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Svalbard, a desolate archipelago in the far reaches of the Arctic Ocean north of Norway, became inextricably entwined with climate science in 1930 when a landmark research paper was published on rising temperatures on its largest island, Spitsbergen. This ruminative video essay traces Svalbard’s complex history over the past century, during which it has been a hub for science, war and global commerce, and a reflection of the potential for human cooperation and destruction.
Video by Studiocanoe
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History of science
How we came to know the size of the Universe – and what mysteries remain
26 minutes
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Ecology and environmental sciences
Join endangered whooping cranes on their perilous migratory path over North America
6 minutes
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Art
Defying classification, fantastical artworks reframe the racism of Carl Linnaeus
8 minutes
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Environmental history
In Kazakhstan, ‘atomic lakes’ still scar the landscape decades after Soviet nuclear tests
13 minutes
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History of science
Meet the Quaker pacifist who shattered British science’s highest glass ceilings
14 minutes
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Nature and landscape
‘A culture is no better than its woods’ – what our trees reveal about us, by W H Auden
5 minutes
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History of science
Ideas ‘of pure genius’ – how astronomers have measured the Universe across history
29 minutes
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Meaning and the good life
Why Orwell urged his readers to celebrate the spring, cynics be damned
11 minutes
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Earth science and climate
Images carved into film form a haunting elegy for a disappearing slice of Earth
3 minutes