El poder del planeta- La atmosfera - Documental
¿Qué aporta la atmósfera a nuestro planeta?
Participa en la regulación del clima, tanto por el movimiento de las masas de aire frío y caliente sobre los océanos y masas continentales como por su efecto en las corrientes oceánicas y en el transporte del vapor de agua que después se vierte en forma de precipitación en los continentes.
Participa en la regulación del clima, tanto por el movimiento de las masas de aire frío y caliente sobre los océanos y masas continentales como por su efecto en las corrientes oceánicas y en el transporte del vapor de agua que después se vierte en forma de precipitación en los continentes.
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FunTranscript
00:00The atmosphere is everything that protects us from the emptiness of space, cold and lifeless.
00:17It is a complex mixture of gases such as nitrogen, oxygen and carbon dioxide.
00:25And it is made up of four key layers.
00:30To explore these layers, a special means of transport is needed, a plane that can fly high.
00:40Very high.
00:44The Lightning is a famous American military reactor from the 60s, which was designed to operate at great altitudes.
01:00The Lightning is a famous American military reactor from the 60s, which was designed to operate at great altitudes.
01:22The lowest layer of the atmosphere is the one we know best, it is called troposphere.
01:28It is only 10 kilometers wide, and it is where we spend most of our lives.
01:40The troposphere is a hot, rich in oxygen, crucial for life on Earth.
01:48But it is also unstable, chaotic and unpredictable, and that is why time changes constantly.
01:58This plane can rise through this thin layer in just two minutes.
02:09At 12,000 meters, the flight altitude of the Jumbo, the atmospheric pressure is only 18% of the pressure on the surface.
02:22Ready for supersonic speed?
02:28Match 1 and 4G.
02:37Close to 13,000 meters, the plane crosses an invisible border in the atmosphere.
02:47It leaves behind the first layer, the troposphere, and enters the stratosphere.
02:53A very different place.
02:57Here the air is stable and very dry.
03:02And there are no meteorological phenomena.
03:08In the stratosphere is the ozone layer, which reduces the amount of lethal solar radiation that reaches the surface of the Earth.
03:16Now the plane is at 15,000 meters, almost twice the height of Mount Everest.
03:26More than 90% of the gases that form the atmosphere have been left below.
03:32Lightning can no longer rise higher.
03:36The remaining 10% of the atmosphere extends upwards.
03:41And gradually fades into space, 85,000 meters above.
03:47Reaching the point of danger.
03:50I turn to the left and descend over the clouds.
04:11But almost 50 years ago, a man experienced the atmosphere as no one had done before, nor has ever done again.
04:24On August 16, 1999, long before the man set foot on the moon,
04:30the military pilot, Joey Kittinger, traveled to the space border to explore the external limits of the atmosphere.
04:38He did not use a rocket, but a giant helium balloon.
04:49He climbed to 31,000 meters,
04:54to the top of the stratosphere,
04:58twice the height of the lightning.
05:01And then Kittinger did something amazing.
05:06He jumped.
05:10This is what he filmed on his descent.
05:15He fell to the ground, reaching a speed of almost 1,000 kilometers per hour.
05:21And then he fell to the ground again.
05:24He fell to the ground, reaching a speed of almost 1,000 kilometers per hour.
05:32Although at this altitude, the atmosphere is so tenuous that he did not experience any wind resistance.
05:38He did not feel anything.
05:42Wrinkles did not form in the tissue of my pressure suit.
05:46It was a very strange feeling.
05:49I had no visual reference of anything, so I thought I had been suspended in the air.
06:03Only when entering the troposphere, the low atmosphere,
06:07he experienced the deafening noise, but reassuring, of the wind around him.
06:19Finally, he opened his parachute.
06:24His jump is the longest in history.
06:32Kittinger took 15 minutes to reach the ground from the moment of jumping.
06:37Rushing from 30,000 meters above sea level,
06:41Kittinger had fallen through 99% of the gases that make up the atmosphere.
06:5115 minutes before I was at the edge of space, and now I was in the Garden of Eden.
06:57We really do not know how to appreciate the beauty of the planet in which we live.
07:02Although Kittinger had jumped from the top of the stratosphere,
07:06he did not reach the farthest end of our atmosphere.
07:11Beyond, there are still two other protective layers,
07:15ethereal and tenuous, almost non-existent,
07:19but both are vital for the planet and for us.
07:23Kittinger did not jump from the top of the stratosphere,
07:26above the stratosphere, about 50,000 meters above sea level,
07:30there is the mesosphere.
07:33It is the layer that protects us from the meteorites.
07:42When a meteor enters the mesosphere, it compresses the air in front of it and heats up.
07:48It is the layer that protects us from the meteorites.
07:51When a meteor enters the mesosphere, it compresses the air in front of it and heats up.
07:56Most of it burns.
07:59From Earth, we see them as shooting stars.
08:11In the mesosphere, a strange phenomenon called noctilucent clouds also occurs.
08:16They appear in the summer months in the highest latitudes on Earth.
08:23They are so tenuous that they can only be observed at night,
08:27when the sun illuminates them from below.
08:33At about 85,000 meters, a fourth layer begins,
08:37the thermosphere, called so because its temperature can exceed 1,000 degrees.
08:43Here, the atmosphere is so tenuous
08:46that scientists consider that beyond 100,000 meters, space begins.
08:53This is where spaceboarders orbit.
09:01Here, the Earth's magnetic field intercepts the dangerous solar winds
09:06and deflects them towards the poles.
09:13Creating the aurora.
09:19One of nature's most impressive spectacles.
09:23The four layers of the atmosphere are crucial to life on Earth.
09:29But if we separate them from the surface and form a ball with them, they would look like this.
09:35That's all.
09:38In fact, the volume of the atmosphere only represents 5% of our planet.
09:44So, if we separate the four layers of the atmosphere,
09:48we would have a ball that would look like this.
09:52That's all.
09:55In fact, the volume of the atmosphere only represents 5% of our planet.
10:00So, if we separate the four layers of the atmosphere,
10:04we would have a ball that would look like this.
10:08That's all.
10:11The layer that sustains life, the troposphere,
10:15is a narrow strip, about 10 kilometers thick.
10:19A thin blue line around our planet.
10:23For humanity, this is the most important layer,
10:26the one that affects our daily life.
10:30A layer so sensitive that we have the ability to alter it.
10:41If we want to understand the troposphere in which we live,
10:45we should not consider it a gas, but a fluid.
10:49In fact, we live at the bottom of an ocean of air.
10:56Like water, this layer undergoes turbulence.
11:02These clouds are formed when the air flows through the mountains.
11:11This atmospheric ocean has its own whirlpools.
11:18Tornadoes.
11:21These images from Kansas, in the United States,
11:24show us how the winds can turn at more than 300 kilometers per hour.
11:36And like the ocean, the troposphere forms waves.
11:43This cloud in Queensland, Australia, is in fact the largest wave in the world.
11:50It can reach two kilometers in height.
11:55It is formed, normally, when a strip of humid sea air
11:59approaches the coast and rises as it enters the earth.
12:07The air cools and condenses to form clouds
12:11that move inland at 40 kilometers per hour.
12:19This cloud is the largest in the world.
12:23This cloud is the visible proof of this ocean of air.
12:29And like all fluids, it has a weight.
12:32It exerts a pressure of one kilogram per square centimeter.
12:38We do not notice it because the air in our body balances the external pressure.
12:43We are like lobsters walking on the seabed,
12:47indifferent to the weight of the air we have on us,
12:49simply because we are adapted to it.
12:52And in case we have any doubts about the fluid nature of the atmosphere,
12:58some people even surf on it.
13:05It is something more complicated than traditional surfing.
13:10And that's why you have to be an expert like Troy Harman.
13:13The air is fluid.
13:16I stand undoubtedly on a surface.
13:24Troy does not fall vertically through the air.
13:28It moves horizontally.
13:33I just have to make small movements.
13:39And that will change my trajectory.
13:41It's like a rudder.
14:04The sky is an ocean for Troy.
14:12The sky is an ocean for me.
14:15The sky is an ocean for me.
14:18The sky is an ocean for me.
14:41When we see the atmosphere as a fluid,
14:44we understand that it is capable of shaping the surface of the planet,
14:49and even of sculpting in the solid rock.
14:54These rocks in Arizona are known as the wave.
14:58It is easy to guess why.
15:12These gigantic curved shapes seem to be sculpted by the water.
15:20But its author, in fact, is another fluid in very different motion.
15:27The wind.
15:36When it hits the sandstone rocks,
15:38the wind tears off the grains of sand.
15:42It is like a gigantic straw that erases the surface of the rock,
15:46drawing these lines.
15:49It took hundreds of thousands of years to sculpt the wave.
15:55It seems like a long time, but in geological terms,
15:59it is an opening and closing of the ocean.
16:02It is like a gigantic straw that erases the surface of the rock,
16:06drawing these lines.
16:09It is like a gigantic straw that erases the surface of the ocean.
16:13It is like a gigantic straw that erases the surface of the ocean.
16:16In geological terms, it is like an opening and closing of the eyes.
16:26Which demonstrates the brute force of the wind.
16:31It works without rest, sculpting the landscape without stopping.
16:42The wind configures the earth's surface on a massive scale.
16:47When the wind blows without rest in one direction,
16:51it can excavate gigantic rifts.
16:56They are called Yardangs.
16:59They are found in Iran.
17:07And they are in northwestern China.
17:17But this force does not only sculpt the landscape.
17:27The wind in the Sahara drags large amounts of particles rich in minerals.
17:32It lifts them up in the air and transports them across the Atlantic.
17:41Most of them fall into the ocean.
17:44Most of them fall into the ocean and fertilize the ocean with nutrients.
17:49But some of them reach the other shore of the Atlantic.
18:00And they reach the Amazon jungle in South America.
18:06In fact, 40 million tons of salts and minerals reach the Amazon
18:11from the Sahara every year.
18:19And here, the rain drags them from the atmosphere to the forest below.
18:29It is a vital source of nutrients that keeps the forest in condition.
18:42In this way, the atmosphere, in constant agitation,
18:46keeps our planet alive.
18:51But this non-stop movement of the air around us
18:55is fundamental for the functioning of our planet in a more direct way.
19:02It is responsible for time.
19:04And the key to the changes in time is heat.
19:11Every meteorological phenomenon,
19:14from a soft breeze to a hurricane,
19:17is the result of the movement of heat in the atmosphere.
19:25These processes occur on a global scale.
19:29These satellite images show us
19:32three months of changes in time in three seconds.
19:36The heat evaporates the water from the oceans and forms the clouds.
19:42The resulting meteorological patterns are complex and unpredictable
19:47due to the way in which the atmosphere interacts with the Earth.
19:52The sea,
19:53and even the ice of the planet.
19:58All these forces converge in their most extreme form in South America.
20:10This is the Pachamama festival.
20:13It is a noisy celebration of the villagers of Pormamarcha in Argentina.
20:17It is an offering to ask for a good harvest.
20:22In this ceremony, they invoke the god Pachamama, lord of time.
20:31And with reason,
20:33because this area of Argentina suffers the worst storms in the world.
20:48Scientists calculate where the world's most stormy regions are,
20:53measuring the number of lightnings per year.
20:57This area is number one.
21:02Jim Edds is a storm hunter.
21:05He has come to Argentina for the first time
21:08to experience the strength of local storms.
21:11This area of Argentina is the dream of every storm hunter.
21:18It looks like a quiet landscape,
21:21but when you know what tracks to look for,
21:24the area has the ingredients to form a fierce storm.
21:31This landscape is the perfect setting
21:34for the collision of two powerful air masses,
21:37very different from each other.
21:40One warm and humid,
21:42and another cold and dry.
21:45On the one hand, we have the warm and unstable air
21:48coming from the Amazon.
21:53It collides with the cold air coming from the South Pole.
21:59The warm and humid air rises and causes these intense storms.
22:09The extreme chaos caused by the collision of the warm air
22:12and the cold is the heart of the storm.
22:18But this landscape shows another characteristic
22:21that makes the storms especially strong.
22:25Here in the Andes, geography also plays an important role
22:29in the development of strong storms.
22:32Two air masses collide.
22:34The warm air of the Amazon collides with the cold air of the South Pole.
22:38They mix and the mountains push the warm air up,
22:40forming some of the strongest storms on Earth.
22:48Jim goes out to try to place himself
22:51under the center of a storm in formation.
23:00The problem is that the mountains
23:03that make the region stormy
23:06are also an obstacle for Jim,
23:08who wants to get to the storm.
23:35Yes, it's starting to rain.
23:39Right on top of this mountain.
23:43I can hear the thunder.
23:46Oh, a huge lightning bolt on top of this ridge.
23:50It's starting to rain.
23:53We're starting to rain.
23:56We're going to start on the left side here.
23:59Yep, it's close.
24:02We know it because it's been a very long time
24:05between lightning and thunder.
24:08We're going to have to position ourselves
24:11right in the center of this storm.
24:14It's a very dangerous activity.
24:17At this altitude in the mountains,
24:20we're exposed to lightning.
24:23The lightning strikes the tallest structures
24:26and we're going up with a lot of metal.
24:29That makes us a good target.
24:32Lightning is a side effect
24:34of what happens inside storm clouds.
24:37Inside storm clouds,
24:40warm and humid air rises.
24:43As it rises, the temperature drops
24:46and the water particles freeze.
24:49Some form small ice crystals,
24:52others granite.
24:55With the turbulence of the storm,
24:58the two types of ice collide
25:01and charge with electricity.
25:04It's so powerful that it reaches the ground.
25:07But higher up in the atmosphere,
25:10there's a lightning storm
25:13with the highest temperatures
25:16in the world.
25:19We're going to be able to see
25:22the last light of the storm
25:25in a few days.
25:28And it's going to be a very long one.
25:31We're going to do a very, very long one.
25:33But, higher in the atmosphere,
25:35a much more elusive and exotic type of ray is formed,
25:39one that not even Jim has ever seen.
25:43They are the so-called goblins.
25:49It is a type of lightning that does not hit the ground,
25:52but shoots upwards,
25:54sometimes reaching 75,000 meters in the atmosphere.
26:04It is unusual to see them, because they occur at great altitudes.
26:20The power of the atmosphere sculpts the planet and creates time.
26:25But perhaps the most surprising thing
26:28is how much the atmosphere has changed throughout history.
26:33And the complex relationship that exists between the atmosphere and life on Earth.
26:45The first terrestrial atmosphere was formed 4.5 billion years ago,
26:50shortly after the birth of the planet.
26:54The primordial Earth was very volcanic,
26:57and for millions of years,
26:59the volcanoes spat out large amounts of gas.
27:08These gases accumulated
27:12and formed an atmosphere.
27:15But it was nothing like our atmosphere.
27:18It was a poisonous mixture of carbon dioxide,
27:21methane, and steam,
27:23combined with hydrogen sulfide.
27:28There was no trace of the gas we depend on, oxygen.
27:35The atmosphere was a mixture of carbon dioxide,
27:38methane, and steam,
27:40combined with hydrogen sulfide.
27:46This lethal mixture would remain for more than 2 billion years.
27:56Until something unexpected transformed the atmosphere.
28:02Primitive life.
28:09If we want to see how life was able to change the atmosphere,
28:13we must go to one of the few places on Earth
28:16where there are still some of these first organisms that evolved.
28:21Biologist Martin Van Cranendonck is in Western Australia
28:25to study a colony of these primitive life forms.
28:35Shark Bay is one of the most famous geological zones in the world.
28:44The sea here is full of life.
28:53But what he is interested in are these rocky boulders.
28:59They are important because every plant, every animal,
29:03every person on this planet owes their existence to them.
29:08These curious rocky boulders are actually
29:11very strange living organisms, and really uncommon.
29:16They are called stromatolites,
29:18and they only remain in colonies in a few places in the world.
29:21And the best place on Earth to observe them is here, in Shark Bay.
29:26In a way, they are the most successful way of life in history.
29:31Stromatolites were the dominant way of life on our planet
29:35for 3 billion years,
29:37before other beings like snails, mammals, and mammoths appeared.
29:43For me, coming here is a real opportunity to go back in time
29:47and experience what this primitive land should have been like.
29:52Stromatolites evolved almost 4 billion years ago,
29:55and despite their importance,
29:57they are one of the simplest forms of life, bacteria.
30:01The top layer is made up of millions of microscopic organisms,
30:05mostly a type of bacteria called cyanobacteria,
30:09which feed on sunlight.
30:13These bacteria did something extraordinary.
30:19By taking the sun and doing photosynthesis,
30:22they broke the chemical bonds of water,
30:25releasing something that would completely change the planet.
30:29Oxygen.
30:32Stromatolites are really special,
30:35because they were some of the first organisms to produce oxygen,
30:39and not just in small quantities.
30:51About 2.5 billion years ago,
30:54Stromatolites covered the shallow oceans of the entire planet,
30:59and all of them pumped oxygen.
31:09This would lead to some of the deepest changes in the history of the Earth.
31:18Over time, the planet would have an atmosphere rich in oxygen.
31:23But before that happened, something went wrong.
31:33To see what prevented oxygen from reaching the atmosphere,
31:37we went to the Outback of Australia.
31:41This area is now a dusty desert,
31:44but 2.5 billion years ago,
31:47these rocks formed at the bottom of the sea.
31:52And they keep the key to what happened to the oxygen
31:55generated by the Stromatolites.
31:58Back then, the seas were rich in iron,
32:01which dissolved in the water.
32:04Adam Webb is a geologist who has studied this ancient period
32:07in the history of the Earth.
32:10As the Stromatolites raised the oxygen levels in the ocean,
32:14it mixed with the iron and rusted it,
32:17and this rust was deposited in the ocean floor.
32:23It was this reaction that prevented oxygen from leaving the sea.
32:29The layers of rust were deposited all over the world,
32:32and over time, they would become iron veins.
32:37In this mine, you can see large amounts of iron,
32:40arranged in thick layers.
32:43As the iron rusted and deposited in the ocean floor,
32:46layer after layer, it accumulated until it reached a considerable thickness,
32:50exactly as we see it today.
32:59It is curious to think that almost all the iron we extract today
33:02is there only because, billions of years ago,
33:05the Stromatolites began to produce oxygen.
33:09This process did not occur only in one specific region,
33:12but all over the planet.
33:15But the most interesting thing is that it occurred at the same time,
33:18when oxygen levels were shot up thanks to the Stromatolites.
33:24Basically, it is thanks to these Stromatolites
33:27that now, as humans, we can enjoy iron,
33:30and use it to make cars, trains, boats,
33:33or household utensils, such as knives and forks, things like that.
33:49But the oxygen that was pumped by the Stromatolites
33:52has given us something more than covers.
33:57Two billion years ago, all the iron in the ocean had rusted.
34:02There was nothing left to react with oxygen.
34:09So now, oxygen had no other place to go.
34:13It abandoned the oceans and filled the atmosphere.
34:19No other event has been so important for life on Earth.
34:24The first thing oxygen did was give the planet its vital protective shield.
34:32As oxygen rose in the atmosphere to the stratosphere,
34:36it formed a layer, the ozone layer.
34:41It protected the planet from the lethal ultraviolet radiation of the sun,
34:45and that allowed the complex forms of life
34:48to progress on the surface of the planet.
34:55This colorful image shows us the ozone layer
34:58and the gigantic hole in Antarctica caused by pollution.
35:04Fortunately, the hole is closing.
35:10The oxygen released by the Stromatolites in the atmosphere
35:14not only protected the planet,
35:16but allowed the evolution of new forms of life.
35:22Oxygen is a very reactive gas,
35:25and that is why it can sustain more energetic forms of life than bacteria.
35:32Favored by an atmosphere rich in oxygen,
35:35the Earth would eventually become the home
35:38of an extraordinary diversity of complex forms of life.
35:45And with time, our home.
35:52And all because the Stromatolites
35:55began pumping oxygen into the atmosphere
35:58more than two billion years ago.
36:01There is probably no other organism on Earth
36:04that has had such a profound influence.
36:08These beings that we call the Stromatolites
36:12changed the air we breathe, or created it,
36:15and there is probably no other organism
36:18that has had such a profound impact on the planet.
36:31We can get an idea of our dependence on oxygen
36:34by looking at how it affects something as basic as reproduction.
36:41This is the village of Arulla,
36:44located at the top of the Andes.
36:47It is part of a series of villages in the area
36:50that are among the highest in the world.
36:53Many of them are located above 3,000 metres.
36:58The Andes have lived here for generations.
37:01But the first Spanish settlers who arrived here
37:04had a problem.
37:06They could not have children.
37:10All pregnancies ended in abortion.
37:17It was 53 years before the first immigration
37:20to the Andes began.
37:23The Andes was the birthplace
37:26of the first human race.
37:29It was 53 years before the first Spanish immigrant came to light.
37:35The problem was the lack of oxygen.
37:43The newcomers, like most people,
37:46were used to breathing at sea level,
37:49where the oxygen percentage was 21%.
37:54But up here, the percentage drops to half.
38:00The Andes had adapted to this,
38:03but the Spaniards had problems.
38:09No one knows exactly how the Spaniards
38:12managed to overcome this problem,
38:15although the solution was probably
38:18to have children with the natives.
38:21But these high-altitude villages
38:24are on the brink of human adaptation.
38:27Above 5,000 meters,
38:30human reproduction is impossible.
38:34Oxygen puts limits on the existence of our species.
38:43Thus, life created oxygen,
38:46and in turn, oxygen expanded the possibilities of life,
38:49and that is why it is easy to assume
38:52that for us it is the most important gas in the atmosphere.
38:58But there are other gases so important
39:01for survival on our planet,
39:04and they originate in one of the most destructive forces on Earth.
39:11The volcanoes.
39:28When a volcano erupts,
39:31it spits clouds of a gas of vital importance.
39:36Carbon dioxide.
39:42For billions of years,
39:45it has accumulated in the atmosphere,
39:48where it acts as a barrier to heat.
39:52It catches the heat from the sun's rays
39:55and heats the planet.
40:01Without this layer of carbon dioxide,
40:04the temperature of the planet would precipitate
40:07up to 10 degrees below zero.
40:10The entire Earth would be covered in ice.
40:18Thanks to carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases,
40:21life on Earth has been able to prosper.
40:26But now we are releasing a large amount of carbon dioxide
40:29into the atmosphere by burning fossil fuels
40:32such as coal and gas.
40:41Throughout the history of the Earth,
40:44as the levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere have changed,
40:47they have altered the temperature of the planet.
40:55But now we know that an increase in the levels of carbon dioxide
40:58could unleash the release of other greenhouse gases.
41:05And that could cause a very rapid climate change.
41:13The keys to solving this situation,
41:16so potentially dangerous, are in Siberia.
41:20This region could be the key to the future of our climate,
41:23now that global warming is a fact.
41:26It is one of the coldest and remotest areas on the planet.
41:29Most of the year,
41:32temperatures drop to 40 degrees below zero
41:35and everything freezes to the ground.
41:43But under this frozen ground,
41:46called permafrost,
41:49there is a potential climate disaster.
41:54Methane is a greenhouse gas
41:57much more potent than carbon dioxide.
42:05If permafrost freezes due to global warming,
42:08it could release large amounts of methane
42:11on a catastrophic scale.
42:14Ecologist Katie Walter
42:17believes that this has already begun to happen.
42:20She studies the numerous lakes in the region.
42:25The permafrost contains a large mass of organic carbon.
42:28It's dead plant matter.
42:31And when this dead plant matter
42:34when it freezes out on the bottom of the lakes,
42:37it feeds the organisms that produce methane.
42:40They eat the dead plant matter and they burp out methane.
42:43Methane is the resulting product of their digestion
42:46and it always ascends from the sediments of the lakes
42:49and gets trapped in the ice.
42:52If Katie is right,
42:55the ice will be full of methane bubbles.
42:58To find out the magnitude of the problem,
43:01Katie and her assistant head to the center of an icy lake.
43:06First, they remove the snow that covers the ice.
43:10Then, they use hot tea to clean the surface.
43:18We can see the bubbles trapped in the ice.
43:21They're beautiful.
43:24The ice is like a crystal full of small bubbles
43:27that look like coins piled up on top of each other.
43:30And what happens is that the bubbles released
43:33from the sediments of the bottom
43:36form and freeze in place.
43:40The problem is that these methane bubbles
43:43won't be trapped in the ice for long.
43:47With the spring thaw, the gas will escape.
43:51There's only one way to check the amount of methane in the ice
43:54because it's highly flammable.
43:58If you poke a hole in these methane bags,
44:01you get a stream of gas.
44:04And depending on the size of the hole,
44:07you get a very large stream of gas.
44:10So you have to be very careful when you turn it on
44:13so that the flame doesn't burn your eyebrows.
44:16Wow!
44:21There are bubbles all over the ice.
44:24There must be a large amount of methane
44:27being released in this area.
44:42And this has serious implications.
44:46The methane heats the atmosphere
44:49and this contributes to global warming
44:52which causes more permafrost to form
44:55and more methane to be released
44:58and that creates a vicious circle.
45:01We believe that this permafrost is a clockwork bomb
45:04about to explode.
45:09And it's a bomb with a great potential for destruction.
45:17This frozen plain covers an area
45:20of 9.5 million square kilometres,
45:23larger than the United States.
45:27If all the permafrost were to melt,
45:30this would release enough methane
45:33to raise its level ten times in the atmosphere.
45:37This would accelerate global warming
45:40although we still can't predict
45:43to what extent and with what consequences.
45:51The atmosphere has taken 4 million years
45:54to form its current composition
45:57and during this time it has created
46:00an interdependence with life.
46:04But now, the delicate balance
46:07between life and the atmosphere is in danger.
46:10Humans are the first species
46:13that has changed the atmosphere consistently
46:16altering it on a large scale.
46:20Chersky is the city closest to the frozen lakes.
46:24Perhaps its inhabitants don't care
46:27about a little global warming.
46:31But they do care about the fact
46:34that they are the first species
46:37that has changed the atmosphere.
46:40But the consequences for the rest of the world
46:43would be fatal.
46:46A warmer atmosphere would be nothing new for the Earth.
46:49But we humans don't know what we are facing.
46:55We find ourselves in a delicate position
46:58because we have put ourselves at the mercy
47:01of the most unpredictable force,
47:04the atmosphere.
47:07ESOcast is produced by ESO,
47:10the European Southern Observatory.
47:13ESO, the European Southern Observatory,
47:16is the pre-eminent intergovernmental science and technology organisation
47:19in astronomy, designing, constructing and operating
47:22the world's most advanced ground-based telescopes.
47:25Transcription by ESO, translation by —
47:37Transcription by ESO, translation by —