WEBVTT 1 00:00:01.000 --> 00:00:04.599 Welcome. This is Marcia for RADIOI and today I will 2 00:00:04.639 --> 00:00:08.919 be reading National Geographic Magazine dated February twenty twenty five. 3 00:00:09.800 --> 00:00:13.560 As a reminder, RADIOI is a rating service attended for 4 00:00:13.679 --> 00:00:16.960 people who are blind or have other disabilities that make 5 00:00:17.000 --> 00:00:20.480 it difficult to read printed material. Please join me now 6 00:00:20.519 --> 00:00:24.039 for the continuation of the article I began last time, 7 00:00:24.800 --> 00:00:31.120 entitled The Mystery of the Rings by Veronique Greenwood. When 8 00:00:31.199 --> 00:00:35.039 hundreds of eerily perfect circles were discovered on the ocean floor, 9 00:00:35.600 --> 00:00:39.359 theories abounded about what they could mean. Four years of 10 00:00:39.439 --> 00:00:43.960 underwater research revealed a lost world. Near the end of 11 00:00:43.960 --> 00:00:48.759 the trip, the scientists retreated to the ship's cabin, hooked 12 00:00:48.840 --> 00:00:52.359 up to the glitchy Internet. Barred and the others were 13 00:00:52.399 --> 00:00:56.399 reading papers, looking at maps, thinking over what they'd seen. Slowly, 14 00:00:56.439 --> 00:00:59.240 over the next few months, they put together a hypothesis. 15 00:01:00.000 --> 00:01:02.520 Even though to a non expert, the knobs in the 16 00:01:02.560 --> 00:01:05.159 center of the rings might look like coral, they were not. 17 00:01:06.159 --> 00:01:11.799 They were deposits formed by coralline algai, photosynthetic organisms that 18 00:01:11.840 --> 00:01:16.319 create skeletons made of calcium carbonate. During the last ice Age, 19 00:01:16.359 --> 00:01:21.159 thousands of those algae colonies likely took root on what 20 00:01:21.359 --> 00:01:24.920 was then a very sunny seafloor. For three thousand years 21 00:01:25.040 --> 00:01:29.799 or so, these algae flourished, growing outward like domes or pancakes, 22 00:01:29.840 --> 00:01:33.480 measuring several yards. Then, around twenty thousand years ago, the 23 00:01:33.519 --> 00:01:37.280 world began to warm and continental ice sheets began to melt, 24 00:01:37.799 --> 00:01:41.519 funneling into the Mediterranean, which rose until the sun loving 25 00:01:41.560 --> 00:01:46.359 algae were drowned in darkness. Their domes collapsed, leaving only 26 00:01:46.400 --> 00:01:50.040 the central knobs and bits of calcium carbonate scattered like 27 00:01:50.120 --> 00:01:53.480 bones from a carcass around them. For thousands of years, 28 00:01:53.480 --> 00:01:57.200 nothing lived amid the remains that left a permanent imprint. 29 00:01:57.640 --> 00:02:01.519 But about eight thousand years ago the sea levels stabilized, 30 00:02:02.000 --> 00:02:06.599 deep water algae laid down new layers on the central knobs, 31 00:02:06.680 --> 00:02:11.280 creating the film of life the diverse saw. At the 32 00:02:11.319 --> 00:02:18.120 same time, rhodolith algae started to encase broken bits of calcium. 33 00:02:18.439 --> 00:02:23.560 The nuggets of algae rolled downhill from the knobs, settling 34 00:02:23.759 --> 00:02:27.000 around the base of the cones in perfect circles. That's 35 00:02:27.039 --> 00:02:30.560 everyone's best guess. The simple tug of gravity formed the rings. 36 00:02:31.199 --> 00:02:34.319 We don't have all the proof, admits Bollsta. Though we 37 00:02:34.360 --> 00:02:38.159 have nothing to say our history is wrong. Protecting the 38 00:02:38.319 --> 00:02:41.520 entire field of rings may prove difficult. Only about one 39 00:02:41.560 --> 00:02:46.240 third of them lie within the cap Course and Agriat 40 00:02:46.599 --> 00:02:52.159 Marine National Park, a French marine protected area, but the park, 41 00:02:52.280 --> 00:02:57.680 with help from Billesta's andromedae Oceanology, is taking on this challenge. 42 00:02:58.000 --> 00:03:01.520 Using data from Billesta's dives, it plans to abdocate for 43 00:03:01.599 --> 00:03:05.080 the further protection of all rings, even those located outside 44 00:03:05.120 --> 00:03:09.479 its bounds in French and Italian waters. The park's management 45 00:03:09.520 --> 00:03:13.479 council will propose prohibiting the anchoring of commercial vessels in 46 00:03:13.520 --> 00:03:17.599 this area. Normally, with this type of regulation it takes years, 47 00:03:17.639 --> 00:03:20.840 Bullesta says, but because so many of the rings already 48 00:03:20.919 --> 00:03:26.479 exist within a conservation zone, he's optimistic. He is also 49 00:03:26.599 --> 00:03:29.080 no longer thinking just about the rings, but about what 50 00:03:29.120 --> 00:03:33.159 they represent. Traces like these signs of the ancient coast line, 51 00:03:33.400 --> 00:03:37.800 including rings, submerged caves, and other mysterious structures, may be 52 00:03:37.879 --> 00:03:41.400 hidden all around the ocean floor. They are places for 53 00:03:41.479 --> 00:03:44.439 studying how the world is always building something new on 54 00:03:44.520 --> 00:03:48.120 the husk of a previous age. While there have been 55 00:03:48.120 --> 00:03:50.960 no sightings of the rings elsewhere, you have to realize 56 00:03:51.000 --> 00:03:53.879 that explorations at this depth have been rare in the 57 00:03:53.919 --> 00:03:58.479 Mediterranean seas. Her Gent Martini says, perhaps there are others 58 00:03:58.599 --> 00:04:02.360 that have not yet been discovered, secrets below the surface. 59 00:04:02.520 --> 00:04:05.639 Too shallow for most mining and too deep for most divers, 60 00:04:05.960 --> 00:04:08.719 parts of the ocean floor under just a few hundred 61 00:04:08.719 --> 00:04:12.719 feet of water are often overlooked. Recently, pioneering teams of 62 00:04:12.800 --> 00:04:16.920 divers and researchers began exploring a nearly four hundred foot 63 00:04:16.920 --> 00:04:20.079 deep section of the Mediterranean Sea. What they found on 64 00:04:20.120 --> 00:04:24.040 the bottom was shocking. Not just one giant, perfectly circular, 65 00:04:24.480 --> 00:04:28.279 completely mystifying ring, but one thousand, three hundred twenty five 66 00:04:28.319 --> 00:04:32.199 of them. What might have happened? Scientists are studying whether 67 00:04:32.240 --> 00:04:34.800 the highs and lows of temperature and sea water level 68 00:04:35.199 --> 00:04:38.560 over thousands of years dictated the growth and collapse of 69 00:04:38.600 --> 00:04:44.079 red algae that potentially formed the rings. Shallow start Shallow 70 00:04:44.079 --> 00:04:46.079 seas at the peak of the ice age let more 71 00:04:46.120 --> 00:04:51.720 sunlight reach the sea floor, fostering dome shaped red algae communities. 72 00:04:54.519 --> 00:04:59.800 Deadly shift, melting glaciers, and rising seas killed algae. Beginning 73 00:04:59.800 --> 00:05:04.800 an new formations of algae grew atop dead layers. Unattached 74 00:05:04.839 --> 00:05:10.720 clumps tumbled to the edges of circles creating rings. Next 75 00:05:10.920 --> 00:05:15.000 the rediscovered secrets of Project ice Worm. At the height 76 00:05:15.040 --> 00:05:18.040 of the Cold War, a classified military program built an 77 00:05:18.120 --> 00:05:22.040 improbable nuclear bass under the Arctic ice. Now scientists are 78 00:05:22.079 --> 00:05:25.000 taking a French fresh look at what went on there 79 00:05:25.040 --> 00:05:29.720 and drawing critical new insights about climate change. By Neil Schay. 80 00:05:32.879 --> 00:05:35.639 On a freezing day in October nineteen sixty, a team 81 00:05:35.720 --> 00:05:38.720 of U. S. Army technicians toiling at the top of 82 00:05:38.720 --> 00:05:41.399 the world stood in the belly of a glacier, making 83 00:05:41.439 --> 00:05:44.800 the final preparations that would bring a nuclear reactor to life. 84 00:05:45.120 --> 00:05:48.519 It was an experimental model, smallish and fickle, and these, 85 00:05:48.519 --> 00:05:51.199 of course, were the early years of atomic energy. The 86 00:05:51.279 --> 00:05:54.240 men knew that a single burst of radiation could kill them. 87 00:05:54.959 --> 00:05:57.759 They were surrounded by walls of glistening snow that muffled 88 00:05:57.800 --> 00:06:01.600 their voices, reflected the beams cassd by their lights, and 89 00:06:01.680 --> 00:06:06.160 absorbed the tick ticking of their Geiger counters. Far above 90 00:06:06.199 --> 00:06:09.759 their heads arched a ceiling of corrugated steel. Beneath their 91 00:06:09.759 --> 00:06:12.399 feet lay a mile thick slab of ice so old 92 00:06:12.399 --> 00:06:16.240 it reached back to the Plistocene. When the chain reaction 93 00:06:16.399 --> 00:06:19.199 finally began There was a flash of relief, maybe a 94 00:06:19.240 --> 00:06:24.560 tight shout of triumph in the nearby control room, but 95 00:06:24.639 --> 00:06:27.519 within minutes the team was scrambling to shut the reactor down. 96 00:06:27.959 --> 00:06:31.439 Somewhere deep in the ice was a leak. Radioactive neutrons 97 00:06:31.439 --> 00:06:35.240 were spilling into the darkness. Imagine the men there for 98 00:06:35.360 --> 00:06:39.000 a moment, encased in a glacier in Greenland, struggling to 99 00:06:39.040 --> 00:06:41.519 fire up a reactor, perhaps the only humans to be 100 00:06:41.560 --> 00:06:45.319 so perfectly suspended between the ice age and the atomic age. 101 00:06:45.839 --> 00:06:48.279 No one had ever done what they were doing, and 102 00:06:48.480 --> 00:06:51.879 no one would ever try it again publicly. The elaborate 103 00:06:51.920 --> 00:06:54.279 gambit they were a part of was meant to project 104 00:06:54.319 --> 00:06:58.519 American ingenuity. The careful construction of a vast under ice 105 00:06:58.639 --> 00:07:02.680 military base aimed Camp Century that would show the world 106 00:07:02.720 --> 00:07:06.439 that the United States could transform even the coldest, harshest 107 00:07:06.519 --> 00:07:11.079 environment into a habitable place. It would be the ice 108 00:07:11.079 --> 00:07:14.959 sport to end all ice forts. The world's first atomic 109 00:07:15.000 --> 00:07:18.600 powered military station carved into a glacier was a triumph 110 00:07:18.639 --> 00:07:22.399 of engineering, a victory over the elements, its brave crews 111 00:07:22.519 --> 00:07:26.959 bringing civilization and scientific rigor to the polar waste. After 112 00:07:27.040 --> 00:07:30.639 Camp century was up and running, newspapers and magazines, including 113 00:07:30.720 --> 00:07:34.920 National Geographic, sent reporters to visit the Arctic outpost and 114 00:07:35.000 --> 00:07:38.639 tour its labyrinth of tunnels, all lit up by that reactor, 115 00:07:38.839 --> 00:07:41.759 by then its leak fixed with lead bricks and a 116 00:07:41.800 --> 00:07:46.879 lot of inventive engineering. What the visiting journalists weren't told, 117 00:07:47.120 --> 00:07:50.199 nor were many of the soldiers living at the station, 118 00:07:50.399 --> 00:07:53.199 which could house up to two hundred, was that Camp 119 00:07:53.279 --> 00:07:56.639 Century was a cover for a secret Cold War Army project, 120 00:07:57.519 --> 00:08:01.920 Unknown even to Greenland's Danish government, the plan remained classified 121 00:08:01.959 --> 00:08:05.639 for decades. America's ambition in the frozen North wasn't so 122 00:08:05.720 --> 00:08:09.720 much about developing portable atomic power as it was about 123 00:08:09.720 --> 00:08:12.839 turning the ice cap into a sprawling ballistic missile base. 124 00:08:13.720 --> 00:08:17.920 The Army, according to now declassified documents, cited the area's 125 00:08:18.079 --> 00:08:22.800 unique adaptability to nuclear deployment. Remote near Russia and hard 126 00:08:22.839 --> 00:08:27.399 to target. The plan, known as Project ice Worm, imagined 127 00:08:27.519 --> 00:08:31.399 threading the tunnels of Camp Century and beyond with railway 128 00:08:31.480 --> 00:08:35.120 tracks that could covertly house and transport up to six 129 00:08:35.200 --> 00:08:38.679 hundred nuclear tipped missiles that could be aimed over the 130 00:08:38.720 --> 00:08:42.960 pole at the Soviet Union. To day, nothing of that 131 00:08:43.120 --> 00:08:47.480 audacious military scheme remains. Camp Century was abandoned long ago 132 00:08:47.480 --> 00:08:50.200 by the Army, and its tunnels beneath the snow were 133 00:08:50.240 --> 00:08:53.279 crushed and swallowed by the restless ice. But a more 134 00:08:53.320 --> 00:08:57.919 surprising legacy endurers thanks to several long overlooked jars stashed 135 00:08:57.960 --> 00:09:01.600 away in deep free storage for decades, some of the 136 00:09:01.679 --> 00:09:06.639 last remnants of an unheralded scientific project performed at Camp Century. 137 00:09:07.000 --> 00:09:10.639 The unexpected evidence inside those jars is now offering modern 138 00:09:10.720 --> 00:09:14.879 scientists a startling glimpse into the wetter, wilder, and more 139 00:09:14.960 --> 00:09:19.320 chaotic age that may await us. For the seven years 140 00:09:19.320 --> 00:09:22.759 that the base was operational, personnel at Camp Century labored 141 00:09:22.799 --> 00:09:26.519 and lived in extreme isolation. The base lay one hundred 142 00:09:26.559 --> 00:09:30.360 twenty seven miles away from the nearest human outpost, an 143 00:09:30.440 --> 00:09:34.519 Air Force base called Thuel. Shipments of food, fuel, and 144 00:09:34.559 --> 00:09:38.000 equipment were dragged on sleds to Century in long convoys 145 00:09:38.039 --> 00:09:41.399 known as swings. This was how people reached the camp too. 146 00:09:42.120 --> 00:09:45.639 Austin Kobak's, an Army research engineer now in his eighties 147 00:09:45.919 --> 00:09:49.399 who spent several seasons living at the camp, remembers that 148 00:09:49.519 --> 00:09:52.919 traveling by swaying took many hours, even in the best conditions, 149 00:09:53.559 --> 00:09:56.639 and in bad weather, blizzards, white outs, the severe gold 150 00:09:56.759 --> 00:09:59.919 cold that could fall like a hammer. The journey like 151 00:10:00.080 --> 00:10:03.639 take days. Sometimes swings even got lost in the endless 152 00:10:03.799 --> 00:10:08.240 arctic void. Still, the real risk, Kovac says, was boredom. 153 00:10:08.320 --> 00:10:11.360 At the camp. People thought it was dangerous, and it 154 00:10:11.440 --> 00:10:14.480 was not dangerous. It was uncomfortable, and at times it 155 00:10:14.519 --> 00:10:18.960 was very, very monotonous. The men lived in prefabricated bunk 156 00:10:19.039 --> 00:10:22.840 houses constructed inside the ice. Kovacs worked in what was 157 00:10:22.879 --> 00:10:27.159 called Trench thirty three, where he researched and studied foundations 158 00:10:27.159 --> 00:10:31.519 to support large buildings on polar ice caps. There was 159 00:10:31.559 --> 00:10:34.919 no sunlight, no bird song, no breeze. Movies were shown 160 00:10:34.960 --> 00:10:37.279 in the base theatre at least once a week. The 161 00:10:37.360 --> 00:10:40.799 library offered a modest collection of books. The men showered 162 00:10:40.799 --> 00:10:43.879 and shaved in a communal bathroom eight in a bright 163 00:10:44.080 --> 00:10:49.000 mess hall. All kinds of ways, trash, sewage, industrial chemicals, 164 00:10:49.039 --> 00:10:52.240 even the radioactive water used to cool the reactor was 165 00:10:52.320 --> 00:10:55.440 dumped back into the glacier, where it remains frozen in 166 00:10:55.519 --> 00:10:59.240 place for now. They drank water drawn from a well 167 00:10:59.279 --> 00:11:03.039 in the glacier. Once, when Kobak's and his comrades needed excitement, 168 00:11:03.440 --> 00:11:07.240 they lowered themselves down the wells, still cable dropping down 169 00:11:07.320 --> 00:11:14.000 a clusterphobically narrow ice shaft into an enormous, pitch black cavern. 170 00:11:14.480 --> 00:11:18.240 Hanging there in utter darkness was a thrill. Kovak's remembers 171 00:11:18.279 --> 00:11:20.600 waking in the morning to a woman's voice in song 172 00:11:21.000 --> 00:11:24.240 piped through the camp's loud speaker. It was a popular 173 00:11:24.279 --> 00:11:26.759 song at the time, he recalls, but after a while, 174 00:11:26.840 --> 00:11:29.159 after weeks and weeks, it got to be too much. 175 00:11:29.559 --> 00:11:33.679 You just wanted her to stop. Enough time has passed 176 00:11:33.679 --> 00:11:36.440 that now Kovaks can't recollect the song or the singer, 177 00:11:36.799 --> 00:11:39.320 just the way her voice drifted through the darkness. I 178 00:11:39.360 --> 00:11:42.840 wish I could remember her name. While Kobak's focused on 179 00:11:42.919 --> 00:11:46.000 his research, other men serviced the reactor or studied the 180 00:11:46.000 --> 00:11:49.159 movements of snow at the bottom of the base. One 181 00:11:49.200 --> 00:11:52.159 team was busy drilling a hole deep into the ice. 182 00:11:52.720 --> 00:11:55.799 In nineteen sixty six, after several years of steady labor, 183 00:11:56.159 --> 00:11:58.720 the men punched through the bottom of the glacier to 184 00:11:58.799 --> 00:12:02.159 the very service of green Land itself. They drilled more 185 00:12:02.200 --> 00:12:05.399 than four thousand feet, gathering in the process the first 186 00:12:05.440 --> 00:12:10.240 ice cores to ever penetrate an ice sheet, and almost 187 00:12:10.240 --> 00:12:13.600 on a whim, they went farther too, collecting eleven and 188 00:12:13.639 --> 00:12:17.000 a half feet of ancient frozen soil. They only stopped 189 00:12:17.000 --> 00:12:20.799 when a drill bearing burned out. That soil would form 190 00:12:20.879 --> 00:12:24.399 one of camp centuries most haunting legacies, though at the 191 00:12:24.440 --> 00:12:27.240 time no one thought much of it. For years after 192 00:12:27.240 --> 00:12:29.919 the base was abandoned, the soil was stored in jars 193 00:12:29.919 --> 00:12:33.200 in a freezer in Buffalo, New York, before being moved 194 00:12:33.200 --> 00:12:36.440 to a freezer in Denmark. There was little to suggest 195 00:12:36.799 --> 00:12:40.679 that something enlightening might be inside those jars, and few, 196 00:12:40.759 --> 00:12:44.440 if any, tools could help unlock their significance. It was 197 00:12:44.480 --> 00:12:48.200 only in twenty nineteen that Paul Biermann, a geoscientist and 198 00:12:48.240 --> 00:12:50.879 professor at the University of Vermont, and several of his 199 00:12:50.960 --> 00:12:54.440 colleagues began to study the contents of the jars. What 200 00:12:54.519 --> 00:12:58.559 they found has revolutionized our understanding of Greenland's ancient climate 201 00:12:58.960 --> 00:13:03.320 and offered a glimpse of our own possible future. Trapped 202 00:13:03.320 --> 00:13:07.559 in the soil Biermann's team discovered were bits of leaves, twigs, bosses, 203 00:13:07.840 --> 00:13:10.759 even insects. The remains could only have come from a 204 00:13:10.799 --> 00:13:13.720 time when the region was free of ice, not smothered 205 00:13:13.759 --> 00:13:17.120 in a mile thick glacier. The discovery painted a new 206 00:13:17.120 --> 00:13:20.080 picture of Greenland's past. There are things we can learn 207 00:13:20.120 --> 00:13:22.480 about ice sheets that we can never learn from the 208 00:13:22.519 --> 00:13:26.000 ice itself, says Bierman. It comes from the stuff below 209 00:13:26.000 --> 00:13:29.720 the ice. The soil samples provoked a radical departure from 210 00:13:29.759 --> 00:13:34.320 earlier vaguer thinking that Greenland's ice cap was a couple 211 00:13:34.360 --> 00:13:37.519 of million years old. Working with dozens of other scholars, 212 00:13:37.559 --> 00:13:40.279 Bierman showed that the ice cap was younger than anyone 213 00:13:40.320 --> 00:13:43.840 had imagined, The soil providing evidence that the land under 214 00:13:43.879 --> 00:13:47.720 Camp Century was ice free about four hundred thousand years ago, 215 00:13:48.200 --> 00:13:50.919 during a period in which the land mass had been 216 00:13:50.960 --> 00:13:54.399 slightly warmer than it is today and when sea levels 217 00:13:54.440 --> 00:13:59.159 were significantly higher. What emerges from the data, he explains, 218 00:13:59.279 --> 00:14:02.440 isn't merely an image of the past, but also perhaps 219 00:14:02.759 --> 00:14:06.080 a clearer vision of a future in which quadrillions of 220 00:14:06.159 --> 00:14:09.279 gallons of fresh water currently locked up in the Greenland 221 00:14:09.320 --> 00:14:12.600 ice cap melt into the ocean. If that happens, the 222 00:14:12.639 --> 00:14:16.120 impacts will be felt nearly everywhere, as coastal cities and 223 00:14:16.159 --> 00:14:20.919 farms are inundated, potentially turning billions of humans into climate refugees. 224 00:14:21.720 --> 00:14:25.399 It's eezy to car compartmentalize Greenland, to say, oh, that's 225 00:14:25.440 --> 00:14:28.440 the Arctic. It doesn't matter to me, says Bierman. But 226 00:14:28.519 --> 00:14:31.600 the long forgotten soil from Camp Sentry draws a straight 227 00:14:31.679 --> 00:14:35.080 line to the critical issue of our age. It takes 228 00:14:35.120 --> 00:14:38.519 you from nineteen sixty six to global climate change and 229 00:14:38.679 --> 00:14:42.960 onward to the effects of Greenland's melting. That's pretty profound. 230 00:14:43.559 --> 00:14:46.840 Project ice Worm was doomed from the start. What those 231 00:14:46.879 --> 00:14:50.159 Cold Warriors seem to have miscalculated when they were sketching 232 00:14:50.240 --> 00:14:53.320 out their missile tunnels beneath the snow was how much 233 00:14:53.559 --> 00:14:56.600 they could prevent glaciers from behaving as if they're alive, 234 00:14:57.360 --> 00:15:01.080 they slide and shrink, grow and flow. Building inside the 235 00:15:01.080 --> 00:15:05.600 glacier was too unstable and required too much maintenance. Rigid 236 00:15:05.639 --> 00:15:08.320 steel railways could buckle under the movement of the ice. 237 00:15:08.720 --> 00:15:12.480 Missiles might tip over. The atomic reactor, connected to a 238 00:15:12.519 --> 00:15:16.320 web of pipes, vents, and conduits that were themselves in motion, 239 00:15:17.000 --> 00:15:20.600 was at risk as the ice below it shifted. Soldiers 240 00:15:20.720 --> 00:15:25.159 armed with electric chainsaws roamed the narrow tunnels, working like sculptures, 241 00:15:25.200 --> 00:15:28.879 carving back the relentless snow. Army planners eventually had to 242 00:15:28.960 --> 00:15:31.519 admit that none of this was a good idea. In 243 00:15:31.600 --> 00:15:34.679 nineteen sixty three, the camp's reactor was shut down, and 244 00:15:34.759 --> 00:15:38.960 three years later, Century itself was abandoned. When Kovac returned 245 00:15:38.960 --> 00:15:41.960 in nineteen sixty nine to conduct a survey, he found 246 00:15:42.000 --> 00:15:45.000 a total ruin. In a series of photographs he made 247 00:15:45.000 --> 00:15:47.600 of the base, one could see something like a mining 248 00:15:47.639 --> 00:15:52.879 disaster unfolding in slow motion. Tongues of snow spilled down passageways, 249 00:15:53.159 --> 00:15:57.559 steel structures collapse on themselves, wood beams splinter like bones. 250 00:15:58.200 --> 00:16:01.279 The photos give form to the glaciers, overwhelming in otherwise 251 00:16:01.360 --> 00:16:05.240 invisible weight. Humans had been gone only a short time, 252 00:16:05.639 --> 00:16:09.120 but already there was the suggestion of an inevitable one 253 00:16:09.159 --> 00:16:13.080 way journey, the debris being crushed, then swallowed, never to 254 00:16:13.200 --> 00:16:17.080 rise again, all but forgotten for half a century. The 255 00:16:17.120 --> 00:16:20.759 camp today delivers a clear eyed picture of Cold War excess, 256 00:16:21.039 --> 00:16:23.639 as well as a dose of nostalgia for a time 257 00:16:23.679 --> 00:16:27.440 of grandiose projects. Think of all the energy and resources 258 00:16:27.440 --> 00:16:30.200 it took to do this. Bearman says, to build those 259 00:16:30.240 --> 00:16:33.639 tunnels and put soldiers down there, it's almost science fiction. 260 00:16:34.159 --> 00:16:37.440 No one would dream of doing that today. For all 261 00:16:37.440 --> 00:16:40.039 that planning. None of the base as big thinking architects 262 00:16:40.039 --> 00:16:43.840 would ever have imagined that camp centuries enduring legacy would 263 00:16:43.879 --> 00:16:46.919 be the research conducted there, all part of the guise 264 00:16:47.000 --> 00:16:51.600 to hide the camp's ulterior nuclear aims. Scientists like Beerman 265 00:16:51.720 --> 00:16:55.120 are grateful for that irony, especially when you realize those 266 00:16:55.159 --> 00:16:58.200 guys drilling down in that trench back in nineteen sixty 267 00:16:58.240 --> 00:17:01.720 six had no idea what would happen, no idea how 268 00:17:01.759 --> 00:17:06.359 important it would be, and they just kept going Arctic ambitions. 269 00:17:06.440 --> 00:17:09.680 Camp Century, completed in nineteen sixty was a pilot project 270 00:17:09.680 --> 00:17:13.440 for an ultimately unrealized but even more audacious plan to 271 00:17:13.480 --> 00:17:16.960 build hundreds of miles of connected tunnels, rail tracks, and 272 00:17:16.960 --> 00:17:20.880 missile silos across the Greenland ice sheet Dubbed twenty five 273 00:17:21.119 --> 00:17:24.799 feet below the snow. The camp provided both the comforts 274 00:17:24.799 --> 00:17:27.839 of home and cutting edge research facilities in one of 275 00:17:27.880 --> 00:17:33.160 the world's most inhospitable regions, advanced laboratories. Work in the 276 00:17:33.160 --> 00:17:36.960 research labs was conducted by civilians and military personnel, alike 277 00:17:37.319 --> 00:17:42.880 experts in fields such as geology, placiology, and seismology. Space 278 00:17:42.920 --> 00:17:47.799 age water supply developed by Camp Century engineer Rao Brigez 279 00:17:48.240 --> 00:17:51.319 This well dropped a steam heated element into the ice, 280 00:17:51.720 --> 00:17:54.920 creating a reservoir that provided the base with ten thousand 281 00:17:54.920 --> 00:17:58.519 gallons of water a day. Today, Nassau is exploring rod 282 00:17:58.559 --> 00:18:04.880 wells for water extraction on Mars. Sustainable power electricity was 283 00:18:04.880 --> 00:18:08.720 supplied by a portable nuclear reactor to avoid the logistical 284 00:18:08.799 --> 00:18:12.400 challenge of transporting a steady supply of diesel fuel for 285 00:18:12.480 --> 00:18:16.400 generators generators across the ice sheet. This was one of 286 00:18:16.440 --> 00:18:19.559 eight small reactors part of a now defunct U. S 287 00:18:19.680 --> 00:18:25.680 Army program to power far flung cold war bases. An 288 00:18:25.880 --> 00:18:29.079 icy main street, the primary access tunnel, wide enough for 289 00:18:29.200 --> 00:18:32.480 large vehicles, served as the major artery for the base. 290 00:18:32.920 --> 00:18:36.519 It was maintained by dedicated staff who cleared snow drifts 291 00:18:36.559 --> 00:18:40.119 and scraped walls to prevent moisture from a accumulating as 292 00:18:40.160 --> 00:18:44.640 ice cold comfort. The camp included a small library at chapel, 293 00:18:44.680 --> 00:18:48.200 a gymnasium in a movie theater that showed films regularly. 294 00:18:48.680 --> 00:18:51.960 Residents pass the time playing chess and cards, reading and 295 00:18:52.000 --> 00:18:57.359 writing letters. Fresh air in hot air out A ventilation 296 00:18:57.480 --> 00:19:01.559 system sucked in cold surface air through escape patches, then 297 00:19:01.720 --> 00:19:05.000 blew it through the tunnels and out toward the surface. Tunnel. 298 00:19:05.039 --> 00:19:08.200 Air temperature had to be kept at five degree fahrenheit 299 00:19:08.720 --> 00:19:14.319 to prevent melting dumping. Nuclear waste spent in highly radioactive 300 00:19:14.599 --> 00:19:18.519 uranium rods were returned to the US for disposal. Less 301 00:19:18.599 --> 00:19:21.839 radioactive waste water was diverted to a well more than 302 00:19:21.880 --> 00:19:26.319 three hundred feet away from the camp. Next, Ghosts of 303 00:19:26.359 --> 00:19:30.119 the Guano Islands in Peru, a photographer finds a novel 304 00:19:30.119 --> 00:19:34.440 way to pay homage to seabirds that were lost In 305 00:19:34.480 --> 00:19:37.880 the nineteenth century. Ships full of workers sailed to islands 306 00:19:37.880 --> 00:19:40.839 off the coast of Peru to mine a precious resource, 307 00:19:41.119 --> 00:19:46.400 bird excrement, or guano, deposited by seabirds like cormorants, pelicans, 308 00:19:46.400 --> 00:19:50.359 and boobies. The chalky white material was sold as fertilizer 309 00:19:50.400 --> 00:19:54.079 to farmers around the world, but at an environmental cost. 310 00:19:54.599 --> 00:19:58.920 As trade increased, more people disturbed the bird's habitat, contributing 311 00:19:58.920 --> 00:20:03.960 to severe pollution declines on the order of population declines 312 00:20:04.000 --> 00:20:06.839 on the order of tens of millions. The steep drop 313 00:20:06.839 --> 00:20:11.839 in numbers inspired photographer and National Geographic Explorer Thomas Peschek 314 00:20:12.440 --> 00:20:15.519 to resurrect the ghosts of sea birds passed into a 315 00:20:15.559 --> 00:20:19.480 modern day landscape and says. In these archival photographs, se 316 00:20:19.480 --> 00:20:23.400 products images onto now diminished areas of the islands to 317 00:20:23.480 --> 00:20:28.960 share a unique perspective of the seabird crisis by Elena Zakos. 318 00:20:31.039 --> 00:20:34.759 Brutal conditions. Guano mining was not only an environmental concern, 319 00:20:34.839 --> 00:20:38.839 but also a humanitarian tragedy during the eighteen hundreds. Many 320 00:20:38.880 --> 00:20:42.480 workers were indentured servants or prisoners, forced to use pick 321 00:20:42.519 --> 00:20:46.359 axes to collect the excrement. The backdrop for this archival 322 00:20:46.400 --> 00:20:52.880 image is Isla Guanape morte hauling guano. Guano harvesting ships 323 00:20:52.920 --> 00:20:57.359 are displayed on stacked bags of recently gathered excrement on 324 00:20:57.599 --> 00:21:02.720 Isla Asia. Today, guana mining is still profitable, though highly regulated. 325 00:21:03.119 --> 00:21:06.400 The islands and their birds are protected by Peru's government. 326 00:21:07.759 --> 00:21:11.799 Next the tiny forest of a Bonzai Giant by Becky Little. 327 00:21:12.640 --> 00:21:15.680 The ancient art of bonza i may look deceptively simple, 328 00:21:15.720 --> 00:21:20.240 but its practice requires care, contemplation, and consistency over long 329 00:21:20.279 --> 00:21:23.519 periods of time, especially if you're growing an entire miniature 330 00:21:23.559 --> 00:21:29.079 forest like the famous living artifact known as goshin. This 331 00:21:29.279 --> 00:21:31.640 Bonsa I was started more than seventy years ago when 332 00:21:31.720 --> 00:21:36.359 Japanese American Banzai artist John Naka cut the top off 333 00:21:36.359 --> 00:21:39.119 a mature juniper tree and planted it in a pot. 334 00:21:39.599 --> 00:21:42.039 Over the next two decades, he surrounded it with ten 335 00:21:42.079 --> 00:21:45.400 more trees, one to honor each of his grandchildren. He 336 00:21:45.519 --> 00:21:49.559 named this miniature forests Gashin, which means protector of the 337 00:21:49.599 --> 00:21:53.319 spirit in Japanese. Today, Goshen is on display at the 338 00:21:53.400 --> 00:21:57.599 National Bonzai and Pengin Museum, part of the National Arboretum 339 00:21:57.640 --> 00:22:00.839 in Washington, d C. With the important distinction of being 340 00:22:00.839 --> 00:22:04.759 one of the world's best known Bonzai arrangements. Naka died 341 00:22:04.799 --> 00:22:07.000 in two thousand and four, the age of eighty nine, 342 00:22:07.279 --> 00:22:10.279 but spent the last decades of his life teaching curators 343 00:22:10.319 --> 00:22:12.680 how to continue to care for the forest. According to 344 00:22:12.720 --> 00:22:15.799 his vision, for a tree to be healthy, you have 345 00:22:15.839 --> 00:22:19.359 to let it grow out and gain strength, says Michael James, 346 00:22:19.400 --> 00:22:22.640 curator at the museum. But when you do that, it 347 00:22:22.680 --> 00:22:26.039 gets out of shape. It doesn't look like a banzai anymore, 348 00:22:26.160 --> 00:22:28.359 so then you have to cut it back. That means 349 00:22:28.400 --> 00:22:32.400 no bonzai is ever truly finished. With proper attention, Goshin 350 00:22:32.720 --> 00:22:36.160 could live on for years. While bonzai is a historic 351 00:22:36.240 --> 00:22:40.039 Japanese art form dating back centuries. Early artists were likely 352 00:22:40.039 --> 00:22:44.000 inspired by the Chinese practice of pejing, which can be 353 00:22:44.079 --> 00:22:47.480 traced to the Han dynasty some two thousand years ago. 354 00:22:48.039 --> 00:22:53.880 Pjing involves creating miniature potted landscapes that can include trees, rocks, water, 355 00:22:54.079 --> 00:22:58.240 human and animal figurines, and other features. But what sets 356 00:22:58.240 --> 00:23:02.000 Bonzai arrangement apart is there their sole focus on maintaining 357 00:23:02.039 --> 00:23:06.160 small trees with specific techniques for shaping that allow them 358 00:23:06.200 --> 00:23:10.720 to resemble much larger specimens. Naka, who was born in 359 00:23:10.839 --> 00:23:14.880 Fort Lupton, Colorado, discovered the practice after he moved at 360 00:23:14.920 --> 00:23:19.079 age eight with his parents to their home country of Japan. There, 361 00:23:19.119 --> 00:23:22.519 his grandfather introduced him to the art of bonzai. Nakav 362 00:23:22.559 --> 00:23:25.519 returned to Colorado in his twenties and eventually settled in 363 00:23:25.599 --> 00:23:29.599 Los Angeles, where he helped found the California Bonzai Society. 364 00:23:30.319 --> 00:23:33.839 In the decades that followed, he became known nationally and 365 00:23:33.920 --> 00:23:37.319 worldwide as both an artist and a teacher. Naka gave 366 00:23:37.359 --> 00:23:40.920 Gasheen to the National Bonzai and Pengin Museum in nineteen 367 00:23:40.960 --> 00:23:46.519 eighty four. Today, Gashin stands out among Naka's Bonzai designs 368 00:23:46.599 --> 00:23:49.519 because of how large its trees are. It stands at 369 00:23:49.599 --> 00:23:52.799 nearly five feet at its tallest point, and how closely 370 00:23:52.920 --> 00:23:56.039 Naka was able to place them together. This is particularly 371 00:23:56.119 --> 00:23:59.559 difficult to do without overpruning the roots, which can cause 372 00:23:59.559 --> 00:24:02.599 the trees to wither and die. He would come every 373 00:24:02.640 --> 00:24:06.440 year and help the museum curators work on Gashin. James 374 00:24:06.440 --> 00:24:09.720 says about Naka's dedication to teaching the art to others, 375 00:24:10.200 --> 00:24:12.519 we are trying to preserve it. How he would have 376 00:24:13.839 --> 00:24:17.519 trunk textures. Bonzai artists create areas on the tree that 377 00:24:17.559 --> 00:24:21.279 resemble deadwood portions that lose their bark and are bleached 378 00:24:21.319 --> 00:24:25.759 by sunlight. Stripped branches are known as jin, while barkless 379 00:24:25.799 --> 00:24:31.160 trunks are called shari tree types. Banzai can be crafted 380 00:24:31.160 --> 00:24:34.839 from a wide range of trees. For his forest, Naka 381 00:24:34.920 --> 00:24:39.279 chose the Chinese juniper, whose immature, needle like foliage offers 382 00:24:39.359 --> 00:24:43.920 opportunities for sculpting putting down roots. An important part of 383 00:24:44.039 --> 00:24:49.279 Banzai art is cultivating exposed roots called nebari that flare 384 00:24:49.359 --> 00:24:53.000 out from the base, making smaller trees resemble much bigger 385 00:24:53.039 --> 00:24:57.519 ones for the birds. In Banzai art, foliage and branches 386 00:24:57.640 --> 00:25:01.039 should have space between them to help each arrange feel distinct. 387 00:25:01.559 --> 00:25:05.200 As artist John Naka reportedly equipped, leave room for the 388 00:25:05.240 --> 00:25:10.640 birds to fly through structural support. Bonzi artists use wires 389 00:25:10.920 --> 00:25:13.960 to make branches sore or sag, adding to the illusion 390 00:25:14.000 --> 00:25:16.759 that the trees are much larger than they actually are. 391 00:25:17.519 --> 00:25:22.000 The wire pulls a branch towards the ground, bearing it all. 392 00:25:22.160 --> 00:25:25.799 When lightning strikes tall trees that can result in dead 393 00:25:26.240 --> 00:25:29.400 spires that rise above the foliage. The nude trunks at 394 00:25:29.400 --> 00:25:34.160 the top of Gaushen mimic this phenomenon big and small. 395 00:25:34.240 --> 00:25:36.880 Bigger trees may draw the eye at first, but Naka 396 00:25:36.880 --> 00:25:40.400 believed the most important in Bonzai arrangements are both the 397 00:25:40.480 --> 00:25:43.440 largest and the smallest. The littlest tree at the back 398 00:25:43.599 --> 00:25:50.400 gives death to Gaushen secrets to living super small bombader beetle. 399 00:25:50.559 --> 00:25:54.359 When threatened, this insect has an explosive defense that produces 400 00:25:54.400 --> 00:25:58.599 an internal chemical reaction that releases a scalding and irritating 401 00:25:58.640 --> 00:26:01.960