The melting ice of the Arctic (2/2) | DW Documentary

We are crossing the Arctic; few have seen it like this. It is a demanding journey, through a harsh and wild world that knows no mercy and yet is full of magic. We want to know how this world is changing and what that means for all of us. We meet people who live happily here and have so far escaped global political conflicts, but who also feel the change that underlies everything. For thousands of years, the Arctic was considered impenetrable, but now a race has broken out to see who will dominate it in the future. That has generated a lot of mistrust and mutual surveillance.

We have traveled once around the world, far north of the Arctic Circle, to better understand this region that will play an important role in our future. It's a wild ride, but nothing compared to what awaits us. We traveled with Olena and Aqqalu. On the other boat is her sister Mette, with her son Brian and her husband Age. We want to visit the whalers' summer camp, located about 250 kilometers from the mouth of the fjord. It can only be reached by boat and no one has managed to go so deep into the fjord at the end of October.

Scoresby Sound, on the east coast of Greenland, is the largest fjord system in the world. We left Ittoqqortqrmiit, the only settlement within a radius of seven hundred kilometers. We are in the middle of the fjord when disaster strikes: the engine of Aqqalu's boat breaks down. Age stops and Brian grabs our boat. But Olena tells us not to worry. She fixes herself. Then we go again. We continue going deeper and deeper into the fjord. Halfway there and almost 5 hours into the trip, in the sheltered bay of a small island, we came across an overturned boat. Aqqalu tries to find out what happened here.

Most likely she was caught in a storm and hit an iceberg or some rocks. She probably crashed into that. As a precaution we kept some gasoline and supplies in the bay. Here you always have to be prepared for the worst. If it is not possible to enter the fjord due to ice, we will return here and camp here. Aqqalu: I've never been here in October before. - Hano: Never? Then yes. There should be more ice. Although we are all surprised by the mild weather, the temperature quickly drops to -10 degrees Celsius. We pass through a tongue of glacier that protrudes from the ice sheet, entering the fjord.

This ice is many thousands of years old. Until now we had only seen it from above and its layers remind us of tree rings, like a geological chronicle. There is blood on one of the shiny, bluish blocks of ice. Aqqalu believes the polar bears must be nearby, telling us to stay alert and warning the other boat. And then we see them: up on a slope by the bay and down in the water are six bears. One of them has blood on his head and neck. We probably just interrupted their mealtime. On land we see a narwhal corpse.

Aqqalu says hunters probably shot it and then bears snatched it away. But in recent years, both humans and bears have encountered new competition in their narwhal hunt. And orcas are a big problem for hunters because they also eat seals, narwhals and other whales and can affect their entry into the fjord if they hunt more. And this year was the first time hunters captured the orca. And something else has changed in the fjord. For the first time, fishermen caught cod and salmon. Few salmon were caught this year. Very few. Not even ten, maybe. No one had ever caught salmon here before.

Now we are in a hurry. We haven't gotten to summer camp yet, and the further we go, the longer it would take us to get back to emergency camp. And, with all the icebergs drifting through the fjord and its branches, getting there would be extremely dangerous after dark. On the slopes we continue to see creatures that seem from another era: musk oxen, which defy the cold even in the Arctic winter, with their long, thick fur. For hours we continued through rough seas, with temperatures now around 15 degrees below zero. As we approach camp and turning around is no longer an option, Aqqalu doesn't hesitate when a closed sheet of ice appears in front of us.

Our little ship becomes an icebreaker. When we disembark and set up camp, it is clear that we have achieved something that was long considered impossible: traveling about 3 H100 kilometers into the fjord... in mid-October. We set up our tent in the middle of the freezing cold. There is no room for us and our equipment in the small hunting cabins, but we came prepared with thick sleeping bags and... muskox skin. I'm making congee with a minke whale. Which is what we normally do in our traditional food. We can cook the same thing with musk ox meat, seal, almost everything... walrus.

And this is the minke whale. Outside in the bitter cold we eat minke whale goulash with chunks of blubber and coarsely chopped meat. This Inuit delicacy is too difficult for our inexperienced palates and stomachs to handle. But hunger is not what stops us from getting into our sleeping bags after this long day. Out of nowhere, a strong wind turns into a storm. And we quickly have to get our tent and our equipment to safety, to prevent them from being blown away by the wind and water. Aqqalu and Age jump into the boats, trying to get them to the sheltered side of the bay, fearing that the wind and waves will loosen the anchors and crash the boats onto the rocks.

That would be a big problem, so far from any help. While we all battle the wind and weather, a very different natural spectacle lights up the sky. One that will reconcile us with this harsh

arctic

night. In the morning the ships have returned and the storm has passed. But first we have to get our bearings. We had just quickly stacked everything and secured it, but Age and Aqqalu have been watching the ships all night and are visibly exhausted. We received some visitors to our camp, but we left them alone since we have enough supplies. Once again, we are baffled by the numbers on the thermometer.

Aqqalu: Plus six degrees. Hano: Is that normal this time of year? Aqqalu: No, at least ten. Aqqalu says fluctuations of 16 degrees during the winter are not unknown here, but they are becoming much more frequent in recent years. Summers have changed too, says Olena: During the summer it rained a lot, possibly almost all summer, but we had some nice days with warm, sunny weather. But it rains more than usual. But since the storm has brought us this heat, we decided to take advantage of it and go even further into the fjord. The ice that Aqqalu had to break yesterday has completely melted in front of the camp.

For Olena this will be a day to remember. Under bright sunshine and spring-like temperatures, we glide through the crystal-clear waters of the fjord, among fairy-tale creatures sculpted by the elements, in the ice of millennia past. I told my mom before taking this trip. I thought I would never celebrate my birthday at the fjord because it's October. At this time, it would normally be icy and it would not be possible to navigate here. And since we were kids, my little brother always has a birthday here because his birthday is in August. Now it's my birthday at the fjord in October, for the first time.

It is very impressive. I will definitely remember it. We are all dazzled by the sheer beauty of nature and fascinated by all its fantastic forms. Only the low drip of

melting

icebergs portends the disaster that is about to befall this wonderland. Only the thick ice that forms around the ship brings us back to reality. Suddenly, there is no way forward. Aqqalu and Olena look for an exit along the fjord, but decide to turn around before the canal left in our path also freezes. Hesitating is not an option for those who live here. And on his twenty-third birthday we wonder how Olena sees her future.

I will study as a skipper in January 2022, in Denmark. The jobs that women have, like nursing, dentistry, and, you know, working with children, are too boring. I also want to be a role model for all women and girls, and encourage them to do what they want, not in the position that society tells them to be in, you know: do their own thing. We left the camp too late and now a snowstorm overtakes us, visibility worsens and darkness falls. With zero visibility we used our mobile GPS devices to help Aqqalu and Age navigate along the coast. And I hope we don't hit an iceberg.

Finally we returned to Ittoqqortormiit. The next morning we have to leave again. We have a date in the Barents Sea, on the other side of the Arctic Ocean. We need to get back to our plane. Half an hour into the trip we asked Aqqalu if it wouldn't be better to turn around. But he seems unfazed. For us, however, what follows are hours full of fear on the roaring sea and with icy winds. When we finally reach the coast, there is no time to waste as the storm grows stronger. Fortunately, Aqqalu and Age return just in time.

Our pilot Dierk knows the extreme conditions of the Arctic and says that we are lucky that the wind comes directly to the runway from the north. We should be able to leave. But there is another problem, the control tower tells us. Robert: You can see that there is a sandstorm, it reaches the bottom of the fjord and disappears. Hano: Sandstorm in Greenland! Robert: Sand storm in Greenland. This is due to the lack of snow. We don't have as much snow as we normally do. Now when the storm comes, it takes away all the gravel instead of the snow.

We want to get going before the sandstorm ruins both our travel plans and our plane. But when Dierk tries to transmit our flight plan through air traffic control, he encounters another surprise: the Internet is dead. Søren: The solar interference comes... I guess it's the parabola satellite that's here around two or two fifteen every day. And then, in the next hour or two, the internet connection disappeared. Hano: And this happens every day, or? Søren: Yes, especially here in autumn. And we have a problem every year. Snow, sand and solar storms, all at once. This doesn't seem to be our lucky day.

And then there is this not entirely risk-free flight over the North Atlantic, in a single-engine propeller plane. If we went into the water, we would land into the wind and the single-engine airplane actually has very, very low landing speeds. From that perspective we would just land and basically swim in the water. The cabin is sealed, so no water will really get in. And we have an emergency exit over the water. And last but not least, of course we will have our raft with us where we can all curl up and go fishing for a while. To do this, each of us carries our own emergency transmitter and survival suit: what could go wrong?

We have a meeting point in the middle of the Arctic Ocean, just a thousand kilometers from the North Pole. The Norwegian frigate "Thor Heyerdahl" left the port of Tromsø three days ago and crossed the rough Barents Sea to our meeting point in Isfjord on the island of Spitsbergen. Later, the Russian Foreign Ministry will criticize this visit by Thor Heyerdahl, alleging that it is part of a clandestine plan by Norway and NATO to militarize the region. We receive a friendly military welcome on board and tour the lower decks of this modern warship, up to the bridge to meet the captain.

Almost 50 percent of the crew are young women. The bridge is bathed in a warm red glow that is absorbed by the tinted windows. The goal is to go unnoticed by emitting the least amount of light possible, a common procedure on a warship. This is our modern multipurpose frigate. Therefore, we can monitor all activity both in the air and on the surface and also below the surface. We are doing patrols, searching for submarines regularly. Over the past few years we have seen an increase in Russian activity. They operate more frequently and further out in the Arctic regions, i.e. further west and south along the Norwegian coast.

In recent years, Norway has been sending its warships further north toward the Arctic Sea. The goal is to maintain a presence in a world that until now has been practically inaccessible. That is slowly changing. So although we see increased activity, it is still an undisputed area. That will change in the future. So when the ice is

melting

and shipping routes become more accessible, we will see even more activity. And it's very important for us to be prepared... to understand that increase and how to handle it in the future. In Oslo, the capital of Norway, we have an appointment with Nils Andreas Stensønes, the head of state intelligence.

After the end of the Cold War, Norway kept a low profile in the Arctic, not wanting to provoke its large eastern neighbor. But in recent years the situation has changed... First of all, the new doctrine they call active defense, in which they use their armed forces more actively, also in peace, to signal political intentions. And if they don't agree with something, that is stated very clearly. They demonstrate capabilities, so they are deployed moretowards the West. We have seen them several times until the GIUK gap. So that's one of the developments. The other is the modernization of their capabilities with the introduction of long-range missiles and the modernization of their command and control apparatus, which allows them to be much more agile and react more quickly to political needs or opportunities.

That is why we see Russia as a smaller force, but much more agile and more in tune with political development. In line with new priorities, Russia has increased its military presence in the Arctic and does not hide it. They call it "Strategic Communication." During an exercise in early 2021, three nuclear submarines simultaneously passed through the North Pole ice sheet. It is a clear sign of Russia's capabilities against potential adversaries that worry Arctic neighbors. It's the increased activity and it's something they're allowed to do, but it seems a little more aggressive and, like I said, they're more agile, they're faster.

So you'll have less time, less warning time about what they're using. And when you have multi-role platforms and weapons systems, it's harder to really deduce and figure out what their intentions are. New military bases are being built and old ones modernized. In Franz-Josef-Land, an archipelago neighboring Spitsbergen, a new high-tech base was built in 2017, which looks like something out of a science fiction movie. In 2019, an air base was added for Russian nuclear-capable fighter jets. And in Moscow we met a man who leaves no doubt about how important the Arctic is to Russia. Russia considers the eastern end of the Arctic its area of ​​strategic importance.

Russia is quite active economically and otherwise in the Arctic. Of nine cities with a population of more than 100,000, six are in Russia. We have 2.6 million people there and a lot of economy in the Arctic. So, we have a lot of energy produced in the Arctic. We have the key strategic materials such as cobalt, platinum, nickel. In reality, more than half of that amount is produced above the Arctic Circle. Thawing permafrost and melting ice are suddenly making mineral extraction in the Arctic economically viable. And the Arctic Ocean, once considered impassable, could soon become one of the world's most important trade routes, if Russia has its way.

Geographically, the road from Shanghai to Rotterdam is 40% shorter going north. It's not easier right now. However, we see that the ice space, the ice areas are shrinking. The Northeast Passage from China to Europe is 6,000 kilometers shorter than the passage through the Indian Ocean and the Suez Canal. And for the most part it runs through Russian waters. Thus, we now see the path towards a throughput of 100 million tonnes on the Northern Sea Route. 100 million tons make it a legitimate global shipping route. We have arrived in Pevek, the northernmost city in Russia, a good five thousand five hundred kilometers from Moscow.

It's freezing cold outside. So Igor is cutting up a reindeer in his bathtub. He belongs to the Chukchi, a nomadic indigenous people who have roamed northeast Russia for more than 2 thousand years. As a citizen, he is a funeral director and tour guide. But sometimes he still misses life on the tundra. In nature you live with your family and the reindeer. You see the sun and the moon and you contemplate. In the city, television causes stress. We see what is happening in the world and it can scare us. It makes us anxious. Nothing like that happens in the tundra.

You just live in your own little world. He clings to a bit of his old life with the dogs and some reindeer. It is your connection with another ancient world. And although life in the city is more comfortable, there are always problems with power supply, another drawback is pollution from the coal-fired power plant. But now he has high hopes for the ship that has just docked in the port. I hope that with the arrival of PATEC, people here will no longer have these problems. Thanks to PATEC we now even have electric heating in this district. I would like all the cities of our province of Chukotka and all the inhabitants of Pevek to enjoy this comfort and convenience.

PATEC is the abbreviation of the world's first floating nuclear power plant, the "Akademik Lomonosov". In an organized press tour, the Russian government proudly presents us with one of the central pillars of its Arctic strategy: floating nuclear power plants, which will reliably supply energy to mining companies, small port cities and military bases. along the

arctic

coast. Here we have the steam turbine of the Kaluga Turbine Plant and the generator of "Silovimi Maschinami". A floating nuclear power plant provides enough electricity for a city of one hundred thousand inhabitants. Four more floating nuclear power plants are currently planned or under construction.

Igor hopes they will help develop his homeland, attracting more ships and tourists. But he's not entirely comfortable with the ship in port. The idea makes me a little dizzy. This is the world's first floating nuclear power plant and it is right around the corner. What happens to us if something goes wrong? After the end of the Cold War, the Arctic became temporarily silent. Many of Russia's northernmost settlements were more or less abandoned to their fate. But now Russian influence has returned with a vengeance. Russia is establishing itself as a major player in the Arctic and leaving little doubt about its willingness to defend its claim against any rival.

But when the Russian military began simulating the occupation of the Arctic islands under extreme conditions in the winter of 2020, its neighbors understandably became nervous, especially Canada and Norway. We are back on board the Norwegian frigate "Thor Heyerdahl" in Svalbard. In light of changes in the Arctic, Norway has an increased NATO presence in the region. Norway alone has no chance, says Captain Røte. For Norway it is important that NATO shows its presence in the Arctic region because we are in a mutual defense agreement and we must be prepared to defend this area within the NATO treaty.

So we need to work, train and exercise together to be prepared to defend the region if necessary in the future. The next morning we left for a strange and unique place. There are no roads, so we have to take a boat from Longyearbyen, the capital of Spitsbergen. They are the last days in which the sun barely manages to peek over the horizon before being replaced by the long night until spring. The visit of the Norwegian frigate to Isfjord will have been carefully documented in the place we visited, says our captain. I don't think the Russians might be very happy about the frigate being here, but it's still Norwegian territory, so...

You have to obey it. Spitsbergen was a distant Arctic island that belonged to no one. But when large deposits of raw materials were discovered, a dispute arose. In the so-called Treaty of Svalbard, of 1920, the contracting states agreed that Spitsbergen would become Norwegian territory. In exchange, Norway had to allow all contracting states to participate in economic activities on the island. And it was stipulated: the island should not be used for war purposes. Norway, and now Russia, are the only parties that have built significant settlements on Spitsbergen. Norwegian Longyearbyen, at the end of the Isfjord, is the administrative and tourist center of the archipelago.

After two hours of boat travel, Barentsburg appears before us. We have arrived at a place that seems stuck in time. Everything smells and feels like the Soviet Union still exists and hasn't fallen over thirty years ago. "Our goal is communism": a friendly reminder in the form of public art. Barentsburg is an Arctic outpost for Russia, a mining settlement on Norwegian territory. We have met an inhabitant of the building that overlooks the city from the hillside. Sergey Gushchin personally opens the door for us. He is the Russian consul general here and represents the interests of Russia and the Barentsburg workers in Norway.

He happily shows us the pride and joy of him in the entrance hall. This is our winter garden. Plants you won't find anywhere else in the Arctic. You can eat them, but we feel a little sorry for them. The building was built with Soviet-era pomp back in the 1980s. And there are many reminders of that time. This is our main reception room, and this is our main treasure: the rug. Over Russian pastries we ask the consul why there is a consulate here in the first place, at what seems like the end of the world, on one of the most desolate islands on the planet.

Many Russian and Soviet miners came here and worked in very harsh conditions. Our people worked and died here, so we can say that this blood and sweat of Russians (and not only Russians, but also Ukrainians and other nations) transferred Spitsbergen to something that has become part of Russian history. One hundred and seventy people still live in Barentsburg, but the mining settlement seems more like a ghost town to us. Many houses are in ruins and the place is full of quiet reminders of a brighter past. A place that seems to retreat into the future. As if we pressed a button, the coal mine, which is said to operate 24/7, all year round, only begins to rumble when we install our cameras.

It's hard to imagine that you can still make money here today from coal mining. In our conversation with the consul, he hints that for Russia it was probably never just about coal mining here in Spitsbergen, and that it still isn't. The Russian presence here is important for us in the context of a peaceful Arctic, because if we leave, if we abandon the archipelago, who will come to replace us? We never know. It could be a NATO country. Although there will be no military activity, the presence here of another NATO country would be very worrying for us.

We asked him what would happen if the Norwegians invited their NATO allies, for example the United States, to visit. Of course, they could invite American ships, but we would consider that a pretty big violation of the spirit of the Treaty and would protest. And we also have the right to invite our own ships from the Northern Fleet here. It almost sounds like a threat. And it is impossible for Russia to withdraw from Barentsburg and the Norwegian Spitsbergen archipelago. We no longer know what will happen here when we leave. I can mention that this. The Kongsberg Svalsat satellite complex provides satellite information to the United States military and is a well-known fact.

And it can be used to contact submarines, American submarines. So, we don't know what will be happening. We will have no chance to monitor the situation if we go. That's why it's important to us. As we leave Barentsburg behind, we are reminded that the situation here in the Arctic is much more complex than this harsh and lonely world might suggest. Back in Longyearbyen we head to the place the Russian consul suspects him of working for the American military. A narrow, icy road takes us to a plateau. Above, a snowstorm hits a complex that looks like something out of a James Bond movie.

It is the largest satellite ground station in the world and we are meeting with the station director, Maja Stine Eckstedt, and we would like to know why it was built in this cold and inhospitable place. These satellites rotate around the globes, or around the poles, i.e. the South Pole and the North Pole all the time. And since the Earth is moving, you have an antenna up here. You can download data and communicate with that satellite every time you pass by. She shows us the control room. A constant flow of data is collected here 24 hours a day, all year round.

And if this system were to fail, says Maja Stina, it would have a global effect. Maja Stina: If all this happened, they might not have any weather data from here, which means that when it comes to planning routes for planes and ships, it would be a big challenge. When it comes to navigation data, GPS, that type of data also comes from satellites taken here. And for communication, of course, if you put it down at the station, of course there will be a challenge. Hano: So the world will be in trouble right now. Maja Stina: Yes, there will be many, many areas that will notify the consequences.

The world has become addicted to data, with a large number of GPS devices, smartphones and other devices. Many of these high-resolution recordings are also used for observation, for example to detect illegal oil spills. And from here images and data are transmitted to the relevant authorities. Another example is illegal fishing, which is in some ways used in the same way. You send the report to local authorities, and they can go out and actually, you know, take action. And this is being done. This is how they will be able to stop illegal fishing. There are 125 antennas of all sizes on the plateau and more are being added all the time.

Maja Stina wants to show us one of the antenna systems from the inside. With the snow storm increasing and temperatures at 25 degrees below zero, we arehappy to get back in. Then suddenly the big plate starts moving. It is an 11-meter satellite dish that follows one of the Sentinel satellites. It circles the Earth 14 times a day and takes about 15 minutes to go around the Earth, meaning it takes the satellite an hour and a half to go around the Earth once. We asked what is being downloaded right now. They could be optical images, which are the images that you see everything, whether it's clouds or, you know, beautiful images or whatever.

Or the radar images that see through the clouds. You can see much more detail than optics even if it is dark. Nothing escapes the eye in space. The American NASA and the European ESA obtain data on the Arctic from Spitsbergen, but also from private companies such as IRIDIUM. The facility is operated by a joint venture between the Norwegian government and Norwegian arms manufacturer Kongsberg. We asked Maja Stina about the Russian consul's accusation that her facilities work for the US military. You know, everyone wants a good story and if you see something that looks like James Bond, it has to do with the military.

That's what you're thinking. But the thing is, because of the Svalbard Treaty, we are not allowed to build any facilities that are. Dedicated for military use here and we are not even allowed to take dedicated data from a military satellite. We say goodbye amid the howling wind, fascinated and bewildered by this place that is so isolated from the rest of the world and yet knows everything about it and produces data from all over the world, without which our modern lives would be unimaginable. We have traveled through the Arctic, through a world that is about to go from white to blue.

A world that is changing rapidly and in which there is a lot of mistrust and mutual surveillance. The future of humanity will be decided here. In this place that, above all, has humbled us by the strength and beauty of its nature.