- 2 days ago
The Arctic is changing faster than anyone expected and now researchers are deploying an unusual fleet beneath the ice. No one was prepared for how bold their plan would be… or why the Arctic needs it. In this video, you’ll also uncover the forgotten story of the first submarine to ever reach the North Pole and the strange events that followed. Two mysteries, one of the most remote places on Earth - and answers that could reshape everything we thought we knew about the ice at the top of the world. Animation is created by Bright Side.
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Music from TheSoul Sound: https://thesoul-sound.com/
Check our Bright Side podcast on Spotify and leave a positive review! https://open.spotify.com/show/0hUkPxD34jRLrMrJux4VxV
Subscribe to Bright Side: https://goo.gl/rQTJZz
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https://www.depositphotos.com
https://www.shutterstock.com
https://www.eastnews.ru
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For more videos and articles visit: http://www.brightside.me
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This video is made for entertainment purposes. We do not make any warranties about the completeness, safety and reliability. Any action you take upon the information in this video is strictly at your own risk, and we will not be liable for any damages or losses. It is the viewer's responsibility to use judgement, care and precaution if you plan to replicate.
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00:00The Arctic is disappearing.
00:02In just a few years, the North Pole could see its first ice-free summer in the last 125,000 years.
00:10But a bold new experiment might turn back the clock.
00:13Scientists are refreezing the Arctic.
00:16If they succeed, they could save the North Pole.
00:19But if they fail, they could trigger unforeseen disasters.
00:23So, which way would things go?
00:25Well, here's some backstory.
00:27Deep in the Arctic, temperatures drop so low that metal cracks and winds scream across the ice.
00:33In winter, it's minus 30 degrees Fahrenheit on average.
00:37But despite the seemingly extreme cold, it's actually melting, warming two to three times faster than the rest of the planet.
00:45Now, ice is like Earth's natural mirror.
00:48It reflects sunlight back into space, keeping the planet cool.
00:51When it melts, it exposes the dark ocean underneath.
00:54The ocean absorbs sunlight instead of reflecting it, and it spreads all across the planet.
01:01This warms the planet even faster, melting even more ice.
01:05It's a vicious cycle.
01:07And if it continues, we'll reach a point where the ice won't come back.
01:11That thick, ancient ice that has covered the North Pole for thousands of years is already 95% gone.
01:17It's been disappearing since the 1980s.
01:20The ice that remains there now is thin and fragile.
01:24And when it disappears, it will trigger a dangerous chain reaction.
01:28Meanwhile, a group of researchers from a UK startup called Real Ice is out there trying to slow down or even reverse the melting of the Arctic.
01:37The project takes place in a tiny frozen village in Canada called Cambridge Bay.
01:43Real Ice wants to break the vicious cycle.
01:46And here's their plan.
01:47First, they drill through the existing ice and place an underwater pump beneath it.
01:52Then they pump seawater onto the ice surface, where it quickly freezes into an extra thick layer.
01:57Finally, they remove snow from the ice, which usually acts like a blanket, preventing further freezing.
02:04After that, ice keeps growing.
02:06Stronger, thicker, and harder to melt.
02:09It's a simple idea inspired by nature itself.
02:12Ice naturally forms this way in some Arctic regions.
02:15But now, scientists want to do it on a massive scale.
02:19So far, it appears to be working.
02:21Between January and May 2024, they covered around 44,000 square feet of ice.
02:27And it became 20 inches thicker on average.
02:30And in November 2024, they started a new round of tests.
02:34In the first 10 days of the trial, the ice was already 4 inches thicker.
02:39Now, they'll return in May 2025 to check out how things are going.
02:44They think it's going to get between around 16 to 31 inches of it during the Arctic winter.
02:50It's a small start, admittedly.
02:52But if they can prove it works,
02:54their plan is to expand across an area more than twice the size of California,
02:59about 386,000 square miles of ice.
03:03And they're not stopping there.
03:05The big idea is to send in 500,000 underwater drones,
03:09powered by clean energy, to automate the entire process.
03:13These drones would drill holes, pump water, and refreeze the ice without human intervention.
03:18But not everyone is convinced.
03:22Some scientists think this whole idea is a disaster waiting to happen.
03:26First, they point out that saltier ice, the one from seawater pumped onto it,
03:30melts faster in the summer.
03:32So if this new ice melts too quickly, we could end up making the situation worse.
03:37Some of them also think this is a dangerous distraction from the core problem,
03:41like treating the symptoms instead of the root causes.
03:44Besides, making a small patch of ice thicker is one thing.
03:48But doing this across the entire Arctic?
03:51That's another challenge entirely.
03:53Another thing they're worried about is the ecosystem.
03:56The Arctic is one of the most fragile ecosystems on Earth.
04:00Changing ice thickness could affect marine life, disrupt algae growth,
04:04and impact the food chain in ways we don't fully understand.
04:07There's also the question of money.
04:09Realize estimates that refreezing the entire Arctic will cost about 5 to 6 billion dollars per year.
04:17Who's paying for this?
04:18Right now, they're self-funded with some investors backing them.
04:22But eventually, they hope that countries, global funds, and even corporations will finance the project.
04:28Realize argues that doing nothing could be far worse.
04:32If we don't act, we could lose the Arctic within our lifetime.
04:35That could at least help to buy more time to fix the planet.
04:39Desperate times call for desperate measures.
04:42Now, the idea of saving the Arctic ice isn't new.
04:45Over the years, scientists have suggested some pretty wild plans to stop the melting.
04:50In 2017, there was the initial wind-powered pump plan.
04:54Physicist Stephen Desch proposed installing about 10 million wind-powered pumps in the Arctic.
05:00These pumps would pull seawater up onto the ice, kind of like real ice.
05:04It would freeze in the cold winter months, creating a thicker ice layer.
05:08The biggest problem is that someone would have to run this entire show.
05:12And what happens if something goes wrong?
05:15In 2018, there was the glass beads plan, which was supposed to start in 2020s.
05:20A team called the Arctic Ice Project suggested covering the Arctic with tiny reflective glass beads.
05:27Yep, glass balls.
05:28The idea was basically to replace the ice's mirror effect.
05:33The beads would bounce sunlight away, keeping the ice colder for longer.
05:36The plan is being tested by a group of scientists working with the Arctic Ice Project.
05:42They say the glass balls are made of a material that's safe for animals.
05:46They even claim birds use similar materials to help them digest food.
05:50The glass used in these microspheres is the same material used in lab equipment and light bulbs.
05:55Sounds safe, right?
05:57Well, not so fast.
05:59There's also the environmental risk.
06:01These glass balls are tiny, and they could easily get into the ocean, impacting everything from fish to plankton.
06:08We still need more research to understand how this material breaks down in the ocean and whether it could affect marine life.
06:14But where things get really crazy is when we start talking about scaling this up.
06:21To cover just a tiny fraction of the Arctic, they would need millions of tons of these tiny microspheres.
06:27And that's just for starters.
06:29And they'd have to be working 24-7 through freezing temperatures and snowstorms.
06:34The scientists believe this could help keep the ice thick enough to survive summer and even slow the melting.
06:40But can it really work?
06:42Then, there's also the Bright Ice Initiative, founded by the same folks behind the Arctic Ice Project.
06:49Instead of focusing on the Arctic Ocean, they want to use the same glass microspheres to restore glaciers.
06:55They've even tried this out on a glacier in Iceland, but experts are still skeptical.
07:00They say it could just speed up melting instead of reversing it.
07:03Now, another idea was cloud seeding with water particles.
07:07This would involve spraying ocean water into the sky itself.
07:10This would form clouds, and they'd reflect more sunlight.
07:14So, as you can see, some of these plans were too expensive, too complicated, or just straight-up wild.
07:20The real ISIS plan borrows ideas from earlier projects, but is much cheaper and more practical.
07:27Most importantly, it's working.
07:29But all this Arctic disaster is already affecting people.
07:33In the village of Newtok, Alaska, the land is disappearing.
07:37Each year, about 70 feet of the riverbank erodes, taking homes and history with it.
07:43That's all because of the erosion and the thawing permafrost.
07:46Now, these people had to move to a safer place called Myrtevek, just 9 miles away.
07:53But it's a long and challenging journey.
07:55The relocation is taking years of planning, with Newtok residents already starting this shift in 2019.
08:02The new village offers better health and safety, but it's still a work in progress.
08:07Things like the school and grocery store remain in the old village, which makes things harder.
08:12Water and sewage systems are being set up, and for now, most residents are using a honey bucket system.
08:19But at least, they have a chance to rebuild.
08:22It's still unclear whether these geoengineering ideas are a lifeline or a disaster.
08:27For now, we can just keep an eye on them.
08:30This place has no time zone, no landmass, and the sun rises and sets here just once a year.
08:36For over 400 years, since the era of King Henry VIII, thousands of explorers from all over the world were trying to reach this elusive spot, the North Pole.
08:48Some were hoping to find a northwest or northeast passage to China and the Indies, and others just wanted to see what it was like.
08:56In 1773, the British Royal Navy organized the first scientific expedition to the North Pole.
09:03Constantine V volunteered to lead the mission.
09:05It was difficult for the two ships to move through thick ice, and they had to be towed using smaller boats.
09:11At some point, Phipps was ready to leave the ships as they saw a completely frozen sea.
09:16But in the end, they broke free from the ice and escaped into the open sea to return home without reaching the goal.
09:24In 1882, American explorer James Booth Lockwood managed to get closer to the goal than anyone else.
09:31By that time, at least 750 people in 42 expeditions had lost their lives trying to make it to the pole.
09:39On the 7th of September, 1909, the New York Times came out with a sensational front page.
09:48Perry discovers the North Pole after eight trials in 23 years.
09:53Robert E. Perry, an American explorer, claimed to have reached the North Pole in April of the same year.
09:58But communication back then was slower than now, so the message had only reached New York by September.
10:05A week before the famous headline, the New York Herald had published its own front page sensation.
10:11The North Pole is discovered by Dr. Frederick A. Cook.
10:15Cook, another American explorer, had vanished into the Arctic for over a year,
10:19and had everyone convinced he reached the pole in April 1908, a whole year before Perry.
10:25It was tricky to provide evidence any of them had actually reached the goal back then.
10:30Their goal was constantly moving on sea ice, unlike the South Pole on steady land,
10:35so they couldn't just leave a flag or some other proof there.
10:39A travel diary full of details of the journey, including daily distances,
10:43the position of the stars, and the like, would probably do as evidence.
10:47But neither Cook nor Perry were able to provide any of this backup information.
10:52So each of them started a campaign to prove they were honest and trustworthy.
10:57Perry was mentioned as the North Pole discoverer until 1988.
11:02That's when the National Geographic Society revisited the evidence
11:05and found that his records really didn't prove his claim.
11:09Cook's claim was neither proven nor disproven.
11:12Australian-born British explorer Sir Hubert Wilkins went on his first expedition to the North Pole
11:20in 1913.
11:22That's when he got the idea to reach the goal by submarine.
11:25In 1931, he borrowed a special submarine named O-12 from the U.S. Navy.
11:32The future mission had two goals.
11:34To do scientific experiments while floating on ice and moving underwater,
11:38and to reach the North Pole by traveling beneath the ice.
11:41They planned to study the weather, take temperature measurements,
11:45and collect water samples from both the surface and the seafloor.
11:48The submarine Sir Hubert used was brought to a shipyard in New Jersey to be modified.
11:53They added the latest scientific equipment and changed the outside
11:57so the submarine could travel under the ice.
12:00On March 16th, the submarine left the shipyard to start its journey to the Brooklyn Navy Yard in New York.
12:06But even before leaving the Delaware River, they faced delays.
12:10A snowstorm forced them to stop at the Philadelphia Navy Yard.
12:14And they had to stop again to get more fuel.
12:17When the submarine was entering New York Harbor,
12:19a crew member who was just 27 years old fell overboard and drowned.
12:24The submarine was officially renamed Nautilus.
12:27And the grandson of Jules Verne, the author of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea,
12:31which inspired the new name, was there to see it.
12:36Before starting their journey, the crew tested the Nautilus in different spots off the New England coast.
12:42They faced criticism and were already two months behind schedule,
12:45so they decided to head straight to England.
12:48During their trip across the Atlantic, they sailed into severe storms.
12:52On the 13th of June, the starboard engine broke down.
12:56Then, the port engine failed because it was overused.
12:59While crossing the Atlantic, Sir Hubert Wilkins kept radioing the submarine's position back to the United States.
13:06After both engines failed, they sent out an SOS.
13:10On June 15th, the USS Wyoming, a huge ship on a training cruise with naval students, reached the Nautilus.
13:17The Wyoming towed the broken submarine to Queenstown, Ireland,
13:20and then it was taken to Davenport, England for repairs.
13:23They had to wait for spare parts from the United States, which caused more delays.
13:28Once the Nautilus was fixed, they headed to Bergen, Norway, to meet the submarine's science officers and get more equipment.
13:36One of the most important additions in Bergen was a diving chamber,
13:39which allowed them to lower scientific tools into the water through a special hatch.
13:44On August 5th, the Nautilus finally left Bergen and headed north to find ice flows.
13:51They had lots of delays because of mechanical problems and storms.
13:55One storm even made the submarine tilt at crazy angles.
13:59Finally, on August 19th, they saw the first ice flow.
14:03For a few days, they followed the ice's edge, looking for a good spot to dive.
14:09Three days later, they tried to dive under the ice, but discovered that the submarine's diving rudders were missing.
14:15One diver went overboard to check and saw that someone must have broken off the rudders on purpose.
14:21This made Wilkins think that someone on the crew had sabotaged the submarine because they didn't trust the mission.
14:27Even without the rudders, Wilkins still wanted to do some of his scientific experiments.
14:33On the last day of August, they found a way to force the Nautilus under a three-foot-thick ice flow.
14:39They had to fill the ballast tanks and adjust the trim.
14:42They managed to make more dives under this ice this way before the journey ended.
14:47After a few more days of trying to do research, Wilkins decided it was too dangerous to stay at sea.
14:52The Nautilus arrived at Svalbard, the Norwegian archipelago between mainland Norway and the North Pole, on September 8th, after going through the worst storm of the trip.
15:04They planned to go to a port in England, but another storm caused a lot of damage and made the engines fail, so they had to stop in Bergen again.
15:12After getting permission from the United States shipping board, the Nautilus was towed out of Bergen and sunk in a Norwegian fjord on November 13th, 1931.
15:22In 1958, a U.S. submarine with the same name, Nautilus, became the first vessel that reached the North Pole by traveling under the ice.
15:33This Nautilus was much bigger than the submarines that came before it.
15:36It was 319 feet long and weighed 3,590 tons.
15:42For comparison, the other Nautilus was 175 feet long.
15:45Unlike other submarines, the new Nautilus could stay underwater for a longer time because of its special atomic engine didn't need air and only used a tiny amount of nuclear fuel.
15:57On July 23rd, 1958, it left Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on Operation Sunshine.
16:02There were 116 people on board, Commander Anderson, 111 officers and crew, and 4 civilian scientists.
16:11The Nautilus traveled north through the Bering Strait and only surfaced once at Point Barrow, Alaska.
16:17On August 1st, the submarine left the north coast of Alaska and dove under the Arctic ice cap.
16:23The submarine traveled at a depth of 500 feet, with the ice above it between 10 to 50 feet thick.
16:29At 11.15 p.m. on August 3rd, Commander Anderson told his crew,
16:35For the world, our country, and the Navy, the North Pole.
16:39And the Nautilus went right under the North Pole without stopping.
16:43On August 5th, the submarine came up in the Greenland Sea.
16:47And then, two days later, it finished its historic trip in Iceland.
16:53That's it for today.
16:54So hey, if you pacified your curiosity, then give the video a like and share it with your friends.
16:59Or if you want more, just click on these videos and stay on the Bright Side!
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