The question is, at what rate . How fast is that going to happen, and where is it going to happen, and where are the most vulnerable spots in this ice sheet . To understand all of that, you have to understand how the ice sheet. What controls an ice sheet. We need to understand this glacier, so that we can provide a better prediction for the larger ice sheet. That matatrs to us because of sea level. If these glaciers can respond dynamically, then we should all be concerned, because that can create dynamic changes in sea level and flood infrastructure. And we need to know that for planning for the future. Alfonsi we camped out next to the scientists. With 24 hours s light, we slept in these tents under the midnight sunun in the morning, we were shuttled out to meet the oden, a swedish ice breaker making its the oden supports the scientists on land and acts as a floating laboratory. Named after a norse god who relentlessly soughwisdom, its home to more than 50 climate scientists from around the world with similar convictions. Their work is funded mostly by the swedish government and the u. S. S National Science foundation. Larry mayeyeis one of the ologists on the oden. Hes using sonar ti map the ocean floor, creating the first detailed maps that show how Petermann Glacier slid into the sea. You can see it, like skid marks of a car at an accident scene. Larry mayer oh yeah the ice went here and the e e went there. And we can see it. Oh and it stopped here. Alfonsi how much of the worlds oceans have been mapped with this kind of detail . Larry mayer oh, probably on the order of 6 to 7 . Alfonsi six larry mayer very, very little. Yeah. You can only make the trip to enough to allow passage. Alan mix you can see those blocks of ice drifting by. Expedition leader alan mix is running the ships coring operation, trying to grab sediment from the seafloor. Alan mix so actually, the coring site right now is under that block of ice and we just cant get there. So were trying to drift with the ice and just sort of sneak up on it gently. Its hard to sneak up on anything in an ice breaker. The oden doesnt so much as sail as it does smash the ice like a 13,000 ton hamamr. Once in position they throw something called a piston corer, like a dart, at the bottom of the ocean. Oh, that doesnt sound good. Go to the next one but well hit it with the gravity core. Alfonsi a core sample like process of investigating those cores begins. Whats your best guess . Anne jennings so the base of this core probably is no more Anne Jennings is with the institute e arctic and alpine research. She says each core holds clues about Petermann Glaciers past. Anne jennngs well we didnt really expect to find things living under the ice shelf but we have. Alfonsi what have you found . Anne jennings this one weve found is called cibicidioides wuellferfstorfi. It has a big name for a little bug. Alfonsi easy for you to say it looks like a little seashell. Anne jennings and it is a sea shell but it is a single celled animal. Alfonsi that single celled animal, like all living creatures, is made out of carbon, allowing scientists to determine when it lived. Which tells you what . Anne jennings the age of the sediments. So we can take them the depth scale here and convert it to age. And then we can say, when did the ice retreat . How quickly did it retreat . Coming out . Alfonsi you can get all that from what looks like mud . Anne jennings yes. Alfonsi after a week in greenland, we headed home but the scientists kept working, taking advantage of the final days of the short arctic summer. The 66 core samples they collected during their month at sea will be studied by scientists around the world for decades. Peter demenocal this is the largest core depository in the world. Alfonsi Peter Demenocal is a paleo climatologist at columbia university. He says the cores collected in greenland are like a black box of the earths inner workings. This one he collected just south of greenland. Peter demenocal so this is todays climate and weve had about 10,000 years of relatively warm climate. And then we go ten thousand years in the past boom, theres the last ice age. This is when long island was formed and cape cod was formed. Go on, and you can just find its filled with these rocks, detritus, until this period when whoa, theres another warm phase. And then another cold phase, and then another warm phase. A short cold phase, a longer warm phase and then boom, another ice age. And so youve had cold, warm, cold, warm, cold, warm, today. Alfonsi how do we know that the warming were seeing now, how do we not know its part of this warm, cold, warm, cold . Peter demenocal thats a great question. These transitions are gradual. And kind of almost like a tide wave or something. And this transition, when you get to today, goes boom. Suddenly very warm. Alfonsi demenocal says the cores pulled from Petermann Glacier will fill in a crucial piece of the Climate Change puzzle. How impressive was it that they got to Petermann Glacier . Peter demenocal its impressive. Whats more impressive is that we havent been there every year and that were not going not doing this every year. We should be doing this we should be monitoring this whole system with much greater focus than we are now. Seen the changes in greenland . Peter demenocal the changes that are happening right now as a result of human activities are remarkable. And theyre happening incredibly fast and theyre its not only happening fast but its accelerating. And its important to really get our mind around what were saying there. Were not just saying that climate in the arctic is changing. Its changing at an accelerating rate. So basically it means its starting to melt but its melting at a faster and faster clip. So anyone who knows what its like to fall off a cliff, thats what its doing. For our crews photos of the alien Landscape Plus for more on Walter Cronkite goes to greenland the very top of the world. Go to 60minutesovertime. Com helps ease fibromyalgia pain. He also prescribed lyrica. For some patients, lyrica significantly relieves fibromyalgia pain and improves physical function. With less pain, i feel better. Lyrica may cause serious allergjc reactions or suicidal thoughts or actions. S. Tell your doctor right away if you have these, new or worsening depression or unusual changes in mood or behavior. Or swelling, trouble breathing, rash, hives, blisters, muscle pain with fever, tired feeling or blurry vision. Common side effects are dizziness, sleepiness, weight gain and swelling of hands, legs and feet. Dont drink alcohol whwhe taking lyrica. Dont drive or use machinery until you know how lyrica affects you. Those who have had a drug or alcohol problem may be more likely to misuse lyrica. Fibromyalgia may have changed things. 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