shortage of shame was propaganda generated for western public consumption. and it should be no surprise. ukraine is as corrupt as ever ah, this is far more a conflict over polar ends the deuce involving do not do it states and russia. it's a question of all trash assert. deep a sphere of influence in the former soviet space particles in europe rolled and ukraine easy sunshine in order to update this. you know, these things doesn't want to allow us to happen. and mrs. as to the bottom of what is going on. ah

there is no question that our time that is changing and how it will affect life on this planet is of great interest. will we be able to adapt glaciers which are formed over tens of thousands of years can give us important information into our climate and how it has changed over time. what a scary is our glaciers are melting at an alarming rate. to learn more, we came here to mount elbows to speak to victor pup hoffman. he is a gracie ologist who has devoted his entire life to the topic. it is a fascinating at times dangerous and very important job. lou lacey is on natural indicators of climate change. it's becoming a sunday, they will disappear. today we're saying same trend in almost

every mountain system. the booty place he has a shrinking just getting smaller. ah, do we need to worry about feature viruses coming into our system? it's definitely something to consider. ah, is there anything we can do as humans? are we helpless in this process? the only way to slow down the melting of places is through a massive intervention. the nuclear war scenario of all the glazes in the world would self melting even being able to do my job and do something useful for humanity. so i hope that is my prime motivation. victor, good have you out here. thanks for having us in your office has it we're, it's hard to believe that these glaciers will disappears on day. how much time do we actually have? no. okay. valuable. because when you were to sunday they will disappear. but

they'll be here for our generation in the next few generations. the glaciers here in the caucasus follow certain cycles with one cycle last about 1800 years when it was here in the 1st century b, c. the glaciers were at their peak and then like africa, then it began to shrink and almost disappeared around the 5th century 80. but we also, we refer to the period between that time and the 10th century as the r. he is breaking place, he ation door nursery era research near our he has showed that the peoples of the north caucasus freely moved south because there was no ice on the mountain path. is that you could easily cross to the other side if this cycle will repeat and we can extrapolate from the data we have to predict the next period. really the last big, the so called minor ice age was between the 17th and 19th century seat of the letter about about 600 years to that in about 4 centuries. the won't be any place he has in the caucuses. unfortunately, a couple of just

a few isolated spots will remain with the course. the ice won't disappear from the caucus is altogether done like a will be some places where glaze he has remained, but there will be very few of them. you would have thought you're watching well. so you've been studying one particular glacier, john, quite for your career for decades. now. how has that changed over time? the needs of what the scientists have been closely studying the journey quite glazier since 1968 says this up for over 50 years. already the balls repeated somewhat typical average size and altitude. the nikoto should have that disclosure is in a valley. sometimes you can see it all the way back there that was sitting in a saddle between 2 summits in moscow, state university has been in charge of researching it element by studying this class. here we can see patterns that are relevant for all ice in this area. and even the whole caucus is region cello, the research shows that the glaciers are receding, little becoming smaller in size, volume, and height. and what a thinning out are you available in the 1960 is the glazier covered 3.2 square

kilometers. the we're now it's 2.5 the other but up good with her. it's last about 20 to 25 percent in 50 years. that both the little orbital. what the cooper so as gracious or seed or as they change over time. the weather can change as well. have you seen any changes in the weather, or any consequences of glacial breakers receiving here in this specific area? lydia keith used only you load the cookbook over the last 50 years that the glazing has been monitored. the general trend has been towards a gradual increase in precipitation levels. and it's a good thing for the glazier. good them over the accumulation of ice in the glazier depends on the total amount of precipitation. you see that my heart bleeds for glaciers here because i study them and would like them to exist for as long as possible whole shape muscle. but unfortunately, this trends cannot offset the opposing tendency related to the summer period when glaciers lose mass. but that's the result of changes in solar radiation levels and

their temperature. fuel places are natural indicators of climate change and changes in climate determine how glaciers behave. air temperatures arising everywhere across the globe, which is a strong and steady trend. it's becoming warmer, which is why as a result, the glazier is losing mass at an increasingly rapid rate or to midwinter. the balance between these 2 processes are accumulation, and ablation must just tipping towards a loss of mass did out. so the glaciers are presently losing mass density with the trends of the summer season. now prevailing for now at least that 0 percent over the modest is lead even if positive trends of the winter season. but underneath the new builder understand now it is said that a glacier can be kind of like a time machine. from the moment it was formed until today. can you read glaciers like a book? what kind of information can you get from them, and how do you actually extract that information? see in the blue, then you got the lucy, just the daughter, murray vinegar,

the monitoring activities at the glaciers today include mostly direct observation. when we take direct measurements, it could be snow gauging surveys or measuring the snow melt level using a variety of tools like rods. and then we verify the obtained results by comparing them to geodetic measurements, the feasibility of physical survey, data, and cetera. we'll get that. what did you go over with this? only concerns present day monitoring, where we make observations? has we work with that information about the time before we came here? we can only be extracted from the depths of the glacier and you need to pull out an ice score by drilling iglesia weight throughout it. fitness is a kind of data repository where information is stored about events in the distant past. all chillies, the history that can be retrieved from the glazier does not go back endlessly though the glacial mass renews. here in the valley, glaciers of the caucuses, we won't find ice dating back dozens of thousands of years. but the john, quite close here, for example, the full cycle of ice mass exchange completes every 110 years. in some other places,

older ice can be found in some glacial cavities where it stays intact to longer what one of them, but with glazier like this one story can only get information about climate change over the past 100 to 110 years. but if we extract an ice go hm, what exactly what information can we get when i score? if we can discern annual letters in the sample, they'll show us the mass balance in the glazier each year. be in and we can identify the exact year by isotopes and other techniques that it's, if we drill a well at a spot where complete meltdown of ice never occurs. we can count how many layers we have with ramped data. the layer we're interested in the we then we get the value of mass balance for that particular year in that particular spot, which is composed of 2 terrific methods, including radioisotope, dating science. to distinguish between these parameters, we can see how the temperatures and precipitation levels changed throughout these 100 to 110 years. we'll give it a if it is built up. we can also evaluate the changes in the chemical composition

of the atmosphere over a certain period of time. if we analyze the impurities, we'll harris holes, et cetera, captured in the ice field again. then a plethora of analytic methods can be used to evaluate the environmental situation and climatic with her amateurs at a given time in the past. that's how it all works that i want to more with with, but of isn't it? so i have to ask a lot of people think of science or just paper work and numbers, but your job can be dangerous. there's long expeditions. there's cracks in the ice . there's bad weather, or avalanches, let's say, what's the most dangerous situation that you've ever encountered? have you ever been scared for your life? talk to me a little bit about that aspect. gooder soother blue mountains have always spelled danger for humans above. they're not safe. when we're working on iglesia, we have to think about the safety of the procedures we're carrying out. first of all is a club with no scientific result is worth a loss to you in life. when you do it, however, we can anticipate and avert any danger. the brittany, this is one of the main tasks that explorers of the mountains pursue,

is toyed and to fight the potential dangerously and take measures to increase their safety as best they can. broadly speaking, we have to walk across crevice surfaces and ice fall areas when working on the glacier, which requires proper mountaineering gear and techniques not including safe equipment like a harness. it is all to do. that's what we teach our students whistle and what we use at all times. however, certain events can't be anticipated. a pebble lunches, for example, isn't it? what would you, that's why every time we get on to a slope, we have to assess the avalanche hazard of that particular location. first, which is subway tickets or there are slopes, which are strictly prohibited to accessing anywhere. the condition, no matter how convenient they might be for completing a scientific mission. and ideally we have to keep that in mind from the start up and trying not to plan any measurements on avalanche prone slopes. is that what we can't position our equipment there because we need to be able to access it at any time. unfortunately, you can't do this everywhere in the mountains who have

a name. if you have to pick locations carefully that off the global word, falling rocks or another danger, grandmother will garage typically come new rock slides are a frequent occurrence in the mountains. so in 2009 vickers, glacier monitoring bass was destroyed by an avalanche. fortunately, nobody was hurt, but to sending i sent to snow is a major threat to everyday life. here. the region is one of the most avalanche prone places in the world. rising temperatures are caused for the changing face of the terrain. the hot commodity, has it been battling snow classes here for over 30 years? he's on the military avalanche control squad. he knows these mountains better than anyone. eager to thank you very much for coming out to meet us. i have to say that when we were coming down the mountain to actually meet you, victor and i witnessed an actual avalanche. so i have to ask, i are avalanche is happening more often. what was the frequency of avalanches has

to do with climate change? because when you look at the roof, but it's the type of change that is not directly related to global warming because i still have still, i have to admit, we're seeing more avalanche activity nowadays. for example, there was a massive pine forest near the village of tesco, which we store that's further over there. we'll go to school, but now it's just bunch trees we've just looked on before. 19691. there were pine trees everywhere, wasn't equal, but they've gone now. avalanches have wiped them out of the past. 50 years could be settled. so have you ever personally witnessed an avalanche and if so, tell me about that aspect and that was not a controlled situation. and how did you handle that? oh, don't not blue though. it was just all yes, i have seen avalanches wortha, in fact, i was caught in one or a unit number on march, the 8th, 1973 in that done by region. that's in the west and caucuses, were whittaker. now sports guy was with the crew, filming

a science documentary awards new on our way down the mountain range. a massive snow slab came crashing down for his lawyer. luckily, i was just tossed aside with some, some spontaneous avalanches like this happened from time to time. your truth, you're going to stop by merrily in places that have no avalanche control or even as a ship of what time of year do avalanches most happen, or when do they frequent to this area? should i be worried about an avalanche right now? if you to watch it or look, even for a layman show that there are certain meteorological factors from no contract to determine whether it's safe or whether it's time to pack up and head down the school girl. first of all, which we're talking about, heavy snow fall, the longer it last issue, the more dangerous it becomes few in this new gopro that secondly, what it's, what we call wind transport. when strong winds carry huge amounts of snow on one place to another, yet recovery piece even to of beginner with these 2 factors are very important to

take into account to go beyond that, there are warning systems in place. we shall not, in any case, you should always rely on your own observations. i mean, can you right now, of course, run it still very early for avalanches, for a live could threaten the valley, so you're perfectly safe. it's the most of which social spoke with. so i know that they send off cannon charges and there are different ways that you can control an avalanche. you're the expert, your experience is unparalleled because this area is known for avalanches. oh, what is the best way to control the situation? oh, so doing this through the united states, russia and canada with the 1st and probably the only countries to implement state run avalanche protection systems. ah, by the way, europe has no such system as a sheet. you know, many years of experience. we've learned that the best approach is a combination of different measures and they looked 1st off, various avalanche defense structures at the i, the avalanche gallery video,

the snow retention structures we passed. we're on our way here glue. scott, these are combined with a number of active measures as a shooter, but like i said, i'm a really important thing is to combine anti avalon structures for with active interventions that shoot that the such as showing you and other preventative efforts. what use did i so as gracious get smaller, they reflect less sunlight out into the space which makes the greenhouse effect on earth increase, which makes glaciers melt. are they killing themselves in this case? look, this brain iglesia at the whether it's shrinking or growing, reflect more sunlight lynette surrounding bedrock or otherwise earth boots. so the main point here is that the glacier creates a local climate which has cooler bullet, a closed door above the glazier. the temperature is typically lower compared to the

surrounding mountain area, a converge, that's one of the effects of these places in the ducal. or is there anything that we can do to may be slow down the process of glaciers melting and glaciers receiving? is there anything we can do as humans or are we helpless in this process? deal of social seclusion you the shrinking of glaciers due to global warming is not so much a product of human activity, but rather a consequence of certain external factors. women should they need the only way to slow down the melting of places is through a massive intervention. remember moment that is, for example, that can, we could cover an entire glazier with a layer of rocks. yes, there are other, more unconventional methods. for example, although it may sound depressing or the nuclear war scenario, but almost a usually, a scientists have come up with different simulations of how glaciers would react. in the case of a hypothetical nuclear conflict, i personally hope it remains a hypothesis is look though if we are talking about $4.00 to $5000.00,

make it and for the explosions would release vast quantities of sort aerosols into the atmosphere. all of this would reduce our atmospheres transparency to such an extent that the global temperature on earth would drop to minus 20 degrees celsius or according to some predictions down to minus 50 degrees celsius. we're minutes of the mules. as a result, all iglesias in the world would stop melting, yet other chance of salad. while this is an effective way to slow down the melting was the security, i hope this scenario remains purely hypothetical through. so if i understand also correctly in the 10th centuries here in this region, the glaciers drastically receded. and then there was the little ice age bus called to if a piece is just one of the cycles more and there have been multiple cycles like this over the millennia, normally. but these cycles do not follow the classical sine wave pattern. so the place is increase in size quite rapidly towards what would it takes

a very long time for them to shrink and disappear completely. because as was the case during the r, he's breaking place. the ation from the 5th to the 10th centuries felt hope all of them disobey. so one question i have is, is this all connected in one giant ecosystem globally? i do the change of glaciers here. have an effect elsewhere in the globe somewhere, let's say in tenure. my don't think so. i was the same effect of being observed across the globe due to climatic reasons of a global, the nature of the cosmic nature if you will. the blizzards today we're seeing the same trend in almost every mountain system. remove lacy as a shrinking. you thought? i think getting smaller, but it's not a permanent process and it's not a uniform across different ecosystems. emily, it's true glaciers are shrinking fast across most of the globe. it all right now, it's particularly evident in the rocky mountains of north america, either in the alps. they do not civic or the coda mountains in the sub i koski territory and russia hope scholarship. yet at the same time,

there are mountain ranges where glaciers are doing quite well in a couple of their build with the many glaciers in north scandinavia are increasing their mass and even advancing the color shoots. scandinavia is in a better place in this regard than many other regions which showed that until recently the late 1990 single minute of the same positive trend was observed in a number of other mountain ranges earlier. for example, around the greenland shield. good in new zealand, them even in the caucasus, for similar law in the late 19 eighties. early 19 nineties, there was a period when place here. we're doing much better than now or any part of the regularly even stopped receding yell. some were increasing in mass. so also my understanding is that as war, glaciers melded abs fresh water to the oceans and that can slow down the gulf stream which can cause temperatures to drop in europe. on how fast can we expect that to start happening? or is it already happening? gunther, to a certain extent,

it happens all the time and the more glaciers melt you, the more meltwater is released water. but this isn't as simple as that we're going from releasing more water because of increased melting you some money that those places are also shrinking. other floors or the area or is getting smaller or is that that was opened the product of a great run off multiplied by a smaller area, doesn't result in more water. it would after a while place he'll run off, we'll start decreasing new and it's happening already held. the deal of gas glazier seemed to be responding to climate warming that you hand are melting more. but it doesn't mean that the volume of fresh water will continue to increase forever weather. now something that you touched on earlier in our private conversations is about the idea of fresh water for populations is that as glaciers recede, there will be less fresh water for civilians. talk to me a little bit about that though, but yet this is the key thing to remember when we plan glazed. y'all. monitoring essentially glassy ology. the scientific study of glaciers has 2 practical goals.

first, to learn about how water resources are changing the level of the water is human kinds, main, natural resources in from out 2nd to protect us from disasters of as for fresh water resources. it's true that it's been a major concern in some countries for a while, not only but different countries have different approaches to it. and what in the area areas of central asia shrinking, lacy has mean less run off, which could lead to catastrophic consequences in the future. up, so it's beginning to be felt even today. they're reservoirs are getting less water than what they were originally expected to hold last year, just on face the issue of insufficient water for hydro electric power plants above the even started preparing people for the idea that there might be rolling outages to, to low water levels. in the reservoir q, this problem is only going to get worse, and i would, than i think we'll say more frequent instances of that as glazes melt. patricia patricia for muted though quickly because there were you mentioned about more frequent catastrophes. we've seen in the movies. we know that the she water is

going to rise and that the coastal cities could be obliterated by floods are where does science fiction? i am reality meet like what can we really expect or do we not even know yet? so the such did him, your 64 meters is the classic threshold by which the sea level is expected to rise in the theory. it would have a that won't happen when you put the laser ice on earth that will least at this stage of the planetary evolution is never going to be completely lost to study for you. i'm talking about the ice mass in greenland and talk to her, et cetera, would it booms to get the ship. essentially, what we're saying about the evolution of the ice cover mostly has to do with mountain ice, was which zillow, but all mountain systems of the world. combined only amount to about 3 percent of the total ice reserves kinda most of it in antarctica with them of them for this massive ice to milton we spoke with, we'd need a planetary cataclysm through what i would call a cosmic level event, like an asteroid crashing into our planet or the current staying on the idea of

where fantasy meets our reality. or we know that in antarctica, they have discovered viruses deep in ice. and we know that in china recently, the same thing has happened. is that something that we need to worry about were coming off of a pandemic here? or do we need to worry about ancient virus is coming into our system? nuclear with her that i think this is something that needs to be looked into the new. so the idea that there may be ancient micro organisms which could be released after ice melt makes sense, but it's not a concern for the whole world to lose sleep over him. and them with that, although doctors ecologist and other relevant specialists should be the ones to judge william, it's definitely something to consider. gotcha louis. mythical good. now we've talked a little bit about this presently as well as your job can be dangerous, but it is really interesting. it's really cool. what keeps you motivated? what about your job is fascinating to you. the me personally, the no at the cause the elite research has his own reasons. but then for me,

mount in to the most aesthetically pleasing part of the world surface and whoop, i get with you. got the, what's interesting about mountains is that the neighboring valley is, can have entirely different landscapes and you offer different views. but we're lucky when you're on a plane, you need to go to other regions or other countries for a change of scene. here are things change very quickly for you throughout the mountains are so diverse watching within a minute. there are so called modern looking alpine type mountains, like the caucuses or the alt themselves look at the there are older, smoother ranges from french, which can still be very high, like the tan shun will more much love. there are these needle like mountains which look like something from a moon scape in patagonia argentina, away my favorite region. what the very beautiful mountain. central unforgettable it for me working in the mountains is a joy. you're about the able to being able to do my job and do something useful for humanity. so i hope it is my prime motivation, the global global models, countries that need to manage their water resources for the purposes of hydraulic

engineering, or simply economic activity as a whole needs data from different mountain systems with what we're doing here in the caucasus, for example, which is really important for international databases. you, him, there is a certain political dimension to the study of glazes who's like, for example, right now we're working on iglesia, part of which is in a foreign country in georgia, hulu. and you live, we used to be able to take measurements across the entire glacier looney to cover a 100 percent of the area to determine the mass balance it because it's more difficult now because unless there is a border, i'm sure i don't like to discuss politics but it's something you have to take into account there, but because political developments are increasingly impacting on glaciers, which will take water use in central asia or the mac or a serious conflict emerging between neighboring countries like care gets down and tajikistan like you just give chilly and argentina, or another example, hutcher was they had major differences on where to draw the border. i believe all

of this requires glazier logical knowledge to resolve below. i'd like people to know more about glaciers who discipline a bush of ah victor, thank you very much for showing me around your office. it has been a true pleasure. hoped to come back and spend some time with you again. sometime lets people thank you for ah, ah, the claims of the king of the belgians leopold the 2nd to the congo were finally authorized by the leading european countries in 1885. in the very heart of the

african continent. a state under the rule of the belgian monarch was declared since the beginning, the congo free state was total, may him for the local population and functioned as a universal concentration camp. the majority of the population, including women and children, were forced to work on the rubber plantations. those who failed to fulfill their quota were beaten and mutilated. to keep the congolese people under control, the king set up the so called for spook leak, which were punitive detachments that cast terror on the captured country and its inhabitants. fearing that their subordinates would simply waste bullets hunting for wild animals, the officers demanded that the soldiers gave an answer for every bullet used. and as proof presented a chop hand of an african. it was not uncommon when trying to justify the use of

the ammunition, the colonist amputated the hands of not only those who were dead, but also of those who were kept alive. the atrocious exploitation of the congo turned into a real genocide in only 20 years. the policy of the belgian lead to the death of nearly 10000000 people alongside the holocaust, that genocide of the congo population is considered to be one of the grimmest pages in the history of mankind. ah, a friend who's coming you up with a. what? a mirror with

somebody to love me, but she was using yeah, yeah, yeah. i think with why did you guys going to have that up with the wouldn't read that way. anything that i beat was a lot to shift left in things you could see it was a lot that you like to be with training officials in their western backers. and honestly tell us that ukraine is experiencing extreme shortages of just about everything. however, there is no shortage of shame was propaganda generated for western public consumption. and it should be no surprise. ukraine is as corrupt as ever

a breaking news on the 7 people are killed and nearly a dozen more injured in the shooting jerusalem synagogue. they attack confirmed as a terror acts by israeli police that happened holocaust, a girl that was an enemy multiple walker, which is systems strike on monday and he follows russian troops, a strong code of ukrainian forces. and i don't yet.