How ancient Arctic carbon threatens everyone on the planet | Sue Natali

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4.1 • 11.9K Ratings

🗓️ 4 May 2022

⏱️ 14 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

What will happen to the planet if climate change melts what's left of Arctic permafrost? Shedding light on this overlooked threat, Arctic geologist Sue Natali reveals the true danger of heating up the iciest place on the planet: the release of ancient carbon that will dramatically worsen our climate problems. In this urgent talk, she introduces a new initiative, Permafrost Pathways, and their work to measure permafrost carbon emissions, fuse Indigenous solutions with modern technologies and protect the rights of Arctic residents. (This ambitious plan is a part of the Audacious Project, TED's initiative to inspire and fund global change.)

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Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to TED Talks Daily. I'm Elise Hu.
0:07.0	We have to talk about permafrost because what's happening to permafrost in the Arctic threatens all of us.
0:14.2	In our talk from TED 2020, Arctic ecologist Sue Natali shares the urgent problem presented by thawing permafrost and her plan to tackle it
0:23.2	with the urgency it deserves. Her work is part of Ted's audacious project. To hear more about
0:28.6	this initiative, which supports groundbreaking ideas across the world, stick around after Sue's talk.
0:34.6	I'll be joined by the project's executive director, Anna Verghese,
0:38.2	to hear how they catalyzed $900 million this year and the impact of the ideas that were chosen.
0:47.5	So whenever I tell people I'm an Arctic scientist, the first thing that they always ask me is,
0:53.5	how cold is it up there?
0:55.9	And yeah, the Arctic can get pretty cold.
0:58.2	Trust me, when I tell you, that working outside at minus 40 degrees is really, really challenging.
1:05.5	But in the summer of 2019, it was anything but cold.
1:10.1	So that summer, I was working with my research team
1:13.2	in Alaska's Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta
1:16.0	on the traditional lands of the Yupik and Chupik people.
1:19.8	And we were up there hauling hundreds of pounds of equipment
1:24.0	across the tundra in the middle of a record-breaking heat wave.
1:28.7	It was 90 degrees Fahrenheit.
1:31.6	There was no breeze, nowhere to go for shade,
1:34.3	and seemingly endless miles of tundra as far as my eyes can see.
1:39.9	To make matters worse, the land had drastically changed since we had been here,
1:43.9	just one year before.
	...

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