What happens when the Arctic permafrost melts? - Brendan Rogers and Jessica Howard

Discover what scientists have found buried in the Arctic permafrost, and find out the far-reaching effects of its melting.
--
In June 2022, a gold miner in the Canadian Yukon made a remarkable discovery. While working on the traditional lands of the Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in First Nation, he uncovered the exceptionally well-preserved, frozen remains of a wooly mammoth calf that died 30,000 years ago. And this find isn’t the only of its kind. Brendan Rogers and Jessica Howard uncover secrets buried in the Arctic permafrost.
Lesson by Brendan Rogers and Jessica Howard, directed by Denys Spolitak.
Support Our Non-Profit Mission
----------------------------------------------
Support us on Patreon: bit.ly/TEDEdPat...
Check out our merch: bit.ly/TEDEDShop
----------------------------------------------
Connect With Us
----------------------------------------------
Sign up for our newsletter: bit.ly/TEDEdNew...
Follow us on Facebook: bit.ly/TEDEdFac...
Find us on Twitter: bit.ly/TEDEdTwi...
Peep us on Instagram: bit.ly/TEDEdIns...
----------------------------------------------
Keep Learning
----------------------------------------------
View full lesson: ed.ted.com/les...
Dig deeper with additional resources: ed.ted.com/les...
Animator's website: bit.ly/IckySketch
Music: www.workplaywo...
----------------------------------------------
Thank you so much to our patrons for your support! Without you this video would not be possible! Rohan Gupta, Begum Tutuncu, Brian Richards, Jørgen Østerpart, Tyron Jung, Carsten Tobehn, Katie Dean, Ezgi Yersu, Gerald Onyango, alessandra tasso, Doreen Reynolds-Consolati, Manognya Chakrapani, Ayala Ron, Eunsun Kim, Phyllis Dubrow, Ophelia Gibson Best, Paul Schneider, Joichiro Yamada, Henrique Cassús, Karthik Cherala, Clarence E. Harper Jr., Vignan Velivela, Ana Maria, Exal Enrique Cisneros Tuch, Tejas Dc, Khalifa Alhulail, Martin Stephen, Jose Henrique Leopoldo e Silva, Mandeep Singh, Abhijit Kiran Valluri, Morgan Williams, Devin Harris, Pavel Zalevskiy, Karen Goepen-Wee, Filip Dabrowski, Barbara Smalley, Megan Douglas, Tim Leistikow, Ka-Hei Law, Hiroshi Uchiyama, Mark Morris, Misaki Sato, EdoKun, SookKwan Loong, Bev Millar, Lex Azevedo, Michael Aquilina, Jason A Saslow, Yansong Li and Cristóbal Moenne.

[@seraj1411]

That took a drastic turn from joyfully discovering thousands years old intact species to whole planet being in a serious danger of massive scale carbon eruption

[@strange_and_magnificent]

As usual, the animation is incredible.

[@alexanderstar8360]

[@shrutipal9619]

🏔️🗺️

[@beaconing7689]

How did you do that?

[@imnimbusy2885]

😎😎🥸😜🤪🤨🧐🤓😀😃😄😁😆

[@DeniSpolitak]

Thanks!

[@sandrika22]

I'd like to add that melting of permafrost will free bacterias and viruses we have never encountered before.

[@ganiti_314]

Is it possible? It doesn't sound good.

[@sandrika22]

@@ganiti_314 I am afraid it is. In north Russia, in a isolated region people started to get ill with a kind of Anthrax that was never seen before.

[@ganiti_314]

@@sandrika22 I have searched. Damn it's true.

[@HIFLY01]

Nothing a couple masks and social distancing can't fix

[@sandrika22]

If only that was so easy. We have no idea about via what manner it will spread, how contagious it will be, how deadly or how good it will be in surviving without carrier.

[@terramater]

Extremely important video! We need to protect the Arctic asap! Our crew registered how these changes are damaging the whole wildlife in the Arctic. Orcas were rarely seen there, for example. But, now, our team caught on camera these dolphins taking it over and hunting animals that were not even aware of their existence. It's very concerning when we think about the species that live there and how they are going to cope with all these changes.

[@DV-fi4dy]

OMG TERRA MATTER !!1!!!!?1!111!1!1!

[@louisholmes6961]

Rarely seen doesn’t mean never seen, my friend. Orcas are quite adaptable.

[@muak_kuak]

Imagine the amount of undiscovered species that's hidden in ice caps, imagine we find some animal larger than a blue whale or even a megalodon!

[@metal_pipe9764]

We don't need to look at ice caps for that

[@vandanakamani4458]

What if they *don't* want to be discovered!! Cause Everything Humankind Touches Gets Destroyed from Existence.....

[@metal_pipe9764]

@@vandanakamani4458 dead things can't move

[@Tavalii]

Or a deadly virus

[@Allium95]

There is a book about why this is bad

[@pranaykothari803]

Those seeds were arguably the ones buried by our ice age squirrel.

[@fuccyahhat1229]

This deserves so many more likes hahahahah

[@peanutbutter4741]

Nature is so beautiful. I really hope we don't ruin our Earth to the point the damage becomes irreversible.

[@jimhalpert0]

Impossible

[@alexanderstar8360]

Wow ! I never knew how much knowledge is stored in the Arctic. But I expect by the way things are going now all those fossils which have been preserved for millennia will just sink to the ocean floor, their stories unheard and secrets undiscovered.

[@1969kodiakbear]

Earth needs it cool. By the way, I have difficulty communicating because I had a stroke in Broca’s area, the part of the brain that controls speech. 2/8/2021 but I lived again. (My wife helped me compose this.)

[@kiwi_crush_]

So proud of you for keeping that strong spirit going! You both are so lucky to have each other

[@louisholmes6961]

But has Earth always been as cool as now?

[@akash7.s]

Captain America 🇺🇸

[@toby1004]

i was literally reading avengers fanfiction (i know) when i read the notification lmfao

[@larrygraham4875]

Dang it...nice one

[@madhuragrawal6897]

Alright you win this one.

[@mikal1659]

Eat the mammoth 🦣 and cover your knees if your gonna be walking 🚶‍♂️ around

[@quintenwhyte6660]

Captain Steven Grant Rogers...aka.... Captain America!🇺🇲🇺🇲

[@yohohohoheyy]

Had annual project on topic climate change, learned about permafrost and consequences of it's melting. Permafrost stored lot of methane gas, which is getting released in atmosphere due to global warming, increasing green house gases even more and it's basically a perpetual loop

[@e.matthews]

Incredible sound design on this one!!

[@bobthegoat7090]

Didn't know Brendan Rodgers had time to study permafrost when he is not coaching Leicster. What a well-rounded man!

[@shivamwasp]

Look at the table, he has a lot of time on his hands

[@DollarJonny]

Как удобно , обвинять людей в том что глобальные изменения на нашей планете летящей сквозь космическое пространство на немыслимой скорости , взаимодействующей не только с телами солнечной системы но и со всем что происходит в космосе в целом , это их вина . Если одна лишь луна влияет на планету очень сильно , то теперь можно представать как влияют другие небесные тела ..........

[@fruitbouquet5479]

The “runaway carbon emissions” cycle is intriguing. Love the animation, as always.

[@ahmadburhanhabibi]

Kinda makes me wonder about antarctic...

[@stevenjbeto]

Please don’t say oil. The crazies will melt down the entire continent to get at it. Will have time later to watch your video.

[@frankodesandy4688]

This sobering video is well-done, and very probably accurate. Sadly, given human nature I doubt much can be done about global warming, and the disappearance of permafrost. Humans seem far too self-centered to mount the enormous global effort to curb climate change. But hey, I could be wrong, and I certainly hope I am.

[@Touhou20246]

I agree with you on that I just hope that this helps end climate change deniers.👍🏻😅🥰😔😔😒

[@frankodesandy4688]

@@Touhou20246 mr. Costanzo,, thank you. I doubt that will happen. I actually think the world is presently getting warmer, as it has for millennia. But everything changes, periodically, including the weather. It will cool off again. Climate change has become a political issue as you know. And politics poisons most everything.

[@johnharrison7585]

Climate change is a hoax, so nothing to worry about

[@johnharrison7585]

@@Touhou20246 climate change is a a hoax

[@Lomerdomer]

Wait so there’s a LIVING fossil and no one told me??

[@Meowster-zw1rx]

After watching this animation, I really want to apply for a college in Yukon, it’s really cool to study in a school near the Arctic

[@ozeppeo]

Freezing cool!

[@TheVoiceOfReason93]

Cities of the Elder Things? (And before pointing it out, there isn't anything in the Cthulhu Mythos which suggests they haven't colonised the Arctic as they had the Antarctic)

[@Yajna007]

Lovecraft

[@Yajna007]

H∙P∙ Lovecraft

[@Harrison.DuRant]

Queue the absolute flood of people that will scream, "We're destroying our planet!" to make themselves feel good, and then continue to live life exactly the same way they had before. I'm sure most of us recycle and would have solar on our houses and drive electric cars if we could afford it, but inflation is out of control. If people wanted to really stop climate change, they'd target the large businesses that account for like 70-80% of the damage being done today, not the individual home owner just trying to make their way in this world.

[@petebusch9069]

So researchers will figure out another piece of the puzzle while opportunists AKA government/corporate America will take advantage of this information and exploit it for their own personal benefit.

[@OldScientist]

When it comes to tipping points this is what the IPCC (Special Report on implications of 1.5C or more warming, Chapter 3) says:“there is little evidence for a tipping point in the transition from perennial to seasonal ice cover. No evidence has been found for irreversibility or tipping points, suggesting that year-round sea ice will return given a suitable climate”. The IPCC also do not believe the melting of the arctic permafrost will cause a tipping point in the release of warming methane gas “the carbon released to the atmosphere from thawing permafrost is projected to be restricted to 0.09-0.19 Gt C yr-1 at 2°C of global warming and to 0.08-0.16 Gt C yr-1 at 1.5°C, which does not indicate a tipping point”. The Earth's climate is a multi input thermodynamic system and will conform to Le Chatelier's Principle.

[@karlstriepe8050]

Elder Gods, probably. Best not to awaken Cthulu.

[@rollintweeds234]

Wow, another engaging, instructive and insightful lesson from TedEd. 'Drunken forests': who knew?

[@matthewradaza9761]

Steve rogers thats what is hidde in the iceberg

[@domygomy8201]

Great animation! In what app are you making them?

[@lfcbpro]

Brendan needs to get back to concentrating on Leicester, his work on this explains why they aren't performing. You can't do both Brendan. Although this is great, so maybe stick to the TED talks?

[@RohitSingh-rv3co]

My favourite KZbin channel for a reason. I wish I could work for Ted Ed!!!

[@agakor]

So excited for all the frozen bacteria and viruses to defrost!

[@hamentaschen]

"Brawndo...It's got what plants crave."

[@GurunathHirve]

I felt like 🥺😢😭 this after watching it.

[@amachtinger]

Didn't Al Gore threaten that if we don't do anything, the polar caps, along with permafrost, would all be gone by 2020?

[@johnharrison7585]

He did. Don't worry, I'm sure he's a totally honest guy, selling his network to Al Jazeera, owned by Qatar, a major oil producer. These green nuts are all for oil, as long as it's made by Qatar, Venezuela or Iran. But not America!

[@rhysioeren3203]

Still, some people believe that climate change is a false theory and they have made moves to make it worst, all to pursue their own aspirations.

[@johnharrison7585]

Climate change is a trillion dollar scam

[@SnoopyDoofie]

4:20 Please stop depicting the atom with electrons orbitng the nucleus. That is so out dated and wrong. Electrons don't orbit the nucleus. You're an education channel, so plesae use depictions that align with reality. All you're doing is perpetuating false information.

[@johnharrison7585]

Dude this entire video is fake. The Bohr model of the atom is the most well known so they use it. Chill

[@midimusicforever]

We're in for a wild ride...

[@ray4670]

This is so important. It shows you what climate change can actually do. I think it should be presented in schools worldwide. Because we, the youth, gen z gen alpha and all the more to come, are thw future of this planet. Everyone should know this

[@kkyzaarlertratkosum8677]

Good illustration 😍😍😍😍😍

[@waqarwani9446]

Ted Ed :- What is Hidden inside Arctic ice? Meeh :- Woolly 🦣 and Cave Bears 🐨

[@additiyasinha7457]

I just saw Ted Ed on notification and clicked so fast

[@nineveh17]

i guess I should freeze myself in perma frost

[@alexandredesouza3692]

Huh, I didn't know Brandon Rogers was an expert of glaciers.

[@catpersonandcarperson]

This is a beautiful animation with excellent narration. Thanks for raising awareness about this. I really wish humans would learn its high time :/ Also is there any liberal arts student here. I want to know how can they contribute in such organizations ?

[@FinancialShinanigan]

Mostly ice and more ice

[@TundeEszlari]

Impressive video.

[@ananyajindal3357]

Was reading Journey to the end of the earth and they chose to upload about a similar topic

[@HAT.12345-c]

Ted Ed should talk about Pleistocene park that is trying to recreate the mammoth steppe ecosystem and clone the mammoth

[@MikeLi1019]

This is scary. If all that carbon is release, it's gg

[@reasonitician]

As a science show, it's grossly incorrect to say the first nations lived in the arctic since time immemorial. We have archeological records of when people started living there and where they migrated from.

[@johnharrison7585]

They are a left wing propaganda channel. Not a science channel

[@samlensherr]

When the world needed him most, he vanished...

[@Blue_Pumpkin]

Such a soothing voice🥰

[@tozboz1018]

Who else read 'Brandon Rogers' the first time

[@thatscrub8351]

I really hope world leaders start listening to more the just money real soon.

[@ilmanaiman6840]

Thaw,Typically,range,exceptionally,draw away,subfreeze,extrapolate,fossilize,freeze-frames,pup,collapse,reindeer,unmistakely,

[@kimreynolds742]

The fact that those remains are there tells you that the climate was not always as it is now. It has changed and will always be changing, you can't stop it. Nature has always adapted and will continue to adapt. Humans have also adapted and will continue to do so.

[@HIFLY01]

Nooooo! You can't use logic backed by scientific facts! You must stop driving cars!

[@kimreynolds742]

@@mellohi6175 Really? But to some extent, I do agree, without all the fiddling of weather statistics and changing of historical data, the warming would be much slower. There has been change and will be change but it is not catastrophic change. What is catastrophic is the damage that is being done to the environment by the solar panel farms and wind farms. Species are being threatened and forests cleared so that these can take over the land to create intermittent power. Plus no one seems to take into account the amount of CO2 created in their manufacture (mainly in China the biggest emitter of CO2). Not to forget the currently unsolved problem of what to do with them once they have finished their usefulness. Nor to forget the use of child labour in the procuring of the minerals needed in their manufacture and the batteries needed. I could go on and on, but I am wasting my time because facts mean nothing to zealots and big money.

[@MichaelRath]

@@kimreynolds742 Great reply. Continue....

[@muffinn1337]

Oh, I've read the mountain of madness. I know exactly what's hidden in the ice.🐙

[@Allium95]

Some Old One or something

[@seraj1411]

That took a drastic turn from discovering thousands years old species whole planet being in a serious danger of massive scale carbon eruption

[@johnharrison7585]

More nonsense fearmongering

[@kage2907]

Classic climate change plug

[@mnm1273]

It's the defining effect of the modern day.

[@freesk8]

@@mnm1273 It's the defining effect of the modern left.

[@cocokaufmann8689]

Your graphics are just so awesome!

[@wlhgmk]

There is another feed back loop that might be even more worrying. Namely the Compost Loop. Even if the thawed permafrost remains anaerobic, when anaerobic bacteria re-annimate, they produce heat as they begin to munch on the surrounding organic material. If Oxygen reaches the thawed permafrost, as it is likely to do, even more heat is released. This, if it reaches a critical level might well be one of the much talked about tipping points. More heat, more thaw, more heat, more thaw etc.

[@DegreesOfThree]

Lived in the Arctic since time immemorial? 😂 Try again. They moved before. They can move again. Humans are not native to the Arctic. Stop the absurd and nonsensical fetish with ice.

[@theily1724]

Captain America remains hidden in arctic ice.

[@legatomo6428]

Missed opportunity to mention the “Niños de Llullaillaco”, which hold promising evidence for cryogenics

[@coreysierchio4650]

I've seen "The Thing." (And yes, I know that takes place in the Antarctic.)

[@theneekypodcast]

Really wish they’d create longer form content on this channel, I love watching these videos

[@AnimealPlanet]

Love the depressing animation and background music. 📸😍😍📸😍📸

[@haweyahussein2233]

Have any idea on what the background music is called? I love it!

[@whatsup3519]

Lyndon b Johnson vs history

[@adithya260]

Imagine if we found Cthulhu in the Arctic ice.

[@Allium95]

More like the Elder things an some shoggoths but yeah.

[@rahulyoutube7989]

Permafrost!!!

[@BarryMikokinju]

Yeah uhm.. fearmongering is not effective against with those with nihilistic tendencies

[@icantchooseaname6903]

I love how humans literally bullied and manipulated animals til they literally do nothing without us and will die so we HAVE to take care of em.. And those animals think we are doing them a favor and we love them/we care for

[@HerMi.T]

Did you talk to those animals. How did you know that they think of us as angels. Also it is our responsibility and animals own importance which force us to do things

[@icantchooseaname6903]

@@HerMi.T have you ever heard of the word "domestication"

[@clairebiwang7262]

Stop willow

[@aleksandarvil5718]

**Steve Rogers / Captain America Has Joined The Chat**

[@GryphianStudio]

Don't forget ancient plagues and viruses that still trapped in the permafrost, if they melts...

[@dkevans]

Maybe we'll see a reoccurrence of Smallpox?

[@androidsychoshocker]

H.P Lovecraft taught us it's best old things stay frozen. 😂

[@auro1986]

to know this answer many are digging around there and melting ice

[@deeb3272]

the scientific discoveries under the ice and permafrost would be amazing, but we'll be doomed too 🤷

[@johnharrison7585]

You'd better not have children then. We mentally sane people will have children

[@nohandsman8475]

I’m curious what the earth was like before the permafrost

[@Stewart682]

Why use political phrases like "time immemorial" when we know, within a thousand years or so, how long the indigenous people have lived in the Arctic?!

[@lamelime1]

bro what you mean by "political phrases"?! It is just a hyperbole referencing a real problem, there's no politics in this

[@caesar7734]

There is probably at least one mammoth with a complete DNA sequence that will thaw and decompose before we will find it.

[@SSGTStryker]

How about “Charlie” from Iceman (1984)?

[@maxhill9254]

thx

[@biscaynesupercars]

Aang in one of those ice cubes

[@ilmanaiman6840]

Literal,feast,nestle, unmistakably,extinct,skeletal,yield,reconstruct,encase,burrow,wildfire,far-reaching,fracture,drunken forest,immemorial,

[@Captaindc1214]

Awesome Video. Well done!!

[@elkanasback8743]

Ice king from Adventure time

[@nathanedwards745]

it was intresting, but then got on a soapbox and went on a tangent

[@jameshiggins-thomas9617]

Hardly high tech; that's likely just the PC login - both Windows and Mac support fingerprint login . And that biometric data is unlikely to have left the PC itself. All in all, it sounds like ridiculous unintended consequences to me.

[@avzalbekodiljonov9323]

As an amazing facts We can just say by humble way that we don't even virtually discover a lot of things yet to.

[@moonlover2022]

Mosquitos in Jurassic Park

[@thebigdawgj]

>Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in That name is a tragedeigh. Sounds like something you say when someone sneezes.

[@MrsJudithWright]

Very interesting science.

[@MichaelRath]

Sorry, it is not science. It is all conjecture.

[@aryanraj441]

Background music 😲

[@mrluthfians01]

your mom

[@andieallison6792]

BOY AM I SURE GLAD THAT HE'S IN THERE AND WE'RE OUT HERE AND HE'S **ThE ShEriFf** AND WE'RE **FrOzEn OuT HerE**-

[@allhatersgotnojamsbye3987]

I hope that a few people got lost in the ice too and are still preserved. Don't get me wrong, but I want us to be found someday too. Unless of course after us some kind of intelligent civilization appears on earth, If the Earth is not destroyed by a giant asteroid

[@lehaanh2195]

I really like your channel, because there are many languages for me to choose from and your videos are very good .

[@notsubb]

thank you for this video about captain America

[@lorisperfetto6021]

Liked the old thumbnail best