What If Everyone Froze for 1,000 Years? | eJOY English
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Rise and shine!
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You've been asleep for 1,000 years!
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And the view outside
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is not how you remembered it.
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Trees,
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wildlife,
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fresh air, fresh water.
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Oh, right.
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This is WHAT IF.
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And here's what would happen if everyone froze for 1,000 years.
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Rising temperatures,
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rising sea levels,
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declining air quality,
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more extreme weather,
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more animal extinctions,
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more diseases.
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These are just a few of the consequences
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we can expect
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if we continue to pollute the Earth.
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And our time to act is quickly running out.
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So what can we do
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if we want to save our planet,
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and fast?
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Strangely enough,
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the best thing to do might be nothing.
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Not "sit back and watch the world burn", nothing.
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But everyone going to sleep
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and doing nothing for 1,000 years,
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while the world repairs itself
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from all the damage we've done.
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We can pretty much guarantee that Earth will be better off.
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But can we guarantee that you'll wake up?
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Sweet dreams.
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There are almost 300 cryogenically frozen individuals in the United States,
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and 50 in Russia.
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And yet, no one has ever been revived from cryosleep.
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The hope is that the technology to wake people up from cryosleep
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will be available sometime in the near future.
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"Wait, what?"
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The idea behind cryonics
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is that humans can be preserved at super low temperatures,
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and later be restored to full health.
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Support for cryonics is based on the fact that many living things,
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including human embryos,
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can be successfully cryopreserved and revived.
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Existing cryopreservation techniques
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can even preserve the fine structure of the brain.
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However, we can't unfreeze a brain
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and make it work again
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yet.
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But suppose we perfected the process,
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and made it possible to cryogenically preserve
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our world's population of 8 billion people.
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Where would we put everybody?
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The most practical setup
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would be to have cryosleep chambers in big facilities around the world.
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This would make it easier to respond
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to any technical difficulties that might arise,
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while also protecting people from the inevitable decay of our infrastructure.
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But it's not like every human-made structure
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would fall apart and disappear,
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because not everyone would be asleep.
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We'd need some volunteers,
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appointees, or "lucky" winners of a draw
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to keep everything running smoothly.
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Australian geneticist Ian Franklin
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and American biologist Michael Soulé
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suggest that you need at least 500 people
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to maintain a stable population
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with enough genetic variety.
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But with most of the world's
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population in cryosleep,
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our impact on the planet would be rolled back.
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Global warming would continue for another 40 years after we go to sleep.
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But within a few decades,
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our homes would break down.
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And within 100 years,
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wood structures would be gone,
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and steel structures would begin to rust.
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Our cities would start to fill with plants,
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trees, and vines.
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And new rivers would form,
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since subway tunnels would flood
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without pumps working to keep the water out.
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After a few hundred years,
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many species of plants and animals
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would bounce back to their original levels,
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you know, before we evolved and took over the planet.
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After 500 years,
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the forests would be the healthiest they've been in the last 10,000 years.
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When we'd finally wake,
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1,000 years in the future,
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we wouldn't recognize the world outside.
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The planet would be lush and green.
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But our homes and most of our cities would be gone.
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There'd be lots of rebuilding to do once everyone awakes.
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But it wouldn't go back to the way things were.
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The whole reason why the Earth's population went into cryosleep
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was to repair our planet.
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We'd likely put strict laws and policies in place,
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to ensure that our new way of life
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doesn't waste our critical second chance.
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After all, we'd still have some poignant reminders of our toxic legacy.
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It would take more than 1,000 years
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for our carbon dioxide levels to return to normal,
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while radioactive material and long-lasting organic chemicals
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could be around for much longer.
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Microplastics, for example, will still exist
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hundreds of millions of years from now,
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unless we find a way to help them decompose.
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While "sleeping off"
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the effects of climate change sounds like a relatively easy way
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to undo the damage we've caused to our planet,
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we probably won't have the technology to do it anytime soon.
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But can we really afford to wait?
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The consequences of climate change
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are already causing major problems around the world.
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Are you prepared for a lot more extreme weather?
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Do you know how to survive a tsunami or an earthquake?
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Well, we’ve got some tips for you on our new show,
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HOW TO SURVIVE,
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so be sure to check it out.
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And if you're looking for a more hypothetical take on survival,
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like a timeline to human extinction,
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well, that's a story for another WHAT IF.
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What If Everyone Froze for 1,000 Years?

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Intermediate
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Science & Technology
Rise and shine! You've been asleep for 1,000 years! And the view outside is not how you remembered it. Trees, wildlife, fresh air, fresh water. Oh, right.
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