No video :(

Watching for nuclear attack in the Arctic

Подписаться 6 млн

Просмотров 552 тыс.

50% 1

In the far north of Canada sit the DEW Line stations: "Distant Early Warning". Built in the 1950s, these were the sites that would have sounded the alarm if the Soviet Union ever attacked North America. Or at least, they were until they went obsolete just a few years later.
This video relies on public domain archive footage from:
DEW Line Story (1958):
archive.org/details/dew_line_...
archive.org/details/dew_line_...
Atlas the ICBM (1957):
archive.org/details/342SFP005...
And is based on the research of:
Louis Isemann, James. (2018). To detect, to deter, to defend: the Distant Early Warning (DEW) line and early cold war defense policy, 1953-1957. krex.k-state.edu/dspace/bitstr... [PDF]
Schlosser, E. (2009). Command and Control. [amzn.to/2sQd6Fq (aff. link)]
Edited by Michelle Martin / @onthecrux
🟥 MORE FROM TOM: www.tomscott.com/
(you can find contact details and social links there too)
📰 WEEKLY NEWSLETTER with good stuff from the rest of the internet: www.tomscott.com/newsletter/
❓ LATERAL, free weekly podcast: lateralcast.com/ / lateralcast
➕ TOM SCOTT PLUS: / tomscottplus
👥 THE TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES: / techdif

Опубликовано:

1 июл 2018

Ссылка:

Скачать:

Готовим ссылку...

Добавить в:

Мой плейлист

Посмотреть позже

Комментарии : 365

@TomScottGo 6 лет назад

I did ask the military if I could go inside; they said no. I also asked our tour guide (Eileen, from last week's video) if we could get closer; the road to it was blocked with snow. If only I'd been there later in the year...!

@quackcement 6 лет назад

very good vid

@thomasluke1000 6 лет назад

Love your vids!! 👍👍

@thomasluke1000 6 лет назад

Ram Karlo haha

@MrBigStuff 6 лет назад

2 Weeks ago?

@AKIPOPOPOPOOON 6 лет назад

Tom Scott very interesting and informative video

@KyleLi 6 лет назад

We've got sound, now sight. Next tom's going to be tasting nuclear weapons just to make sure.

@patrickselwood 6 лет назад

Nuclear Weapons are Bumpy to the Touch: Things you might not know.

@IstasPumaNevada 6 лет назад

He could have a sip of heavy water (deuterium oxide) with no ill effect. It apparently tastes slightly sweet. Though of course that wouldn't make for a good video in this format.

@Colopty 6 лет назад

Might wish to smell them too.

@QuantumLeclerc 6 лет назад

Smelling Nuclear Launches from the Top of the World

@maxnoerenberg6370 6 лет назад

Cody's Lab tasted heavy water with no effect, even though he drank just a little flask full!

@ByteMe619 6 лет назад

He’s listened for nuclear detonations, and now he’s watching for them. Tom Scott, out eternal guardian.

@MrRtkwe 6 лет назад

Watching would be more like the satellites in orbit that watch for the flash of a nuclear detonation/rocket launch.

@dragoncurveenthusiast 6 лет назад

eternal? Does he know that already? It might surprise him.

@rpgllama3036 4 года назад

I mean, he’s better than a lot of alternatives.

@The1Helleri 6 лет назад

I guess for the people stationed there it really was a cold war.

@neeha9449 3 года назад

I'd be dead in that cold war 😂

@timswift3206 2 года назад

Cool video. I actually worked on the North Warning System as a US Air Force contractor in 1992. I was there monitoring Canadian contractors when they put the new radar dome together in Tuktoyaktuk as well as a lot of other locations. The guys that still worked at the D.E.W. Line stations weren't too crazy about us. A big difference between the DEW Line radars and the NWS radars is that the NWS radars are unattended.

@RealFaodail Год назад

That’s so cool you worked there! ( I’m not being sarcastic, it is actually really cool you worked there).

@Izandaia 6 лет назад

Listening for nuclear tests, watching for nuclear attack... Now we just need smelling for nuclear mining, tasting for nuclear healing, and feeling for nuclear dancing. At the top of the world.

@bananya6020 4 года назад

"this bomb's dance music is fire"

@Arkantolas 3 года назад

dancing bomb, won't fly long, full of uranium!

@maxximumb 6 лет назад

Another interesting video from Scott of the Arctic.

@DavidOfWhitehills 6 лет назад

How very amundsening.

@oscarbear1043 5 лет назад

Don’t be so Reckless.

@bananya6020 4 года назад

Hmm. i wonder if Scott of New Zealand will make the next video

@adalaza 6 лет назад

Loving your Canada tour.

@Konym 6 лет назад

Tom Scott videos always cheer me up, no matter the topic. That's how good he is at putting videos and explanations together. Thanks Tom!

@Fs3i 6 лет назад

I always wonder if figures like the $2bn in the video are adjusted for inflation...

@OF01975 6 лет назад

Fly you mean $0.5bn

@tjeulink 6 лет назад

+Rob Spagrenetti he's talking in canadian dollars.

@MattsAwesomeStuff 6 лет назад

27 radar stations and camps were built from materials flown in by aircraft for $500,000,000. A few years ago, a 100 mile long gravel road to Tuk was built for $300,000,000. If the former isn't adjusted for inflation, it's a hell of a bargain. The bombers themselves cost a billion apiece.

@steckelton717 6 лет назад

which all does not answer the question ^^' After reading some of his article, I guees the cost has not been adjusted for inflation, since neither in the article, nor on the wikipedia anything of taking this adjustment by the writers has been stated. If I did the maths and translation right (in german we don't have the same billion and that fucks with my head way to often) and the site is correct, $0.5bn would be $4,693,843,283.58. :)

@ObjectsInMotion 6 лет назад

Steckelton signification figures please! If the source data is only one signification figure its just plain wrong to include 12 in the answer

@HippoDrones 6 лет назад

Fantastic that you share this stuff with us Tom, keep it up mate! :-)

@ESmyth-nu7ug 5 лет назад

Nice video!! I truly love short and sweet stuff like this. Thanks

@jaihayes9647 6 лет назад

I swear Tom ages at an incomprehensible speed

@_Egitor 6 лет назад

Looking good Tom! Great vids as always crew :)

@Sololop 3 года назад

There's not just the DEW line. There are also more southern abandoned radar bases, part of the Pinetree line. Also, Canada has a military air base much further north, base ALERT. It's the most northern place in earth that is permentantly inhabited. It's purely militaristic and parts of it are hidden on Google maps. I've known a few air force that have been up there.

@pikminlord343 6 лет назад

Another great video!

@SonataOfPeace 6 лет назад

I LOVE that you're going around Canada Tom!

@19kc88 5 лет назад

The thing I like best about your videos is that you just start - no crap about how to subscribe or telling us what the video is about.

@neurotransmissions 6 лет назад

DEW Line, eh? So that's why Mountain Dew is so radioactive green. Haha, great video as usual.

@chowdachow3633 6 лет назад

What’d you say about by bruva?

@zacharyschafer9493 5 лет назад

Mountain Dew is actually piss yellow

@mcsabas1042 6 лет назад

Best channel ever!

@backwoodsjunkie08 6 лет назад

I love ur informative videos!!

@uvuvwevwevwevossasmaster3819 6 лет назад

Yes I love these kinds of videos!

@DiogeneDeSin0pe Год назад

Thanks for the video. Had the chance to visit two abandoned sites from the dew line, some big bunker like cubes of concrete that housed tracking equipment and crews.

@oGPoLa 6 лет назад

I Love this channel!

@Schwallex 6 лет назад

I hate this comment!

@oGPoLa 6 лет назад

Schwallex wow tell me more random mad guy.

@aidanwansbrough7495 6 лет назад

Very interesting stuff!

@wgatevans3017 6 лет назад

Top notch content

@bschuss1 6 лет назад

I actually just read the novel "Extraleben" (extra life) by German author Constantin Gillies. Part of it takes place in Kangerlussuaq, Greenland, and in the DEW station DYE-2 (or Ice Cap 1), although it's called differently in the book - due to creativity I guess. Never heard about the DEW line before, and now you post this :D

@brianartillery 6 лет назад

Nice one, Tom.

@washingtonian3996 4 года назад

I was actually there in Tuktoyaktuk in the last days of June 2018, but it was sunny and quite a bit warmer, I guess this was recorded earlier in the year than that. There wasn't even any snow in sight, and there was not even any sea ice. There is a hut there, made in a traditional Inuvialuit manner, where an elder tells a long, interesting story about the Inuvialuit people's history in the region around there and Inuvik, and how the introduction of the US and Canadian govts rapidly changed their way of life. The road to Tuk is now open, at least in the summer months. I'd recommend anyone with an interest in the Arctic and native cultures to drive up and visit! (Amazing drive by the way). :)

@greensteve9307 6 лет назад

Great vid

@cesariojpn 6 лет назад

Tom Scott shows future setting of the Fallout series. Fallout: Annexed Canada.

@lovelybraintoaster164 6 лет назад

It'd definitely be a unique setting. i'd like to see it.

@martin_in_the_alps 6 лет назад

What about Operation Anchorage?

@cesariojpn 6 лет назад

Martin S. Simulation, and wrong country-ish.

@mftarik1255 6 лет назад

Operation Anchorage *2*

@qui9 6 лет назад

Fallout New Canada confirmed! Todd Howard at it again!

@Fortzon 6 лет назад

Well tbf, they possibly couldn't know that nothing would happen in 5 years before ICBMs. They served their purpose, even though it was a short one. Hindsight is 20/20.

@mattpytlak 6 лет назад

Fortzon V2 rockets were striking Britain during WWII. It doesn’t take a genius to think that eventually someone will build a rocket big enough to travel across the world with a nuclear payload.

@pluto8404 6 лет назад

mattpytlak but accurately and survive reentry?

@skalty9868 6 лет назад

mattpytlak but they couldn’t know how soon and how effective the rockets would be.

@rasmusn.e.m1064 6 лет назад

Exactly. And if they weren't built, then the USSR could've attacked them before those five years passed. However, I think it matters to not ignore the costs of such an action, even if, or exactly *because* you agree with the payoff. I don't think Tom is aiming to throw flak at the construction of the line stations, but rather trying to paint a picture of our helplessness in the face of a potential war of total destruction.

@terrencedayton2788 6 лет назад

mattpytlak it wasn't just about a "big rocket", it was about the Soviets designing an accurate re-entry vehicle. And in the mean time the main threat was still the hundreds of strategic bombers of the Warsaw pact. Don't be so quick to criticize things you don't understand.

@SteveGouldinSpain 6 лет назад

I thought the shortest path to Russia was out of Sarah Palin's window.

@JimFortune 6 лет назад

Steve Gould Nah. Off her front porch. That's 3 feet closer.

@stephenhoughton632 6 лет назад

Alaska is the part of the US closest to Russia. If you want to be self righteous, it helps to be right.

@aeriumsoft 6 лет назад

the shortest path to russia is little diomede island. (there are actually like 100 people living there)

@mrravin763 5 лет назад

Your commets gould! Get it? Cause your name is gould.. Like gold? Ok I'll leave now.

@gordonrichardson2972 6 лет назад

In the previous video, I asked why Tom didn't mention the DEW line. Instead he does a whole video about it!

@Sophiebryson510 5 лет назад

Gordon Richardson good for you

@blauw67 6 лет назад

I just learned about the dew line yesterday, from an other channel, the historian guy

@markshinn 6 лет назад

I was watching that exact video an hour ago!

@Eira_ 6 лет назад

For a sec I was confused and thought this was a reupload of "Listening for Nuclear Tests at the Top of the World"

@StrokeMahEgo 6 лет назад

Eiri same

@batya7 6 лет назад

I remember seeing a film about the DEW Line in elementary school in the late 1960s. It was very impressive in my young mind and emphasized the threat from the Big Bear, but it wasn't quite "duck and cover'. How times have changed.

@sharks3010 2 года назад

"If it works it's obsolete." I think I'll be borrowing that. I work in IT with the focus on digital security, and that one short sentence manages to sum up what has taken me minutes to try and get a across to clients in the past. I wish I'd watched this video 3 yrs ago.

@isaacwood4071 6 лет назад

I though this video was re uploaded :DD

@beatricemarkwell7917 6 лет назад

iiIsaacii_ me too. I don't know why though

@isaacwood4071 6 лет назад

Beatrice Markwell Because he made listening for nuclear attacks

@mukrifachri 6 лет назад

Quite the throwback to Resolute then, Tom...

@rud 6 лет назад

And we still have a lot of ICBMs on the planet, ready to strike. I just visited the museum of the old Titan II ICBM. Spooky place (have it in my travel vlog), it was interesting to see, but at the same time got chills.

@NickyNiclas Год назад

Eerie to have this video recommended by RU-vid in 2022 with all that's happening in the world now.

@alec4672 3 года назад

My grandfather was a manager for a company that helped design and build distribution systems for local energy co-ops for towns in northern Minnesota and north Dakota and there company was hired by the federal government to work on a portion of this.

@AirborneSurfer 6 лет назад

Love the Eisenhower quote: "In the military, if it works, it's obsolete". True then as it is now, and with the added infosec implications since the 70s!

@zapfanzapfan 3 года назад

Was that a dig at new stuff that never works properly?

@Jellyfish146 Год назад

The beacons are lit! Gondor calls for aid

@Zwind95 6 лет назад

I think my statistics professor worked on DEW, he did something with northern radars overlooking the north pole

@captainawesome8632 6 лет назад

“I’ve learnt how to say the name of this bloody place now so I’m doing more than one video from here!!”

@AalbertTorsius 6 лет назад

"A story that I am not qualified to tell." Good call, Tom. It's as important to know when to talk as it is to know when to shut up.

@MonkeyJedi99 3 года назад

I really like that Eisenhower line, "Military technology. If it works, it's obsolete." - So true.

@rjung_ch Год назад

Just think, the amount of waste and natural habitat destruction based on a difference of ideology, it's still happening, it's just sick.

@zapfanzapfan 3 года назад

Things are generally obsolete by the time you are finished building it.

@markd3131 6 лет назад

There's a duplicate of one of these in southern Canada so that they can diagnose problems and test repairs before going all the way up north as you might expect.

@sagresnaw 6 лет назад

I use to work for the NWS in the LAB sites and a few times and the baffin island one and there's been a few times my bunk room would be looking at the giant tower for the RADAR and if you used the phone system there every 12 seconds or so you'd hear the static in the phone from the RADAR rotating around every 12 seconds.

@kaboomer13 6 лет назад

Tom, did you spend Canada Day in Canada? What did you do?

@Altoclarinets 6 лет назад

"the cold war might be over" key word: might

@realracer0353 3 года назад

I didn't know Tom needed to wear glasses a few years ago

@damientonkin 6 лет назад

Is this downtown Tuktoyaktuk or more the outskirts?

@dustinwrye 6 лет назад

I couldn't find that quote by Eisenhower. "If it works, it's obsolete" seems to be attributed, mostly, to Marshall McLuhan. Perhaps it was repeated by Eisenhower at some point...but my Google-foo could not find an instance of this happening.

@novan8r 6 лет назад

I thought you already uploaded this?

@RageNukes 6 лет назад

I'm surprised they even "allowed" you to record the outside

@buryurfear14 6 лет назад

I feel like Sue from "Life Below Zero" might have stayed at one of these locations for a short bit. Can anyone confirm?

@ardenkel1127 6 лет назад

"On this side of the pole" - you mean South? ;)

@JimFortune 6 лет назад

ArdenKel Everything on earth, except for the North Pole, is south of the North Pole. So, since we know he is somewhere on the DEW line "this side of the pole" tells you more than "South" does.

@ardenkel1127 6 лет назад

I know. That was the joke. I now added a face to clarify jocular intent.

@alexc6105 6 лет назад

Yer other south!

@pluto8404 6 лет назад

The earth is flat so your all wrong.

@jamesmnguyen 6 лет назад

Pluto : This conversation isn't even about the earth's shape. Don't bring in unnecessary arguments here.

@reid.7680 6 лет назад

Wasn't this posted last year?

@steckelton717 6 лет назад

Hi there :) I really enjoyed your video today, but you once again mentioned something that was mentioned in another video about canada before - the treatment of the indiginouse persons of canada. I fully understand (and actully find it quit positive) that you know and admit that you are not the person to tlak about this topic, but I wondered if you (or others reading this) know any good documentary on this topic, or social media accounts of the organisations & persons that are qualified to talk about this topic. Eventhough I know a little, I often feel that this topic is droped under the table quit heavily whilst talking about canada and it's history.

@agilemind6241 6 лет назад

The best place to start is probably the "Truth and Reconciliation Commission" it is very factual if a bit dry.

@steckelton717 6 лет назад

Agilemind Thank you! :)

@borderlandsgamer9001 6 лет назад

Is this a re-upload? I feel like I've seen this before

@borninjapan231 6 лет назад

How did u find the top of a sphere?

@jasonirwin4631 6 лет назад

tom you should think about doing a video on the USS Winston Churchill. the only active american warship named after a foreign leader and the only ship in the us navy that has a posting for a royal navy officer.

@DoctorX17 6 лет назад

Wow... $500mil, that would be about $4.4bil now -- that doesn't sound like a lot when it comes to military initiatives, usually they're in the hundreds of billions

@MarcCoteMusic 6 лет назад

I suppose that was before it was commonplace to quadruple the cost estimate for government work, then tell your workers to 'work' at a glacial pace so your 'unforeseeable' cost overruns would further triple the final bill. And the government, rather than suing their asses and charging them with fraud, just shrugs and pays up. That seems to be the way business is done now. Here in Quebec, at least.

@DoctorX17 6 лет назад

Marc Cote I would imagine something similar happens here in the US... wouldn't surprise me

@matt_b... 6 лет назад

I see a theme developing... a cold, wintry, snowy theme developing ...

Год назад

This site is now a bit more relevant then a few years ago, sadly.

@bonecanoe86 6 лет назад

There's a Rush song about this

@Hotdawgfilms 6 лет назад

The world weighs on my shoulders, but what am I to do...

@steckelton717 6 лет назад

To be fair, if it is about canada, in 92.5% of cases there will be a Rush song about it.

@ProximitySound 6 лет назад

And a Matt Good song!

@Gakulon 6 лет назад

Steckelton The drummer Neil Peart was inspired to make the song YYZ after hearing it in morse code while on a plane to the Toronto Airport, whose code is YYZ

@Zestyclose-Big3127 6 лет назад

was about to say "well now everything makes sense....apart from that kid on the missile"

@NeoRipshaft 6 лет назад

It's that the name of a Rush song?

@Nugcon 6 лет назад

**Russians go around the line**

@ThePrimevalVoid 6 лет назад

Worked for Germany in WWI.

@girf4233 6 лет назад

The Primeval Void and WW II

@Boedromion 6 лет назад

That tower with the two spherical buildings next to it kinda looks like an Armstrong Cannon.

@factsverse9957 6 лет назад

Tom Scott is like a short documentary BBC presenter or reporter.

@holdmybeer 6 лет назад

No access for Tom?? Im writing my representative right now.

@mtty1988 6 лет назад

Are they the same as fylingdale and the golf balls on the north york moors

@boredincan 6 лет назад

Have you deliberately releasing these videos at the same time as big world cup matches?

@cdw2468 6 лет назад

I’m getting deja vu with this video title...

@itaybron 6 лет назад

because war, war never changes

@Karaboo7 6 лет назад

Explain the era of gentleman's warfare then.

@poika22 5 лет назад

Clearly it did change in about 5 years' time.

@aDifferentJT 6 лет назад

Very much looking forward to “Smelling for Nuclear Attack at the Top of the World”

@geefreck 6 лет назад

Wolverine incoming

@JonatasAdoM 6 лет назад

Looking at the thumbnail it looks like a huge Playstation move.

@allien7987 6 лет назад

Hi Tom, just an FYI - the DEW line wasn’t anywhere near the Aleutians, which are a thousand miles to the south and west. I love your work, though - especially this trip to Canada.

@andymcl92 6 лет назад

Ah, was Tuktayaktuk (I'm having a guess at the spelling) where Tom did the video about the totally constructed writing system a few years ago?

@cmmartti 6 лет назад

Nope, I think that may have been Alert, or one of the other far-north towns in Nunavut.

@andymcl92 6 лет назад

Charles M Hmm, so why do I know the name...

@martijnholland1714 6 лет назад

5 October 1960Edit Radar equipment in Thule, Greenland mistakenly interpreted a moonrise over Norway as a large-scale Soviet missile launch. Upon receiving a report of the supposed attack, NORAD went on high alert. However, doubts about the authenticity of the attack arose due to the presence of Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev in New York as head of the USSR's United Nations delegation.[5][6][7]

@henryreinhart5912 4 года назад

Rememer in the 90's there was a big rock concert put on their for free i recall sponsored by some mass produced beer

@Snout007 6 лет назад

amazing places? more like: Amazing places with amazing stories.

@ianmelzer 6 лет назад

I wonder what Tom would look like in thick rim Ray Ban glasses like the RX5187 or RX5228, or frame-less glasses. The silver rectangle isn't really geek-sheek, just elderly geek.

@wisteela 6 лет назад

They're going to need it again soon!

@howard81 6 лет назад

Don’t forget that time in 1961 when NORAD invited the British RAF Bomber Command to try and sneak through the DEW line defences. The RAF flew four Vulcan bombers, one was “shot down” over Canada, the remaining three landed - completely unchallenged - in Newfoundland, one even getting as far as New York State..

@jonasknickenberg9895 5 лет назад

In Germany, the video title gets translated into German. That makes finding the video a lot harder, it'd be easier if the title would still be in English.

@user-kh4vk4yf1m 6 лет назад

Reminds me about the Wall from Song of Ice and Fire

@nitehawk86 6 лет назад

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory released 12 archived videos of nuclear blasts today. Coincidence, I think not.

@augurseer 4 года назад

Welcome to Canada

@demondwilson706 6 лет назад

Take a drink Everytime he inhales but does it small and quick to try and hide it

@Qwerasd 6 лет назад

Didn’t you already make this video? (Edit: oh wait I’m thinking of *listening* for nuclear bombs at the top of the world.)

@UrbanGhost-pv8ex 10 месяцев назад

this aged... interestingly.

@flightstatic4662 8 месяцев назад

ballooooon

@edoardoschnell 6 лет назад

You look like you're wearing relatively light clothes! I thought that the Arctic we're a much colder place... Isn't it so?

@BooglyBoot 6 лет назад

Next up: Smelling for Nuclear Radiation at the Top of the World, Feeling for Nuclear Warheads at the Top of the World, and Tasting for Nuclear Waste at the Top of the World.