Vostok Station · Antarctica · 78° South
Our journey begins at the coldest place on Earth.
Turn the sound up. Press Begin to hear the wind over the plain.
Stop 1 · The ice core
At Vostok it is so cold that snow never melts. Every year a new layer lands on top of last year's. Layer on layer on layer, for hundreds of thousands of years.
Drill down, and you drill back in time.
Stop 2 · Trapping the air
Fresh snow is fluffy. It is mostly air! As more snow lands on top, the old snow underneath gets squeezed… and squeezed…
Squeeze it enough and the air can't escape. It is sealed inside the ice as tiny bubbles. A time capsule of air!
Stop 3 · The lab
Scientists cut a slice of the core, crush it inside a sealed jar, and the ancient air fizzes out. Nobody has ever breathed this air. Not even a mammoth.
Then they measure it: how much carbon dioxide (CO₂) is in there?
Stop 4 · 420,000 years of air
The line is CO₂ in the air, from 420,000 years ago (left) to today (right). Up and down, up and down… like breathing.
Stop 5 · Every time it got high…
Stop 6 · Why so high?
Stop 7 · The carbon cycle
Plants breathe in CO₂ to grow. Animals, soil and fires breathe it out. The sea soaks it up and lets it go again. Every year about 770 billion tonnes goes round and round.
In, out. In, out. For 10,000 years it balanced, and the line stayed flat.
Stop 8 · The carbon budget game
Every year we send about 40 billion tonnes of CO₂ into the air. Forests and the sea mop up about half. Press a tool to put it to work. The number on each tool is how much it cuts.
Stop 9 · Back to the surface
Hands up! Then one of you comes and presses the answer.
0 of 4 answered
Stop 10 · Back to Vostok
This year's air is being buried under this year's snow. In about 3,000 years it seals into a bubble. Whoever drills it up will read what we did.
Your bubble
That year's snow will bury that year's air. What number will your bubble say?
One tool
The ice remembers everything.
Now you know what it will remember.