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tv   The Travel Show  BBC News  February 3, 2024 4:30am-5:01am GMT

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you seeing it. we got some gold! chuckling continues how about that? how about that, my friend? he laughs what a way to experience alaska! so, this time, i'm carrying on myjourney through alaska to see how people here continue to adapt to the natural world around them... you really have to plan your life and your day—to—day routines around what nature will allow you to do that day. ..even when it is changing at pace... all this area that's collapsed, this was completely full of water, about 14 billion gallons — and it all rushed out underneath the glacier down intojuneau. there it goes, there it goes. onlookers gasp ..to discover how this remarkable corner of the world is shaped by nature.
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i'm in alaska's state capital ofjuneau. it's a place dominated by nature, which can have a big impact here — as i'm about to find out. i've been reliably informed that, given the terrain around here, these things are basically like taxis. got an eight—minute flight. i've never been in a helicopter! let's go! i'm meeting up with university of alaska southeast scientists, eran hood and abby watts. oh, man, i'm so excited! they've invited me to tag along as they conduct their research on the changing environment here. oh, yes, here we go! just look out there.
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0h, we're going to be in for such a fun time. so, we're just coming into view now of mendenhall glacier, which is about 13 miles wide — incredible. and it's one of the many thousands of glaciers in alaska. this basin that we're coming into — all this area that's collapsed — this was completely full of water. and it all rushed out underneath the glacier down into juneau. last summer, water amounting to about 30,000 0lympic swimming pools surged from the glacier down intojuneau... 0h! there it goes, there it goes. onlookers gasp
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..causing catastrophic damage and ripping homes from the banks of the river. with the glacierjust 13 miles from downtown juneau, the question for locals now is what the future may hold — particularly amid a changing climate. so, it sounds like these glaciers are losing a fair bit of water. yeah, that's right. where we're walking today, the ice is probably thinning 11—5 metres per year. yeah? so, if you were to go to the edge of the glacier and write your name on the wall, and come back the next year, you'd see that where you wrote your name was maybe five metres above your head. because the ice isjust thinning in place, and losing so much mass. and that must be an awful lot of water over the year? five metres, on a space like this. it's a tremendous amount of water, and that's why glaciers in coastal alaska
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are one of the largest contributors to global sea level rise. abby studies changes in the glacier with a drone. but it doesn't always go completely to plan. there it is! oh, my gosh, there it is! oh, and there — it's broken. it's going into the crevasse. we had a little crash. got a little bit of a problem. minor damage, yeah. 0ccupational hazard. we've got a spare prop. and what exactly was it that you were mapping, then? what were you trying to map, anyway? yeah, so we were trying to map the basin. we are trying to get an idea of where the water level is at. so, theoretically, it's at its lowest point. it looks like it's pretty low. and so, if we know what the surface topography is when there's no water in the basin, or a low amount,
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then we can calculate how much water is in the basin when it's full. and so, then we can kind of better predict how much water is going to be draining. the problem is, we don't know what the surface looks like beneath all of those icebergs. the scale of this is so large, there's nothing we can do here to stop this basin from filling. people can do things downstream to build protective walls, but even that's very expensive, and we're not sure, in the end, if it will make the difference. year to year, it's very hard to predict what's going to happen. so, we're pretty much done for the afternoon. and one thing i've learned isjust... ice rumbles you can just hear it there. that is so much icejust falling down, and it's... that impact is just so awesome. and i mean that in a way that it's amazing, it's beautiful, but it's also quite terrifying. when you learn about the amount of water that accumulates,
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and then, rushes down intojuneau — makes me realise just how much of an impact the natural world, the natural landscape around alaska can have on the people here. but nature has also brought wealth to this area. juneau lies at the northern end of the vast 17—million acre tongass national forest. distant cheering the great alaskan lumberjack show in ketchikan, in the south of the forest, tells the story of that alaskan cultural icon which sprung from here — the lumberjack. right — show time! crowd cheers the show combines the history of the lumberjack with what is known as timbersports — athletic wood—cutting competition.
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see how fast he went up there? it's like watching spider—man! logging was a big component in making this area prosperous. after the industry came here in the early 1900s, it quickly became a key logging hub of america. today, recently—updated restrictions mean much of the tongass remains undisturbed — but the legend of the lumberjack lives on. but i wanted to see how others here have managed to carve out a different harmonious balance with nature. so, i've returned tojuneau. alaska was actually owned by the russians until 1867, who then sold it to the united states for $7.2 million. but, of course, there have been indigenous people here much longer than the russians.
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along the harbour, dozens of specially made totem poles are being put up to celebrate indigenous communities here, which make up about a fifth of the alaskan population. jno. jno didrickson. qasa alom, lovely to meet you. good to meet you. i love these totem poles. what do they represent? these would be representing all the clans of southeast alaska. i've done a totem pole with master carver mick beasley, and i can show you, if you would like. i'd absolutely love that, yeah. all right. so, tell me a little bit about your clan. my clan is the l'uknax.adi clan. and the l'uknax.adi translates to "raven coho" — coho is a species of salmon, also known as silver salmon. 0ur stories go back for millennia. of all the united states, alaska is the second state to have officially recognised
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indigenous languages — and hawaii is the first. has modern alaskan history always been so open to native stories, the indigenous clans? no, it hasn't. it has been a struggle to fight for native rights. this is what we call the l'uknax.adi pole. it's the raven coho pole. it's beautiful. it's so intricate. tell me the story of it, what is it showing? so, at the bottom here, what we have is the female. and we know she's a female because she has what's called a lip plug. and she would represent the matriarch of the l'uknax.adi pole. the red figure just above her is the coho. so, since we are raven coho, that's what that is. the next figure up, the black figure, is a representation
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of raven, who has many stories of him — he's a trickster and a thief, and a liar, and all other things. but on top is a white frog. back in 1905, the l'uknax.adi in dry bay were building a new house. and, while they were doing that, what they found was this dead, frozen frog. and they put it aside so that they could bury it later — you know, respect for all things is ingrained in our culture. and they continued working on the house, and, while they were doing that, the frog came back to life. it thawed out, basically. and so, taking that as a good sign, a good omen, we commissioned the white frog and have adopted it into our clan as a symbol of us, the raven coho, the l'uknax.adi. a lot of the stories that you're talking about are grounded in
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nature, aren't they, from indigenous clans? they are. this land has... ..been inhabited since time immemorial, and there is no way to separate yourself from nature. and so, things that happen here and knowing the land, and harvesting from it, and cultivating it is really a big part of the indigenous cultures here. nature connects deeply in alaska. i'm leaving juneau to head two hours north of anchorage — where the population is sparse, and where people seeking that connection to nature will make big sacrifices to be truly amongst it. you made it. i made it, made it. are you ready for this? i'm ready for it. lovely to meet you. how's it going? nice to meet you. it'll be a little uncomfortable fora minute, but then,
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we'll be in a warm cabin. 0h, sounds great, let's get going. let's get you ready to climb in. i'm chilled to the bone. kyle and craig morgan live part—time off grid — with no mains electricity or running water. we're heading an hour off—road through forest and swampland. all right, buddy. yeah. here we go. go! no—one goes on this trail but us, this time of year. yeah! this is our trail. this is real off—road! woohoo! my driver is craig, who, nearly a decade ago, bought the land we're heading to, and, with his son, kyle, recently opened it up to some select paying visitors. but since everything's froze... yeah? ..i'm going to try this. let's see, hope this works. oh, yeah, we're good. ah! never in doubt! it's not too rough. they laugh
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craig also happens to be a huge country star here in the us, having racked up millions of streams of his music and had a string of top—ten country hits. there's a fella that lives back there, he said, "yeah, apparently some famous country singer "bought some property back there." he said, "oh, he'll be a quitter. "he won't make it." seven years later, i'm teaching him stuff. 0h, brilliant! craig laughs how do you know where you're going? before i got the place, i literally studied the map so much i knew exactly where i needed to walk before we drove it. done it so much now, we know. but would you say that is one of the key things to living among nature like this, is you've got to respect it? you've got to know exactly what you're getting yourself into? 100%. you can't be too confident. you gotta always appreciate the brutality of nature.
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especially out here. here we go, down the hill. ifeel like i'm on one of those roller—coasters. craig laughs you're enjoying this, aren't you?! yes, iam. yeah, i can tell in yourface! i'm one of those guys that thinks the faster you go, the less bumpy it is. so, this is it? we're here. we're here now! we made it. we made it! craig laughs woohoo! i feel really good today. and i'vejust had a little explore. we've got an outhouse over there, but it's one of those places
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where there's no running water. so, if you do your business — i'll leave the rest to your imagination. also got a shower over there. if you want to use it, though, you have to collect your own water from the lake and put it in the pump. so, this place is really remote, and you've really got to be self—reliant. hey, team! good morning. how are we doing today? morning. get some good rest? yeah, that was one of the best nights, honestly. good, good. so fun. what have you got here, then, on this site? well, the cabin you were staying in, we built after we bought the property. this little cabin here, with the green roof — that was the only thing that was on the property when we first bought it back in 2016. and we've added everything else that you see since then. so, how do you power all this? our primary power source is solar. and i can see that you're so well set up here, but realistically, how long could you actually be out here, self—sufficient? indefinitely.
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yeah, pretty well indefinitely. in an environment like this — it's such a harsh environment — the three most critical things are shelter, water, and food. we have water, tonnes of food sources — animals, all kinds of vegetation — there's lots here, yeah. we could live here indefinitely. i'll grab that, if you want to grab just one if we encounter moose we have the means to look after the situation. i'll grab that, if you want to grab just one just one of these, 0k. yeah. 0h, let's get those guns going! now, i had been told i'd need to catch my own lunch... ..but i hadn't expected to be doing it like this. is this safe? it is.
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it is — are you ready? er, i guess so. take your step. you sure? yeah, come on out here with me. ahh! they laugh yeah. oh, man, this is so weird! i can see stuff underneath! we're just going to go right out here. it doesn't take much. of course, you should only ever try this if you're with an experienced guide — like kyle. 0h, cool! motor revs yeah! oh, yeah, it really spun out! a little thicker than i thought it was. yeah, well, that's good! yeah, that's good. we'll go over here and drill yours. yeah, ok, you can do that. what's the wager? if i catch a fish before you, you're gutting. all right?
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that sounds good. yeah. and if i catch a fish before you, you're gutting. you'll still gutting. throw this one back at you. they laugh being here, iappreciate just how much of an effort comfort is. here, you're directly related, you're directly connected with the effort and energy that you put out — you receive that back. so, when you have to go to the lake and drill a hole in the ice just to get your water, you have a lot more of appreciation for that when it's done, and you have it. you have to harmonise with it. you really have to be in tune and in sync with what nature is doing. and you plan your life and your day—to—day routines around what nature will allow you to do that day. this place actually has a little bit more of a special
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meaning to us, because we purchased this property on the same year that my little brother actually passed away. he was 19 years old, and it was in 2016. he passed away in a boating accident. erm, and that really wasjust a tough time for our family. it was... it was the hardest thing that me and my siblings have ever had to go through. what we did is... ..we turned to each other. and then, we started coming out to this place, because my little brother loved the outdoors. he was as into it as iwas, erm, loved it. and so, this place became kind of a place of refuge for us, and we could all come out here and be together, and kind of disconnect from everything that was going
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on, and, you know, remember, and be here. it really is amazing, what being out here in this environment and being out away from everything will do. i don't think there's anything that could pull my family apart, especially after that. yeah. thanks for sharing that story. y—you're welling me up, mate, honestly, it's... yeah, well, it's a tough situation to go through, you know, and this is the way life is. you've got a bite? not any more! might be a bite, but... oh, yes. ..it�*s like i'm playing ball. yeah. this may be a day that the fish win. # ijust climbed out of a cottonwood tree #
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# i was running from some honey bees # drip dryin�* in the summer breeze # afterjumpin�* into calico creek # i was walkin�* down an old dirt road # past a field of hay that had just been mowed # man, i wish you'd just left me alone...# so, that is the end of this incredible trip through the northwest of america, seattle and alaska. and what an unbelievable journey it has been. the temperature here is cold, the environment unforgiving — but the people are warm, respectful, and resourceful. and it's that reverence for nature here that has clearly helped shape their identity and helped them to survive and thrive. spending time with kyle and craig, i've also realised
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that it has a healing element, as well. being in this environment has helped bring them together — and that is clearly going to stay with me for a long time. # past a field of hay that had just been mowed # man, i wish you'd just left me alone # cos i was almost home...# hello, thanks forjoining me. time for our weather outlook for the next seven to ten days, and the thinking remains the same as far as the outlook�*s concerned. it'll be mild over the coming days, very blustery with some rain at times, potentially very heavy in the north—west of scotland. let's take a look at the satellite picture, and you can see this big arc of cloud, these weather systems
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riding around an area of high pressure which is towards the south. the high pressure basically deflects the weather systems to the north and the low pressures, which have been slamming into scandinavia over the last two days. look at these isobars — severe gales blowing into norway, lots of snow. it's also very blustery across the uk and it'll remain so over the following days. if you take a look at this pressure gradient from these isobars, you can see there's quite a number of them and that's an indication of those stronger winds. now, in terms of the weather, i think some sunshine for northern ireland, northern england, scotland, too. showers here, blustery ones. to the south, we have a weather front here and i think thicker cloud with some outbreaks of rain at times but the thermometer will indicate temperatures of around 13—111, whereas we're closer to, say, 7—10 across scotland. now, saturday night into sunday, that weather front sort of sinks relatively far south, just hugging the south coast. cooler air briefly reaches scotland, so maybe even a touch of frost in the highlands early on sunday morning
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but very quickly, the south—westerlies through the morning develop once again. another weather front — this is the next one — sweeping into northwestern parts of the uk and, actually, this weather front here will be responsible for some very heavy rain in western and northwestern scotland sunday night and into monday. but this is sunday so, often cloudy, some outbreaks of rain. cooler in the north, 7 degrees, but in the south of the country, it's closer to around 12 or 1a celsius. now onto monday's weather forecast now. this weather front very potent. a lot of moisture, very heavy rain — in fact, the met office is indicating the possibility of 50mm quite widely across scotland here, perhaps 100—150—plus millimetres of rain across this part of the world. and again, another blustery one wherever you are across the uk, but i think across the bulk of northern ireland, england and wales, rather than heavy rain, it'll be just thick layers of cloud with dribs and drabs of rain carried on that
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fairly strong wind. and into tuesday, it's more of the same, so weather fronts grazing northern parts of the uk, this one perhaps sinking a little bit further south. milder air across england and wales. but one crucial thing does start to happen tuesday into wednesday. notice the white here — those are wintry showers. notice the wind direction — it's starting to come in, rather than from the southwest, from the northnorthwest, so from a colder source. but that does mean that temperatures will start to ease over the next few days. in fact, we're down to 3 degrees in lerwick, 6 in stornoway by tuesday, and that is an indication of colder air spreading across the uk. it's very uncertain at the moment — we're not sure how cold it is going to get — but sometime around wednesday and thursday and certainly towards the weekend, those temperatures will start to dip and, yes, there is a possibility of some wintry weather reaching the uk but it's still a long way off so, at the moment, we'll be hedging our bets — we'll call it
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"perhaps turning wintry" at some point later on next week. that's it from me. bye— bye.
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live from london, this is bbc news. the united states launches strikes on 85 targets in syria and iraq, against iran—linked militias. the strikes were in retaliation to a drone attack last week on a us military base injordan which killed three soldiers. presidentjoe biden says the united states does not seek conflict in the middle east, but warned "if you harm an american, we will respond." hello, i'm lucy grey. welcome to the programme. the united states has launched strikes on targets in syria and iraq in response to a drone attack last weekend, on a us military base that killed three soldiers.
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us central command says its forces hit 85 targets in total. white house national security spokesmanjohn kirby added that three facilities were hit in iraq and four were hit in syria. the airstrikes were against iran's islamic revolutionary guards corp quds force and affiliated militia groups. these are new pictures released by us central command these are new pictures released by us central command of b—1 bombers taking off to carry out the airstrikes. well, presidentjoe biden issued a statement on the strikes, saying:
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well, the strikes are in retaliation of a deadly drone attack on us forces last sunday.

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