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Explore the awe-inspiring scale of the biggest tree on Earth, uncover the alarming possibility of the Sahara Desert expanding into Europe, and investigate the mysterious southward drift of the Northern Lights. This journey highlights the breathtaking and sometimes unsettling phenomena of our natural world.
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00:00The largest tree in the world is so massive, it even earned itself the nickname General Sherman.
00:06It stands tall in California's Sequoia National Park, stretching its branches at 275 feet toward the sky.
00:14That's almost as tall as the Statue of Liberty.
00:16As for its weight, if we could place it on a scale, we'd need 400 elephants to balance things out.
00:23Its base stretches 36 feet in diameter, big enough to hide two sedans parked end-to-end.
00:30California is the last place on Earth where these colossal trees grow naturally.
00:35During the Ice Age, they flourished across North America and Europe, but as the glaciers retreated, so did the sequoias.
00:42Today, they thrive along the western slope of the Sierra Nevada Range, relying on the melting glacier caps to quench
00:49their thirst.
00:50General Sherman gathers thousands of visitors every day, and the park's infrastructure caters to this.
00:56There's a short half-mile walk from the nearest parking lot that leads to the big green giant.
01:02Along the way, a stone marker outlines the shape and size of the tree's base, to give visitors a sense
01:09of its immense scale.
01:11This sassy sequoia is estimated to be around 23 to 2700 years old and has witnessed centuries of change.
01:19It sprouted during the early days of the Roman Empire.
01:23When Europeans arrived in California in the late 1800s, they first tried to harvest the sequoias, thinking they had valuable
01:31wood.
01:31However, the sheer effort required to take down these giants was enormous for those days.
01:37They also soon figured out that this type of wood was a bit more brittle than expected, so they let
01:43these trees off the hook.
01:44As for its name, the tree shares it with General William Tecumseh Sherman, a 19th-century famous American public servant.
01:53Not far from General Sherman stands the world's second-largest tree, named General Grant.
01:59Discovered by locals years before General Sherman received its name, this tree has weathered its own share of challenges, including
02:06fires.
02:07But like its counterpart, it survived, mostly thanks to its thick bark and resilient hardwood.
02:14Now, as for the oldest tree, for a long time, we've known it to be a Great Basin bristlecone pine
02:20named Methuselah, also found in California.
02:23It's been around for more than 4,800 years, way before the Egyptians built the Pyramids of Giza.
02:29This tree's location is a bit of a secret to keep it safe from harm.
02:34Now, Methuselah and its friends grow way up high in California, Nevada, and Utah, where it's tough to survive.
02:40The place is cold, with dry soil and fierce winds.
02:44But these strong timbers have figured out how to thrive, getting their nutrients from the hard, rocky ground up in
02:51the mountains.
02:51Their branches are twisted and gnarled because of the winds blowing in all directions as they reach maturity.
02:57It does make their appearance a bit messy, but it's an added layer of resistance for those trees during powerful
03:04storms.
03:04Their roots only feed the branches right above them.
03:07So, if one part of the tree's roots fades away, only that part of the tree will be affected.
03:14Now, there's a new contender, however, for the same title of the oldest tree.
03:18In Chile, there's a Patagonian cypress called Gran Abuea, which means Great Grandfather in Spanish.
03:25It might even be older than Methuselah by about 500 years.
03:29This would mean this tree has seen people roaming around during the Bronze Age.
03:34To figure out a tree's age, we generally need to look inside its bark and count its rings.
03:40For the Gran Abuea, though, scientists use complex math to estimate how old it is.
03:45Some experts aren't convinced by this method just yet.
03:49No matter which tree is older, both Methuselah and the Gran Abuea have seen a lot of changes in their
03:55long lives.
03:56Each ring in their trunks holds info about the weather from the year it grew.
04:00Scientists can learn a ton about past climates on our planet by studying these ancient trees.
04:07Now, the world's tallest tree is also off-limit to visitors.
04:11But this is a recent safety measure.
04:13Its name is Hyperion, and it's located in Redwood National Park, California.
04:19Standing at a towering 380 feet, Hyperion is a coastal redwood,
04:24taller than the length of an American football field.
04:27Named after a character in Greek mythology, Hyperion was discovered in 2006 by two researchers.
04:34The park is home to other incredibly tall trees like Helios and Icarus.
04:39Both also reaching heights of over 370 feet.
04:43The impressive height of redwoods in Northern California is due to their leaves and the region's climate.
04:49These trees absorb and store moisture from morning fog.
04:53And their sprouts promote growth after injury, allowing them to live for a very long time.
04:59However, their shallow roots make them susceptible to damage from hikers.
05:04Besides being a record holder, Hyperion's appearance may not live up to the hype.
05:09Witnessing its towering height from the ground is hard, and its trunk isn't that impressive.
05:14Hyperion is currently tucked away in a closed-off section with no official trail.
05:20But despite this, many tree enthusiasts have trampled through over the years,
05:24harming the habitat leading up to it.
05:27Trash has also been found along the way in the past.
05:30The park recently issued a statement urging visitors to steer clear of this tree.
05:35Otherwise, they could face hundreds of dollars worth of fines and even end up behind bars.
05:41The Tree of Life stands as a resilient symbol amidst the arid desert landscape of Bahrain.
05:47Nestled in the highest point of the country, this ancient tree defies odds,
05:52captivating visitors with its mysterious and inexplicable presence.
05:56It's surrounded by endless stretches of heated dunes in the Arabian desert.
06:01Because it stands alone against the desert backdrop,
06:04it has puzzled scientists and botanists for years.
06:07There's little to no rainfall over there.
06:10There are also no freshwater sources nearby.
06:13Despite the lack of moisture, the Tree of Life insists on flourishing,
06:17flaunting its green foliage.
06:19How it manages to survive in such harsh conditions led to some weird theories.
06:24Some speculate that the tree's roots go deep into the earth,
06:28reaching depths of up to 160 feet to access underground water reserves.
06:33Others suggest that the tree has adapted to its environment,
06:36drawing moisture from the surrounding sand grains through specialized mechanisms.
06:41One other interesting idea is that the Tree of Life lies at the side of the legendary Garden of Eden,
06:48getting its water from a mystical source.
06:50Apart from its scientific and cultural significance,
06:53the Tree of Life is an important tourist attraction for locals,
06:57luring in approximately 65,000 visitors each year.
07:01All for a tree.
07:04Now Poland has its fair share of trees worth mentioning,
07:08all gathered in the crooked forest.
07:10It's a group of 400 trees that bend strangely.
07:14They all have a similar shape,
07:15curving sharply toward the sky in little J-shapes,
07:19almost touching the ground.
07:20People have different ideas about why these trees look like that.
07:24Some think a heavy snowstorm covered them when they were young,
07:28pushing them down.
07:29Others believe the area's gravity might have affected how they grow.
07:33One interesting theory is that people who planted these trees back in the 1920s
07:38might have bent them on purpose.
07:40They wanted to use the curved shapes to expedite the furniture manufacturing process.
07:46So, when the trees were about 10 years old,
07:48they interfered with their growth,
07:50making them develop in this odd shape.
07:53After the manipulation process was stopped,
07:56it left the trees in this weird position for decades.
07:59Either way, whatever happened to one tree happened to them all,
08:03because they're all adjusted in the same way.
08:05So, human intervention is the most likely explanation.
08:09Even though all the trees in the crooked forest look the same with their spooky bend,
08:14they still managed to grow tall and healthy.
08:16They've adapted to their difficult conditions.
08:19And, somehow, they've managed to keep growing upwards.
08:24So, the Sahara Desert is so big that it covers 8% of the world's territory.
08:29It's bigger than the USA or China.
08:32Surprisingly, the Sahara is not the largest desert in the world.
08:36It is the third largest, behind Antarctica and the Arctic.
08:40But it is definitely the hottest one.
08:42Temperatures there reach 136 degrees Fahrenheit.
08:46This place has some of the most incredible sand dunes you've ever seen,
08:50towering up to 1,476 feet.
08:53But here's the kicker.
08:55There's a real risk that these dunes might continue to spread
08:58until they cover the entire world.
09:03Surprisingly, the influence of the Sahara Desert extends far beyond its borders.
09:08Its dust, carried by powerful winds, makes its way to the UK and across the European continent,
09:15particularly in winter.
09:16This dust, settling on the ground where it rains, is a familiar sight to those in the UK,
09:22often leaving a red residue on cars.
09:25This connection between the Sahara, England, and Europe serves as a stark reminder of the
09:30global reach of environmental phenomena.
09:33You might think this is not a big deal, but it could turn Europe into a desert,
09:38leaving its soil infertile and Europeans with no food.
09:42Soil is a fundamental aspect of human existence, just as crucial as clean water and air.
09:48Without it, we're left with nothing but a bleak and barren landscape.
09:55The Sahara Desert has already made its jump across the Mediterranean Sea,
09:59which is concerning and could change the landscape forever.
10:03One-fifth of Spain has already turned into a desert.
10:07The next victim is Italy, which also faces the problem of desertification.
10:12In fact, almost all European countries have the same issue.
10:16According to an expert, the land that has not changed for nearly 2,000 years
10:20will become mostly rock, and people living on this land will be gone.
10:26Sixty percent of the soil in Moldova is gone, and the problem has expanded beyond the Black Sea.
10:32It has reached China and Mongolia, thousands of miles away from the Sahara Desert.
10:37All of this causes losses of $4 billion a year.
10:41The threat is so significant that even the UN has gathered the necessary resources
10:46to solve the problem as soon as possible.
10:49Italy is sending help to Africa to stop the Sahara Desert from expanding.
10:54If this process does not stop in the next 10 years, millions will be forced to leave their homes.
11:00The Sahara Desert is growing for approximately 30 miles per decade.
11:05You do the math and see how long it will take to cover Europe.
11:09Since 1920, the Sahara has expanded by around 10%.
11:13But not all hope is lost because more than 172 countries have joined to put a stop to the decertification
11:21of the world.
11:24The World Food Program is a project that aims to help bring back green land that was once present in
11:31the Sahara.
11:31When they told people who called the Sahara home what they were about to do,
11:36the latter basically laughed in their faces and said it was impossible.
11:40But when you have a specific goal in mind, the impossible becomes possible.
11:45If we traveled back around 5,000 years into the past,
11:49we would see a beautiful forest with lush green trees and grass.
11:53Africa's climate has been changing for 21,000 years,
11:57from fantastic greenery to uninhabitable deserts.
12:00This has to do with Earth's rotation and the monsoons that bring water to this dry continent.
12:06But with the help of scientists and some clever tricks,
12:09we can bring the greenery back and stop the Sahara in its tracks.
12:16The Senegal River serves as a border between the Sahara Desert, Senegal City, and Mauritania.
12:22When you look at this area from space, you'll see how the desert is expanding to Senegal
12:27because the vegetation along the riverbank is almost non-existent.
12:32Forests can serve as a barrier, stopping the sand from getting blown away and the desert from expanding.
12:39An effort to create a great green wall is being made, and how they do it is actually quite impressive.
12:45Nothing has been growing in the currently restored area for more than 40 years,
12:49making locals find other places to call home.
12:52People were thrilled when they saw that the land could be restored.
12:56They're very committed and learn to work with the soil and grow food.
13:02At the same moment, more than 30,000 hectares have been restored and transformed into lush greenery.
13:09The Sahel region is the starting point of desertification,
13:12and it is crucial to establish a green wall in that area first.
13:16To make this wall is not rocket science, since it only takes a few simple steps.
13:22The ground there is baked by the sun and is hard as a block of concrete.
13:26If you've ever poured water on concrete, you know that it just flows away.
13:30It doesn't stay in one place.
13:32So they had to create water-retaining half-moons that would hold the water and make it available to plants.
13:41When you learn about how these half-moons work, you might say,
13:45how did they not think of that sooner?
13:47Actually, this technique is ancient, and it was once implemented in Sahel.
13:52But it was lost over time.
13:54When the rain falls, the water is collected into the half-moons
13:58that are positioned a bit lower than the ground below contour lines.
14:02There is also a kind of bank at the end of the shape that prevents water from overflowing.
14:07And in the middle, there are plants that are happy, because they have plenty of water to thrive.
14:13Also, it's essential to grow native plants that are kind of used to harsh conditions,
14:18like sorghum and millet.
14:20These plants have been surviving there for thousands of years
14:23and produce a good amount of biomass,
14:25which means the land can be rehabilitated faster and people will have food sooner.
14:33The water that will enter the half-moons won't be lost.
14:36It will penetrate the ground and top off underground waters.
14:40This will ensure the ground that H2O will never run out
14:44and that future generations will have usable aqua.
14:47This brilliant planting technique is not limited to half-moons.
14:51People also create lines and plant various vegetables, such as tomatoes.
14:56Next, there are places only for trees, like lemons or oranges.
15:00After a long, hot day, nothing is better than a freshly made cold lemonade.
15:06The trees will also protect the soil.
15:08And with some luck, there will be a new forest in the Sahara Desert.
15:13The goal is to copy the forest dynamic.
15:16Start with small plants and gradually expand to bigger plants that are more useful than the tiny ones.
15:21They are aiming to plant more than 10,000 trees.
15:28Right now, many people are leaving the Sahara after the rainy season,
15:32going to cities, or leaving Africa altogether.
15:35At this time of year, villages are like ghost towns.
15:38Only animals can be found there.
15:40Most people are gone.
15:42I mean, who would blame them?
15:43Nobody wants to live in the sand where nothing grows.
15:46Luckily, with all this new, old technology being developed,
15:51many people are slowly but surely returning to their land and starting to work in agriculture.
15:56The best thing is that there are no brutal winters,
15:59so plants grow 12 months a year, and people can always have food.
16:03People are becoming more social because now,
16:06everybody stays in their villages and doesn't travel much.
16:10If this project works out, Africa will be saved,
16:13and the world won't turn into a giant desert.
16:18Bright, colorful flashes of pink and green light up the sky.
16:22You're watching it from your backyard in Pennsylvania.
16:25That's not something you're used to,
16:27but it's very likely to happen more often in the near future
16:30as the northern lights are shifting south.
16:33Northern lights, or auroras, appear as a result of solar storms.
16:38The sun is a huge ball of molten gases that are constantly moving,
16:41so such storms aren't rare.
16:44Our star produces a huge amount of energy that goes our way.
16:47It travels as electrical charges at the speed of about 3 million miles per hour.
16:53No big deal.
16:54When all those tiny particles from the sun reach Earth's atmosphere,
16:58they give some of the energy to atoms and molecules in its upper layer.
17:01The atoms and molecules can't hold it and give it off as light.
17:05You can see it as spectacular auroras around the magnetic poles of the northern and southern hemispheres.
17:11If you were watching them from space, they'd look like large ovals.
17:15The brightness, colors, and shapes auroras take depend on the altitude where the lights are formed
17:20and what particles take part in the process.
17:23In the northern hemisphere, locations like Alaska, Canada, and much of Scandinavia
17:28normally get to see the brightest lights.
17:31The biggest solar storm ever was recorded in 1859,
17:35and it was so powerful that the northern lights were spotted in Cuba and Honolulu,
17:40and southern lights were seen as far off as Santiago, Chile.
17:44In latitudes like that of New York,
17:47people were able to read newspapers in the dark under those northern lights alone.
17:51If something similar happened today, it would have caused $1 to $2 trillion in damage.
17:57With solar activity and pressure from the solar winds increasing,
18:01the aurora belt's borders are currently shifting south.
18:05Solar activity goes in cycles, each of them 11 years long.
18:08We're now in solar cycle 25, which started in December 2019,
18:12and will reach its maximum strength between November 2024 and March 2026.
18:20So, geomagnetic storms will become stronger and probably even reach G5 levels.
18:25Those levels are their strength ratings.
18:27For you to see the northern lights south of the Great Lakes,
18:30a storm must be rated at least G3.
18:33G5 storms will be able to produce auroras that will even reach Florida.
18:38In case you don't want to wait for the sun activity to peak in 2025,
18:42head north if you're in the northern hemisphere,
18:44or south if you're in the southern hemisphere.
18:47Auroras down there are known as the southern lights, or aurora australis.
18:52It doesn't have to be cold for you to see the northern lights, it just has to be dark.
18:57Auroras are active throughout the year.
18:59You can't see them from April to August in the northernmost parts of the world because it's light, 24-7.
19:06It's also important that there isn't any precipitation or clouds in the sky.
19:10Those will block your view.
19:12Light pollution won't help either, so move away from any cities.
19:16Try to get to an elevation to maximize your chances of spotting the lights.
19:20They can appear in a whole variety of colors, including white-gray.
19:24The green-yellow part you're most likely to imagine while thinking of the lights
19:28is just the easiest to spot with an unaided human eye.
19:32Sometimes you might not see the lights at all, but your camera will still catch them.
19:36They might seem dangerously close to Earth,
19:38but the closest the northern lights ever get to us is 50 miles.
19:43For comparison, planes normally fly at around 6 miles above the surface,
19:47and that already seems like a lot.
19:49The distance from Earth defines the color of the auroras.
19:52When atoms giving us this spectacular show collide closer to Earth,
19:57you can see blues and violets in the sky.
19:59Green and red auroras are born further away from our planet.
20:03Earth isn't the only planet to have northern lights.
20:07Jupiter and Saturn both have strong magnetic field,
20:10and scientists spotted auroras up there using the Hubble Space Telescope
20:15and the Cassini and Galileo spacecraft.
20:17It looks like Saturn's auroras are also caused by solar winds,
20:22but it's not so clear about Jupiter.
20:24Despite what you can often see online,
20:26the northern lights aren't going to disappear altogether.
20:29Once the sun passes its activity peak and becomes less active,
20:33both the northern and the southern lights will happen less frequently,
20:36but will still be gorgeous.
20:39Another beautiful rare phenomenon is called the green flash.
20:43It happens shortly after sunset or before sunrise when the sun is almost entirely below the horizon,
20:49and the Earth's atmosphere bends and scatters light from it.
20:53People mostly spot it over the ocean.
20:55It can also be yellow, blue, or purple.
21:00About once a year, you can spot a rare firenado in the U.S.
21:05Fire tornadoes start when a strong wind picks up heat from a fire.
21:09They are made of a flame or ash.
21:11They're different from regular tornadoes because they don't start from cyclones.
21:16Firenadoes are about as tall as the Leaning Tower of Pisa.
21:20Unlike firenadoes, fire rainbows or rainbow clouds don't cause any damage at all
21:25as they don't have anything to do with fire.
21:28You can only see them when the sun is very high in the sky,
21:31and its light is passing through ice clouds, so they're pretty rare.
21:36The rainbow halos are just as unique.
21:39Again, it takes a specific type of ice crystals in the clouds of the surface of the Earth
21:43to bend light from the sun into a perfect ring.
21:46The same thing can happen with moonlight.
21:49The only difference will be that the moon halos are usually white,
21:52and sun halos can be rainbow-colored.
21:55A white rainbow is another rare illusion, this time created by fog and water.
22:01Like a usual rainbow, it's formed when light is shining through droplets of water.
22:06It loses color because fog droplets are hundreds of times smaller than those of rain.
22:11A white rainbow is sometimes mistaken for a moonbow.
22:15You can spot this one at nighttime as the moon illuminates it.
22:18That's why it's not so bright.
22:22If you ever see an upside-down rainbow in the sky, that's a circumzenithal arc.
22:27It's not really a rainbow, but a kind of halo like those around the sun or the moon.
22:32This optical phenomenon is caused by ice crystals in the upper atmosphere.
22:36You have the best chance to see a circumzenithal arc when the sun is rather low in the sky.
22:43It happens super rarely, but it can rain without a single cloud in the sky.
22:48It's sometimes called a sun shower because it looks like the rain is falling straight from the sun.
22:54In reality, rain clouds are at a distance from that specific location.
22:58With sun rays being angled, the clouds become out of sight.
23:02Then, it takes just a little wind to blow the rain in your direction.
23:06If you ever travel to regions with high altitudes, you might see something called penitentes.
23:11Those ice spikes form only in a really cold and elevated environment where the air is dry.
23:18The sunlight turns ice directly into vapor instead of melting it into water.
23:23That's why these blades of snow and ice up to 15 feet tall start to pop up on the surface
23:28of the earth.
23:30One of the rarest types of clouds is lenticular clouds that look like giant mountain hats.
23:36They're formed when moist air travels over a mountain or a mountain range and gets into an area of turbulence.
23:44Volcanoes can produce bolts of lightning.
23:47They're formed in columns of volcanic ash through friction and static electricity
23:51to connect the positively and negatively charged particles.
23:55To understand how it works, you can rub a balloon across your hair.
23:59Or your feet across a carpet and then touch a metal doorknob.
24:03Once a year, just for a few moments, a waterfall in Yosemite turns into a fireball.
24:10In winter and early spring, two streams flow down El Capitan Mountain.
24:14In perfect conditions in February, when the sun is hiding behind the horizon,
24:19it gets into the right position to reflect off the wall and color the water into fiery orange.
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