How Ancient Ice Proves Climate Change Is Real |||demonstrates|||| Wie uraltes Eis beweist, dass der Klimawandel real ist How Ancient Ice Proves Climate Change Is Real Cómo el hielo antiguo prueba que el cambio climático es real Come i ghiacci antichi dimostrano che il cambiamento climatico è reale 太古の氷が気候変動が現実であることを証明する方法 고대 얼음이 기후 변화가 현실임을 증명하는 방법 Hoe ijs uit de oudheid bewijst dat klimaatverandering echt is Como o gelo antigo prova que a mudança climática é real Как древний лед доказывает реальность изменения климата Hur forntida is bevisar att klimatförändringarna är verkliga Antik Buz, İklim Değişikliğinin Gerçek Olduğunu Nasıl Kanıtlıyor? 古老的冰如何證明氣候變遷是真的

You can see the tiny air bubbles in there? ||||||air bubbles|in that|

Those are what we study.

This is a piece of ice – about 20,000 years old – from Antarctica. ||||||||||the Antarctic

And bubbles trap air from 20,000 years ago, so we can find out what air was like back

then.

Can figure out if carbon dioxide has gone up or down.

And what we've learned from that is carbon dioxide is higher now than it's been for

at least the last million years, probably the last 20 million years, but that's less

certain. certo.

So it's really quite a dramatic thing that we humans have done to the carbon dioxide. |||||significant||||||||||

[♩]

Hey smart people.

Joe here.

Earth's atmosphere and climate have changed in a big way, and they are continuing to change. |||||||||||||still changing|| De atmosfeer en het klimaat van de aarde zijn enorm veranderd en blijven veranderen.

There's no doubt about that, and we've known it for decades.

But Earth's climate has always changed throughout its history.

So how do we know this time is different?

We know because at places like the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in southern California, |||||||Scripps Institution|Scripps Institution||Scripps Oceanography||southern California|southern California |||||||Scripps|||oceanografia||| We weten het omdat op plaatsen als de Scripps Institution of Oceanography in Zuid-Californië,

we have freezers full of ancient ice that let us look into the past, thousands–even ||ice storage units||||||||||||| ||congeladores|||||||||||||

millions of years, and measure exactly what Earth's atmosphere, and its climate, were ||||determine||||||||

like throughout deep history.

I recently stopped by to visit Dr. Jeffrey Severinghaus, who studies ice cores. ||||||Doctor|Dr Jeffrey|Dr Jeffrey Severinghaus||researches||ice cores

He's part of a team working to find the oldest ice on Earth. |||||||||most ancient|||

Each of these little blocks of frozen water can tell us something about our planet's ||||pieces||||||||||

past, long before we existed – and where it's heading, now that we do. ||||were present||||future direction|||| ||||||||direção|||| у минулому, задовго до нашого існування - і куди вона рухається тепер, коли ми існуємо.

And inside these tiny bubbles in this ice, is old bubbles of air that existed on this

planet as old as that ice is.

Yeah

That's the atmosphere of the planet, trapped in those little bubbles. ||||||preservada||||

What happens in the polar regions is it's too cold to melt.

So when snow falls it doesn't melt, it just piles up and piles up, and eventually turns

into ice under its own weight.

But if you think about what snow is like, if you have a snowflake you have air in between |||||||||||||snow crystal||possess||| |||||||||||||floco de neve|||||

the snowflake.

As snow becomes more and more dense, it tends to squeeze out the air between snowflakes, |||||||||||||||snow particles ||||||||||expelir|||||flocos de neve

but it turns out it doesn't squeeze out all the air.

As more layers of snow fall and condense, those tiny voids are literally frozen in time, ||of snow|||||compact together|||air pockets||||| ||||||||||vazios|||||

layer upon layer.

And, there are a lot of layers.

Some ice cores have annual layers just like trees do, you know how you can count tree ||||yearly|||||||||||one| Sommige ijskernen hebben jaarlijkse lagen, net als bomen, je weet hoe je bomen kunt tellen

rings? verb form

So some graduate student sits there and counts 50,000 annual layers ||graduate|graduate student||||tallies||

Of course it has to be a graduate student!

What a lot of work.

But to study ancient ice, first you have to find ancient ice.

Where are you doing this research?

Where are you collecting these ice cores? |||gathering|||

This is from a place called Taylor Glacier in Antarctica ||||||Taylor Glacier|Taylor Glacier||

Taylor Glacier is a 54 kilometer stretch of ice and rock. ||||kilometer long|section|||| ||||quilômetro|||||

People like Dr. Severinghaus can read it like a book–full of stories about our ancient

climate.

Taylor Glacier is special because it's one of the few places on Earth where the ancient |glaciar||||||||||||||

ice has risen to the surface. ||subiu à superfície|||

So, you only have to drill 5-10 meters to get the ice. |||||bore a hole||||| |||||perfurar|||||

Which is much easier than drilling a deep ice core which is 3,000 meters and costs 50 |||||boring||||sample|||||costs 50

million dollars.

It's basically a cylinder that has little tiny teeth on the bottom. |||cylindrical object|||||||| |||cilindro||||||||

And when you rotate the barrel it carves out the ice, but only a little bit in a ring, |||turn||cylinder||removes|||||just|||||| |||gira||||escava|||||||||||

and it leaves behind an ice core in the middle. ||leaves||||||| ||deixa|||||||

Once the core is pulled up, it's packed up and sent off, carrying a slice of history ||||lifted|||packed|||||transporting|||| ||núcleo||retirada||||||||||uma parte||

inside it.

It's a slow process, it takes like a month for the ship to get here. ||||||||one month|||cargo|||

Whether you're standing in the middle of the Amazon rainforest or at the North Pole, |||||||||Amazon rainforest||||North Pole|North Pole ||em pé|||||||floresta tropical|||||

you're breathing roughly the same air.

Our atmosphere is pretty much the same everywhere.

Which means that a tiny air bubble from that one spot is enough to paint a picture of what ||||||air bubble|||||||||||| ||||||||||ponto específico||||||||

the entire planet's atmosphere looked like so many years ago.

This is the freezer. |||the appliance

We won't be in there long, so don't worry about the cold ||||||||concern yourself|||

So this is what a typical ice core sample looks like. ||||||||ice core||

Now you'll notice that there's no bubbles.

That's because when you get down below 600-700 meters, the pressure is so high that the air

turns into something called a clathrate which is an ice-like substance. |||||clathrate structure|||||| |||||clatrato|||||| verandert in iets dat een clathraat wordt genoemd, wat een ijsachtige substantie is.

Clathrates are crystals, where instead of bubbles, the molecules are trapped in a cage Clathrates||solid structures|||||||||||structure of molecules clatratos|||||||||||||gaiola Clathraten zijn kristallen, waar de moleculen in plaats van bellen in een kooi worden opgesloten

made by the bonds between frozen water molecules. |||ligações intermoleculares||||

There's still gas in there

There's still gas molecules but they're not in a gas phase.

Man the patterns are so cool, you must randomly see such cool ice phenomena ||||||||occasionally|||||ice formations Блін, візерунки такі класні, треба випадково побачити такі круті льодові явища

It's cold in here!

This cold!

Funny how that works.

Okay, but how do you get the ancient air out of the ice to measure it?

I mean, without contaminating it with… all this air around us? |||||with it||||| |||contaminando|||||||

So this is how we actually extract the ancient air, if you will. ||||||||old||||

We take a piece of ice and put it in a vacuum flask, and pump out all of the modern air, |||||||||||insulated|vacuum container||remove|||||| ||||||||||||garrafinha tér||||||||

the air we're breathing right now, using a vacuum line.

This is a vacuum pump here.

So we make a seal, and close this valve, and then you only have an ice cube and a little ||||seal||||valve|||||||||||small amount ||||uma vedação||||válvula|||||||||||

bit of water vapor, but no air. ||water vapor|water vapor|||

Then we melt the ice, and the melting of the ice releases those little air bubbles of ancient |||||||||||releases||||||

air.

So because you already let out the “now air,” the only gasses that are coming out |||||||||||gases||||

are the ones that are trapped inside the ice.

Right, and then we can purify the gas a little bit by freezing the water. ||||||||||||turning to ice|| |||||purificar|||||||||

So they pump out all the modern air, melt the ice to let the ancient atmosphere vaporize, ||||||||||||||||turn to gas ||||||||||||||||vaporizar-se

re-freeze the water, and pump that ancient atmosphere out so it can be measured. |solidify|||||||||||||assessed |congele novamente|||||||||||||

This is a liquid helium tank, it's cold enough - it's at 4 kelvin, 4 degrees about |||||||||||kelvin|| |||||||||||kelvin||

absolute zero. absolute|none

It's cold enough that all the air actually condenses and turns into ice - air ice. ||||||||turns to ice||||||

Every gas, will freeze

Every gas except helium. |||helium gas

So then we take it over here.

This is the analysis part of it. |||analysis section|||

This tube is actually a bottle, a long skinny bottle that's capable of dipping itself |||||bottle||||||||submerging| |||||||||||||mergulhando-se| Ця трубка насправді є пляшкою, довгою тонкою пляшкою, яка здатна занурюватися сама

into the liquid helium.

You wouldn't want to be getting your own hands too close to 4 kelvin.

No.

The frozen air gets put into this, a mass spectrometer, which basically measures the |||||||||mass spectrometer|||analyzes| |||||||||espectrômetro|||| De bevroren lucht wordt hierin gestopt, een massaspectrometer, die in feite de meet

masses of really tiny things. large quantities||||

We measure the chemical composition of the atmosphere using isotopes: they're like ||||makeup|||||isotopic markers|| |||||||||isótopos||

different flavors of atomic elements. |||atomic elements|atomic elements

Isotopes, those flavors of elements, have unique masses, and the mixture of them in ||||||||||combination|||

the air bubbles can tell us all kinds of things about ancient earth. |||||||various|||||

We use the isotopes of nitrogen to tell ancient temperature at the time the snow was falling. |||||isotope 1|||||||||||precipitating as snow

Ordinary nitrogen has a mass of 14, but the rare isotope nitrogen 15 has a mass of 15. ||||||||uncommon|variant||||| |||||||||isótopo|||||

It turns out that relative proportions of N15 and N14 are sensitive to temperature. |||||||nitrogen|||||| ||||relativas|||||||||

So, whatever the temperature is at a particular time, it's creating different mixes of different

flavors of gasses in the atmosphere, like a fingerprint for temperature. ||||||||indicator|| ||||||||impressão digital||

That's right, and that's trapped in air bubbles for posterity. |||||||||future generations |||||||||as futuras gerações

So the sample here starts out waiting its turn and when its turn comes the sample opens ||||||||||||||||begins to open

and goes into this little tiny tube, which leads into the mass spectrometer, here, and

it gets accelerated by a 3,000 volt electrical gradient, which makes the ions go really fast. ||speeded up|||volt unit||voltage difference||||charged particles|||quickly |||||||||||os íons|||

And then they hit this magnet and they're forced to make a 90-degree right turn, and |||||magnetic object|||required||||||| |||||ímã||||||||||

in doing so, heavy things like N15 try to go straight, and lighter things like N14 get ||||||||||em linha reta||mais leves||||

bent more. mais inclinado|

It's like being in a car.

You can't turn as fast in a big heavy car. |cannot||||||||

So they swing out, and then the detector is seeing what swung out farther. ||move outward|||||device||||moved|| ||balançam|||||detector||||se moveu||

So, you're getting resolution of things that differ by a single neutron when they're |||||||vary||||particle component||

flying through that curve? |||the curve

That's pretty cool.

The same idea can be used to find out more than just temperature.

Labs all over the world use elements trapped in air, trapped in ice cores, to paint a map Laboratories|||||||||||||||||geographical representation

from our distant past to today. ||faraway|||

Oxygen isotopes can tell us how oceans changed, mineral dust tells us about how the atmosphere ||||||||mineral dust|mineral particles|||||| |||||||||poeira mineral||||||

moved around, there are chemical clues about early volcanoes. |||||indicators|||volcanic activity

But maybe most importantly, we can trace changing levels of carbon dioxide.

So the climate has changed before, how do we know that this time it's us.

The way we know, is just like we talked about with nitrogen, the carbon in carbon dioxide

also has two flavors.

There's carbon 12, which is ordinary carbon, and then a very rare form of carbon, carbon

13.

So, that's how we know it's human caused.

The atmosphere, as it goes up in CO2 concentration, the carbon 13 of the atmosphere is taking ||||||||level|||||||

a nosedive. |sharp decline |queda acentuada

And that's not what would happen if it was natural CO2.

Because fossil fuel co2 is very depleted in carbon 13. ||||||low||

This comes from the fact that plants prefer to eat CO2 made of carbon-12, and when we |||||||favor|||||||||

burn fossil fuels made from those ancient plants, the fraction of carbon-12 in the atmosphere combustion of||||||||||||||

goes up while carbon-13 goes down.

We've only been measuring carbon dioxide in the atmosphere since 1957, but using the We have|||measuring||dioxide|||||||

data from ice cores, we can trace levels back way farther. |||||||levels of CO2|||

And this is what we see:

CO2 was pretty flat for most of the past 1,000 years. |||relativamente constante|||||| Протягом більшої частини останніх 1,000 років рівень CO2 був досить стабільним.

All around 280 ppm. ||parts per million ||partes por milhão

Now we're going to add in the carbon 13 abundance, this gold line. ||||||||level|||

And you can see that was also pretty constant for most of the last thousand years.

But then around 1850, right when carbon dioxide concentration started to rise, the carbon

13 abundance started taking a nosedive. abundance level||||

And this kind of unambiguously tells you that humans did it. ||||clearly|||||| ||||de forma clara||||||

That's why I call it the smoking gun of human causation. ||||||smoking|evidence|||responsibility

There are lots of other ways we know, but this is the simplest. ||||||||||||easiest option

We're moving into uncharted territory. |||unknown|area |||território desconhecido|

The last time something like this shows up in the ice record is around 55 million years

ago, when a volcano popped up under an oil field and cooked basically everything. |||volcano|erupted|||||||||

It sent all the carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

So, the carbon dioxide shot up, we think it nearly quadrupled, and the climate warmed ||||||||||increased fourfold||||

by 6 degrees.

The most important thing is right away to solve this global warming problem. |||||||||||climate change|

We don't have much time left.

We have to put aside all of our political differences, The health and wellbeing of the ||||||||political|disagreements||||well-being||

planet is so much more important than everything else.

We can do this, I know we can.

We can. But will we?

I hope so. Stay curious.