Adventurer Aldo Kane on how climate change has ravaged the natural world – and who's to blame

Aldo Kane watched his son being born from the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.

“We were filming towards the tail end of COVID. So, once we were on the ship, we weren’t allowed off,” the Scottish adventurer told the Big Issue.

“We were diving with humpbacks, collecting data, and the same day I was watching [him] being born on a WhatsApp call, on a boat. So yeah, that’s indelibly marked on my brain.”

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Kane welcomed his new baby while filming for National Geographic’s new six-part underwater discovery series, OceanXplorers. Dodgy Atlantic phone reception notwithstanding, the setting was perhaps appropriate for a man who has spent most of his life in the great outdoors.

Kane joined the Royal Marines at 16, becoming one of UK’s youngest ever commando snipers. After a decade stationed in extreme environments, he left the forces to pursue exploration.

Now 46, Kane has completed 13 world-first expeditions, including rowing across the Atlantic in 50 days. He even met his wife while shooting on an erupting Ecuadoran volcano.

“I love the outdoors,” he explained. “And I’ve been lucky enough to spend most of my career in and amongst it… I’ve had a hectic, busy few years.”

But as climate change wreaks havoc on global weather patterns, the natural world is under threat. The concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2) in our atmosphere is the highest it has been in human history, driving unprecedented global heating. 2023 was the hottest year on record – and local communities are bearing the brunt, says Kane.

“Over the last ten years, I’ve gone to areas to film, and you just can’t miss it,” he said. “I went to a remote jungle in Suriname, for example, and the local tribes that we work with told us that certain types of fish don’t come back anymore, because the water temperature’s warmer. They can’t live like they’ve always lived.

“That’s just one example but it’s happening absolutely everywhere.”

Such unsettling changes motivated Aldo Kane to sign up for OceanXplorers. Executive produced and narrated by Hollywood’s James Cameron, the show follows a hand-picked team of intrepid explorers and scientists as they visit some of the globe’s most fascinating ocean ecosystems, from the Azores to the Arctic.

There’s plenty to discover. Up to 90% of deep-sea life remains unnamed and undiscovered. Less than 0.01% of the deep-sea floor has been sampled and studied in detail. This pristine ecosystem – which boasts a biodiversity comparable to that of a tropical rainforest – may contain millions of species. Scientists discover new species almost every time they dive down there.

But it’s under threat. Ocean warming and acidification have profound impacts on marine life, disrupting food webs. Meanwhile, around eight million metric tons of plastic enter the ocean every year. If the current rate of habitat loss and global warming continues, nearly 40% of all species will face extinction by 2099.

“These are profound impacts… but a lot of people don’t see them first-hand,” Kane says. “You can walk down to the sea and look at it, and it looks OK. But under the surface there are serious effects playing out.”

“It’s almost like being boiled in a in a pot of water. You don’t really notice it’s happened until it’s too late.”

Aldo Kane is clear: companies and governments are the most to blame for these detrimental changes. Fossil fuel executives, for example, knew about global heating in the 1970s – but suppressed the information lest it damage their profit margins.

But if these companies are going to take climate change seriously, we need to engage ordinary people with climate crisis, Kane adds. That’s where documentary film makers come in.

“Because of a documentary, people can see first-hand an algae bloom that’s caused by excess nitrates from agricultural runoff, for example,” Kane said.

“When algae blooms it soaks up all the oxygen in the water, and it kills everything around it. If you can see that with your own eyes, it might make you think slightly differently when you go to the supermarket to buy foods that use these harmful fertilisers.”

“Collecting data points is very important. But people need to see with their own eyes what the impact is.”

OceanXplorers will be available to stream from Monday 19 August on Disney+ and premieres Sunday 25 August on National Geographic.

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