Episode 4: Becoming Arctic, Becoming Human
Episode Length: 31:23
Focus
What is the Arctic Circle, why is it continually moving, and when and why did humans began living in the Arctic
Location
Iceland
Keywords
Arctic Circle, human settlement patterns, technology, earth science, history
Episode Outline
These outlines are intended to help you locate ideas and topics more easily, but these are narrative episodes with many interlocking themes and ideas, so you may want to share segments that cross multiple points in the outline.
MINUTES: 00:00 - 05:34
Arctic Circle marks where there’s 24 hours of light and 24 hours of dark twice a year:
Not a fixed position on the planet
Artists made a large concrete ball on the island of Grimsey in Iceland to mark the location of the Arctic Circle
05:35 - 10:54
Arctic Circle moves because of the Earth’s axis—movement changes the amount of the planet that goes into total light and total dark:
Arctic Circle will move north of Grimsey in a few years
10:55 - 13:09
Other forces affect the Arctic Circle, too, including the moon and the movement of the Earth’s crust.
13:10 - 17:00
Axial tilt is also said to impact climate change but human-caused warming is happening at lightning speed compared to axial tilt.
BREAK
17:01 - 22:14
Why did people settle in the Arctic?
People have been living in the Arctic for more than 32,000 years
First migration people out of Africa stayed south of the Arctic Circle
22:15 - 26:07
Next exodus of people from Africa went on to settle the globe, including the Arctic:
People who settled the Arctic survived and thrived because of changes in technology
26:08 - 31:23
A change in cognitive development in humans may also have allowed humans to live in places where they hadn’t been able to before:
People chose the Arctic because they could but they also needed resources and tools to live there successfully