Colonizing the Arctic

Humanity has long had outposts in the barren tundra lands of the arctic, but only in recent times have we visited the poles or the entire continent of Antarctica. In this episode we will explore how me use technology in the future to make cold permafrost into verdant farmland through greenhouses, solar mirrors, geothermal, or other techniques, as well as how we might follow a different path, and adapt our civilization to prosper among perpetual winter and ice.

Listen or Download the audio of this episode from Soundcloud: Episode's Audio-only version:

Credits:
Earth 2.0: Colonizing the Arctic
Episode 164, Season 4 E50

Writers:
Isaac Arthur

Editors:
A.T. Long
Daniel McNamara
Darius Said
Evan Schultheis
Keith Blockus
Mark Warburton
Matthew Campbell

Producer:
Isaac Arthur

Cover Artist:

Graphics Team :
SpaceResourcesCGI

Narrator:
Isaac Arthur

Music Manager:
Luca DeRosa

Music:

[Xperim]

PBS Space Time gave you a shout out in his last video. You guys should totally do a collaboration! Image how epic would that be!?

[hobbyphysicist]

Step 1: Run "shutdown -s -t -2400"
Step 2: Place laptop next to bed
Step 3: Play the new SFIA video
Step 4: Fade away into dreams about galaxies and sfy.

Seriously Isaac, I have trouble falling asleep but every friday I can wake up rested. And then watch the video again because I cant remember anything from last night. Best, voice, ever!

[rayceeya]

When you mentioned ice tunnels it jogged my memory. Back in the 60s the US Army tried tunneling into the Greenland ice sheet to establish a nuclear missile missile base. They called it Project Iceworm. Ultimately it was abandoned because the ice moved around too much.

[Anthony-yndg]

How David Attenborough makes me think about nature, you make me think about possibility. Cheers mate I love your videos and they keep getting better

[AtomicFrontier]

No way! I'm literally waiting in the airport to fly to Svalbard (island between Norway and the North Pole) to make a video on this same topic (but with a more modern-day perspective). Nice!
I'll make sure to bring a drink and snack for the flight :)

[Someone-else-what]

I have a sudden need to go play Stellaris, now...

[MarkTuchinsky]

Working the night shift does have its privileges, watching this on my lunch break. :)

[Lukegear]

This one might need a cup tea to acompany the cold themed episode :)

[eqlipse]

20:20 THANK GOD YOU MENTIONED IT! It's been a point of irritation to me how often people neglect to mention the methane issue for global warming; even the IPCC report everyone's been raising eyebrows over doesn't properly take it into account, thus drastically underestimating the severity of climate change in the near future :<

[InfinityAndParadox]

There is a lake in Antarctica called Lake Vostok that might have interesting forms of life which we could find similarly in other icy planets so the investigation of frozen worlds is important not only to broaden the adaptability of human species but also to possibly encounter other forms of life.

[willyreeves]

building self sustaining domed communities in the arctic (or Antarctic) sounds like a reasonable prerequisite for any group planning on going to Mars or the Moon. you don't have the pressure differences but you could test the structure to see if it would hold up to that as well. afterward you would be able to say this system works we tested it for 4 years or whatever. you would also be able to do some serious prototyping of industrial scale green houses so funding should be fairly easy to get.

[ArcherWarhound]

I seriously look forward to Thursday because it's Arthursday!

[lorib]

I started the video and my cat jumped up on the desk and started watching. Everybody loves Isaac Arthur. At the part about greenhouses in the arctic I immediately thought of Frosty the Snowman and the greenhouse full of poinsettias at the north pole. Looks like Frosty was a trendsetter. Who knew?

[jetflaque]

why doesn't this channel have a netflix documentairy series already exactly?

[GreatGreenGoo]

I've literally been watching your videos non stop for the last 3 weeks. I've fallen asleep (not because boring) so often to your videos your voice has becoming like a lullaby for me

[HelixFlame]

Great episode! Also enjoyed the Stellaris OST in parts of the soundtrack

[VanHonkerton]

I thought I had left Stellaris on in the background. You got me.

[therockinboxer]

Love this new Earth 2.0 series!! Could not believe the final scenario of growing ice mountains in Antartica to help lower the sea level risen from climate change! So many "practical" solutions on this channel to help humanity survive extinction

[lenandov]

Hey Isaac, when I see a new video, I get happy. What you do is providing joy to others lives. You should be proud of yourself.

[marcustulliuscicero]

You are missing the largest reason colder waters can support more biomass: The warmer water gets, the lower the solubility of oxygen in it. And oxygen is just really one of those things you want to deprive biotopes of if you want them to not die off. And considering that even biota as far away as the equator and beyond are connected to the sheer volume of Krill through whale fall, you could wreck the entire biosphere by messing with the Antarctic.