- 5/18/2025
Scandinavia with Simon Reeve episode 1
Category
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TravelTranscript
00:00I'm a long way north, about as far north as people live on planet Earth.
00:14This is the Norwegian archipelago Svalbard.
00:17I'm travelling south from here, around one of the most beautiful and interesting regions
00:22of the world, Scandinavia.
00:26On the rugged edge of Europe, I'm visiting five Nordic countries, travelling through
00:34glorious forests and spectacular fjords.
00:37I think Norway has a solid claim to be the most beautiful country in the world.
00:42I mean, look at it!
00:45Wow, a dog's pulling a car.
00:48It's more than half a million square miles of extremes.
00:51This is low, man, this is low.
00:54This is my life.
00:56Somebody's holding on to me, yeah?
01:01Oh, breathe, breathe.
01:03Off we go.
01:04I'm hoping to understand how they've built some of the happiest societies on the planet.
01:08Hey guys.
01:09Good morning.
01:10Good morning.
01:11And who've we got here?
01:13Morning.
01:14Hello.
01:15Welcome, welcome.
01:17This is the most traditional Danish lunch I have seen.
01:21Yes.
01:22And why they now feel they're in the firing line.
01:25The water park is also a nuclear bunker.
01:28Yes, very much so.
01:30They are preparing to defend Finland.
01:36Bloody hell.
01:38You're wearing these in urban Sweden?
01:42Yes.
01:43There's another side to Scandinavia.
01:46Ready to fire!
01:56MUSIC PLAYS
02:03I'm travelling through the Scandi countries of Sweden, Denmark and Norway,
02:08and adding in the wider Nordic family as well, Finland and Iceland.
02:14I'm starting here, off the Svalbard archipelago,
02:17the most northerly outpost of Norway.
02:21Do you see it?
02:23I do, you know.
02:24Frida, what is it?
02:25So, it's a blue fox.
02:27A blue fox?
02:29Yeah.
02:30It's a genetic mutation in the polar foxes, and it's actually really rare.
02:34It's more rare to see a blue fox than to see a polar bear.
02:39Look at it, bouncing along.
02:41Yeah.
02:42You're smiling as well.
02:43Yeah, it's super nice.
02:45Frida Schappe left behind life as a nurse in mainland Norway
02:49to explore and protect the natural wonders of Svalbard
02:53on this scientific research boat.
02:55How often have you seen a blue fox?
02:58I've seen it three times, four times.
03:00Three? In how many years?
03:02I've been here almost eight years.
03:04Whoa!
03:05We are very lucky.
03:07You can clearly see the fox bolting up the hill just above three reindeer.
03:12There's loads more reindeer in the hillside.
03:17Scandinavians first came here in numbers to hunt reindeer and seals
03:21for their meat and skin, and even polar bears for their fur.
03:26Most of all, they came to plunder the riches of the ocean.
03:30Whale! Whale straight ahead.
03:36It was whales that first drew settlers here in the 1600s.
03:42There was a huge population of whales around Svalbard,
03:45and in one of the first great oil rushes,
03:48the whales were hunted for their oil to use in soaps and as a fuel in lamps.
03:54Thousands of whales were slaughtered.
03:58The fin whale is one of the largest animals ever.
04:02Unfortunately for the species, each can yield more than 1,000 gallons of whale oil,
04:06enough to fuel thousands of old lamps.
04:09Quick performance and then it's gone.
04:15Hence the hunting.
04:17But hunting bans were put in place on Svalbard from the 1950s.
04:22Numbers of polar bears and marine mammals, including whales,
04:25have increased dramatically over the decades.
04:28It's proved a simple but successful strategy.
04:31Turns out one of the best ways to conserve endangered animals
04:35is just to stop killing them.
04:38As an outpost of Scandinavia, Svalbard is a long way north,
04:43roughly halfway between the Norwegian mainland and the North Pole.
04:47The temperature up here can drop to minus 30.
04:50There are no trees. Hardly anything grows here.
04:54But there are people.
04:56Scientists, biologists, researchers and tourism industry workers.
05:00A couple of thousand hardy souls call this place home.
05:04So this is the settlement of Longyearbyen.
05:07It is the most northerly town in the world with more than 1,000 inhabitants.
05:15It's a little bit late now but in the morning Frida's going to show me around.
05:35This is very Svalbard, I think.
05:38Not a car park, but a skidoo park.
05:41Yeah, everyone has a snowmobile.
05:43When you moved here, what were some of the big surprises?
05:46It is a very tiny community.
05:48I mean, we have a hospital on the island, but it's very tiny
05:51and you don't want to take risks with newborn babies.
05:54So all the pregnant women, they get shipped down to the mainland, Norway,
05:58to give birth almost four weeks before.
06:02And, I mean, you can't really control where you die,
06:05but you can't be buried here even if you wanted to.
06:08You can't be buried here?
06:10Not at all, no.
06:11Oh, because?
06:12Yeah, because the permafrost won't decompose your body.
06:17So we've seen now over time as well that a lot of the whalers and fishers
06:21that have been buried many years ago,
06:24their caskets and bodies are just being pushed up by the permafrost.
06:30Lovely.
06:32You can't be born here and you can't be buried either,
06:35and life in between is spent in the freezer zone.
06:37So what keeps people here?
06:39It's raw, rugged, and there's adventure.
06:42And the Norwegians also sweeten the deal with low tax rates and no VAT.
06:46That's got to help.
06:48Wow, a dog's pulling a car.
06:51Is that training?
06:55It's far aboard.
07:00Norway has wanted to keep a viable community here.
07:03It's keen to maintain a strong presence.
07:07For decades, one of the main reasons that people were on Svalbard
07:12was mining,
07:15and this is one of the last coal mines on Svalbard.
07:22Coal from here fuelled the power station, which generates electricity,
07:26and it also helped create a strong local community of workers and families.
07:36Bent Jacobsen and hundreds of other miners have done the tough work.
07:40They're not for much longer.
07:42We're going to get in the car, we'll see.
07:44We're going to drive down on the low seam.
07:48How deep in the mountain are we now?
07:50We are six kilometres inside the mountain
07:53and we have 350 metres of mountain over our heads now.
07:56Flippin' heck.
07:58OK, let's go. Take a seat.
08:01All right.
08:05There is only one rule when we're driving.
08:08As long as you keep your head lower than the bar, you're fine.
08:11I was just planning on keeping my head lower than you.
08:14But the fun thing is when I have people in the mine,
08:17they start up here and then they're like this.
08:19Right, OK.
08:22All right, all right.
08:24I'm taking it seriously.
08:26Good. Ring the bell.
08:36Bloody hell, man, this is low, isn't it?
08:39No, it's quite high, actually.
08:41Really? Yeah.
08:45It's going to get low under the belt, so keep your head down.
08:49OK, now it's done. It's like this low.
08:51This is low, but this is low.
08:54But the thing is, when you start working here,
08:56either you love it or you hate it.
08:58There's nothing in between.
09:00And you loved it right from the beginning.
09:02This is my life.
09:13Oh, goodness. We're right at the end.
09:15Step out on the right side, I'll show you something.
09:17OK.
09:20This is actually like the mining tunnel.
09:23And actually here you see the coal seam.
09:28Grab a hand of coal if you want.
09:33This is the compressed value of sunlight and plants,
09:40flowers, trees.
09:42It's been your life, Ben.
09:44Yeah, it has.
09:46For so long.
09:48Yeah, but soon coming to an end.
09:52How do you feel about that?
09:54Yeah, of course it's sad.
09:56It's a long, proud tradition of miners,
09:59or mining, that's going to be gone.
10:02And the reason?
10:04First of all, we don't have actually enough good quality coal.
10:07That's one thing. And another one is the green shift is here also.
10:12Mining is not, what should I say, not very popular anymore.
10:17And so ends a tradition of mining,
10:20not just for you or your family, but for this community.
10:24Yeah, we are actually 70 guys that's out of work or out of a job.
10:30Yeah, when we're done.
10:32What will you do?
10:34I have no idea. We'll see.
10:36I'll probably get a job somewhere.
10:39The mine closure is tough for Bent and Svalbard.
10:43Despite a growing tourism industry, fewer people here are permanent residents.
10:47And that's not great news for Norway,
10:49which is desperate to maintain control over Svalbard.
10:52Because as the Arctic warms and melts,
10:55Svalbard's situated in a globally strategic position
10:58on an increasingly important shipping lane,
11:01with huge mineral resources and fishing in the ocean around.
11:04Other countries want a slice, including Russia.
11:07There are other international agreements.
11:09Norway is in charge of Svalbard,
11:12but it has to share Svalbard with other countries.
11:16That can lead to tensions.
11:18I'm off to meet the neighbours.
11:22Russians have been coming to Svalbard for centuries,
11:25hunting furs originally.
11:27In 1920, a treaty was signed in Paris giving Svalbard to Norway.
11:32But Russians are among those allowed to travel here without visas
11:35and to settle here.
11:37There are whole Russian towns.
11:39I have to say I'm feeling quite apprehensive about going to this community.
11:44It's called Barentsburg.
11:46This is a Russian outpost,
11:49a Russian base, a settlement,
11:52up here in the very far north.
11:56There were relations between the Russian settlement
12:00and the main Norwegian community here.
12:04And then Russia invaded Ukraine,
12:07and relationships here have got decidedly frosty.
12:12Russia recently downgraded Norway as a country
12:16from unfriendly to very unfriendly.
12:21Russia is the dominant power in the Arctic.
12:24President Putin has claimed as it melts,
12:27natural resources like oil and gas worth trillions will become available.
12:31So Russia's been upgrading its naval forces
12:34and building bases across the Arctic.
12:36I just need to work out what's going on and what we can film,
12:39and then hopefully we can get a sense of the place.
12:50I'm flying the bloody Soviet flag here.
12:53That's astonishing.
13:02There's a coal mine on the Russian side too,
13:05owned by the state-owned mining company,
13:07which also controls almost everything else in the town.
13:11I headed for the mining company HQ,
13:14where the general director had agreed to meet me.
13:18Or so I thought.
13:20Daria? Daria. Daria, Simon.
13:23Now we're going to have a short meeting with the general director.
13:26OK. Yeah. All right. Yeah, welcome.
13:28It turned out the general director had had a change of heart.
13:43That was weird. It was a sort of slightly farcical situation.
13:47If you were going to design a Russian bureaucrat
13:50who's living in the middle of nowhere, it would be him.
13:53Big office, big table,
13:55very starched white iron shirt and a tie.
13:59Photograph of President Putin there, looked very stern.
14:02But basically he won't talk to us,
14:04and he's palmed us off to a young interpreter.
14:06At least she's going to show us around.
14:09I felt a bit guilty Daria had been lumbered with us.
14:12But it turned out it wasn't her first rodeo.
14:14She took me straight to the number one tourist site.
14:17Well, usually, usually,
14:19journalists stop here and make the interview on this spot.
14:26We've got a statue of Lenin here.
14:29Still standing. Still standing.
14:32Looking around, we can very clearly see
14:35Russia is definitely back here,
14:38and there is a sizeable community.
14:41What is the plan? What is the future of Barentsburg?
14:45For sure, we will continue coal mining and develop tourism.
14:50So we're trying to make this place
14:53as attractive as possible for tourists.
14:58So the tourism boycott and Western sanctions,
15:02the plan is not to shut this place down.
15:05You're actually expanding it,
15:07and you're hoping more people will come.
15:10Yeah, that's true.
15:12A lot of people are romantics, you know,
15:15who come here for adventures
15:18because they want to travel around the world,
15:20see as many places as possible.
15:24What's he saying?
15:26He says some rude words, so just don't pay attention.
15:30I don't think that they're locals.
15:32I have never seen them here before.
15:35Hmm. Well, I've heard worse.
15:38Like Norway, the Kremlin wants Russians to settle here,
15:41and they've stumped up for spanking new facilities
15:44to act as encouragement.
15:47Oh, my good Lord.
15:49It's not cheap.
15:51It costs a lot of money to do this, doesn't it?
15:53But it is free for locals.
15:56We swim here for free.
15:58Despite sanctions,
16:00some suggest Russia still makes half a billion pounds a day
16:03in oil and gas exports.
16:05They've got money and have plans for more investment in Svalbard,
16:08including a science complex involving China and Iran.
16:13Meanwhile, the Russian navy plies the seas around Svalbard,
16:17and the Kremlin now questions how Norway runs the islands.
16:21That's good vodka.
16:24Russia has also been accused
16:26of sabotaging critical undersea internet cables
16:29here and right around Scandinavia.
16:37There's lots going on here that feels like it's
16:40a bit of a Cold War spy thriller.
16:43One of the communication cables linking Svalbard to the outside world
16:48was cut not long ago,
16:50and the prime suspect is a Russian fishing trawler
16:54that was tracked going backwards and forwards
16:57over the cable that runs under the sea about 100 times.
17:02It feels like there is a bit of a scramble for the far north,
17:07for the mineral wealth that is up here,
17:10but also just to have this land as real estate, really,
17:15because controlling it
17:17means you can control access to the North Atlantic.
17:21And for Russia's naval fleet,
17:24they need to come round the top of Scandinavia
17:29to get into the North Atlantic.
17:31They need to come pretty close to Svalbard.
17:34Remember, Russia is just across the border from Scandinavia,
17:39and many Scandinavians really feel that presence.
17:45Russia has denied allegations of interference.
17:51It was time to leave Svalbard.
17:58In midwinter, I travelled to Lapland,
18:01in the northernmost region of Finland.
18:04It's one of the wildest areas of Europe.
18:16It looks utterly ethereal in the early morning light.
18:22Incredible. Incredible.
18:26I was heading towards the edge of Europe,
18:29Finland's historically bloody border with Russia,
18:32Europe's longest at more than 800 miles.
18:35It was brutally cold, minus 30 degrees centigrade.
18:39The moisture in my nose is freezing up.
18:42This is a very tough time of year
18:45in a very tough part of the world.
18:48The cold, the bitter cold,
18:50it seeps through every gap and crevice in your clothing.
18:55I've lost my guide. I can't see him ahead.
18:57I'd better speed up.
19:00A history of war looms over this magical frozen wilderness.
19:04Time and again, Finland has been invaded from the east.
19:08Under Russian Tsar Peter the Great,
19:10horrific atrocities committed against the Finns
19:13became known as the Great Wrath.
19:15During World War II, the Soviet Red Army invaded,
19:18and Finland sided with Germany.
19:21In the Cold War that followed, the country became neutral,
19:24always nervously watching the Russian bear next door.
19:29OK, Simon, this is the farthest we can go.
19:32The Russia border is just right over there, 150 metres.
19:36It's just there? Yes, just there,
19:38and there's nothing between us and the border.
19:42Since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022,
19:46tensions have ramped up.
19:48There's a sign up here.
19:55Border zone.
19:58There's no fence,
20:00but it's very definitely a border now,
20:03a closed border as well, for many months.
20:08Opinion polls in Finland show that more than 80% of Finns
20:13fear and think that Russia poses a military threat to the country.
20:18The Finns say Russia has weaponised this border
20:21by bussing hundreds of migrants and refugees here
20:25and encouraging them to cross in an attempt to destabilise Finland.
20:29The border's now permanently shut, the gates closed.
20:34Even in magical Lapland,
20:36thoughts and fears about future conflict are never that far away.
20:42As I found when I travelled west,
20:46as I found when I travelled west...
20:58This is very strange.
21:00It's not Christmas, but it is here, 365 days of the year.
21:08They now make huge amounts of money here in Lapland
21:11and attract hundreds of thousands of tourists every single year
21:15by branding Lapland as the real home of Father Christmas,
21:20despite the fact that we are hundreds of miles away here
21:23from the North Pole, which is where I rather stupidly thought
21:26Father Christmas actually lives.
21:28This is called Santa's Village.
21:31There's been fierce competition from towns in Sweden,
21:34Norway, Greenland and Alaska
21:36to be seen as the authentic home of Santa Claus, Father Christmas.
21:41But it's here, Rovaniemi in Finland, that seems to be the winner.
21:45Billions have been invested here and tourists now come from around the world.
21:52It is pretty damn impressive, really,
21:57that the Finns have built this luxury tourism economy here
22:03in a very hostile, extreme environment.
22:07At the end of the Second World War,
22:09large parts of their towns and cities were reduced to ash and rubble
22:14and they were really poor and they have built
22:17one of the most extraordinary countries on planet Earth.
22:31Dozens of Santa-themed resorts and attractions
22:34have sprung up around Rovaniemi.
22:37This one's called Santa Claus' Secret Forest,
22:40set up by local businessman Ilkka Lankinen.
22:48Ilkka? Yes. Ilkka, hello.
22:51Hello, hello. Good morning.
22:53Is it possible to come in? Yeah.
22:56Good morning, good morning. Welcome, welcome.
22:59What brought you to Lapland?
23:01I came here to study forestry
23:03because forestry is still quite big here in Finland and Lapland.
23:06Forestry is a massive industry in Finland, isn't it?
23:10I read you have 13,000 trees per person.
23:15Yes, but travel and tourism industry is larger than the forest industry
23:19and that's something that people don't many times realise,
23:22but this is much larger than the forest industry.
23:24Wow.
23:26You've really managed to turn Lapland into...
23:30You see it as the ultimate Christmas experience, really.
23:34Yes, we are creating the best Christmas experiences in the world.
23:37And who have we got here?
23:39More...
23:41Welcome, welcome.
23:44Oh, yes, oh, yes. Are you all right?
23:46I think so.
23:48I'm surprised to see you.
23:50You didn't expect elves in the forest?
23:52No, I didn't expect elves in the forest.
23:54How stupid of me.
23:57We are in front of one of our toy factories.
24:01He's got a sharp knife, just in case.
24:06This is what I would have imagined Santa's toy factory to be.
24:14We'll go this way quickly.
24:16What an honour to see you here.
24:19It's nice and warm here.
24:21It is definitely nice and warm.
24:23It's almost overheating in here, Ilka.
24:25Well, it's not that hot.
24:27And, you know, besides, you can always take a step outside
24:30and then I think that problem will disappear quite quickly.
24:33You are so right.
24:35Since you are here in Lapland,
24:37maybe we should give you a little reminder of our meeting.
24:40So, here's a little...
24:42Thank you very much.
24:44This is our fluffiest reindeer that we are able to make here.
24:46This is indeed a very fluffy reindeer.
24:49Thank you very much indeed.
24:51All right.
24:57Oh, wow.
24:59Ilka's stuck with the theme.
25:01He also owns Santa Park, an underground shopping centre
25:04where visitors from around the world can meet Father Christmas
25:07and his army of little helpers.
25:10But there's a bit more to this grotto
25:12than reindeer and Christmas stockings.
25:14I'm going to show you something that I normally won't share,
25:17but let's have a quick peek.
25:21Literally behind the sign.
25:27So, now we are actually entering for the restricted kind of space.
25:31I mean, if you look at the doors...
25:33Oh, my goodness. Look at the size of that beast.
25:36And it's made from 50mm steel.
25:39And this is the first set of doors.
25:41This is...
25:43This is a bunker.
25:45Yes. Nothing known, missile or anything, can penetrate this.
25:49Santa Park is also a nuclear bunker.
25:53Yes, very much so.
25:56Oh, my good Lordy.
25:58So, how far do the tunnels extend?
26:01About 400 metres.
26:03And we have several sets of tunnels,
26:05because in a case of emergency, you have to get in the people,
26:09you have to get in all the supplies and everything,
26:11so you can drive a semi-truck inside here.
26:14An articulated lorry.
26:16Yes, yes. My goodness.
26:18How many people can you house here?
26:21Over 3,000. 3,400.
26:23So, you have presumably the kit, equipment, bedding,
26:28food and stores here for that?
26:30Bedding, toilets, dry toilets.
26:33We have our own water supplies.
26:35We have our own waste supplies.
26:37And Finns are always prepared,
26:39because we must have a shelter for all the Finns,
26:41but Finns are also very creative,
26:43because if we would not have Santa Park here,
26:45the city people would pay for the heating and electricity and everything,
26:48so we have utilised all the shelters for swimming pools,
26:52tennis swimming centres, tennis places, inside tracks,
26:56and this happened to be Santa's home cavern.
26:59So, go to a swimming pool in Finland,
27:02and you may well actually be inside...
27:05A shelter. A public shelter, yes.
27:07..from nuclear war. Yes, yes.
27:10Across Finland, there are more than 50,000 bunkers
27:13to shelter almost the entire population
27:15of more than five million in the event of war.
27:18We're not going to go any further.
27:20So, this is another exit, entrance... Yes. ..to the bunker. Yes.
27:31Like a huge number of Finns of all backgrounds,
27:35Ilkka's also an army reservist, an officer.
27:38He trains at a local rifle range.
27:41So, we're going to take the big boy out.
27:46OK, right.
27:48So, what have you got in here?
27:50This is what we call long-distance rifles.
27:53There are hundreds of shooting ranges across Finland,
27:56and for national defence, the government's opening 300 more.
28:00Finns have one of the highest rates of gun ownership,
28:03after countries like the US and Yemen.
28:06Morning. Good morning.
28:08This is Janne. Janne. Janne, Simon.
28:11Lovely to see you. Hello. Yeah.
28:13Janne is a university lecturer and also an army reservist.
28:18It's their sheer number of reservists in the Finnish Armed Forces
28:22that make their military huge in terms of numbers.
28:26They have a military, total military, combined,
28:29including reserves, of nearly 900,000.
28:33That's five times the size of the UK's armed forces
28:37of around 180,000,
28:39even though the UK's population is 12 times larger than Finland's.
28:43GUNSHOT
28:46It's almost like a piece of artillery. Very powerful.
28:50GUNSHOT
28:54GUNSHOT
28:56I think what really surprises me about your armed reserve
29:01is just the scale of it.
29:03Someone might call Finland the Sparta of the north.
29:06I think the model is that the civil society defends itself,
29:10we're not outsourcing it,
29:12so everyone's responsible for the society.
29:15And you've got the Finnish flag and you've got the freedom flag as well.
29:19Yeah, and when I talk about the society
29:22taking responsibility of defending itself,
29:25I think that covers all of your values.
29:28So, for example, if one of these things is part of your values,
29:32if you're not ready to defend them,
29:34even with violence, do you really believe in them?
29:37Are they values or are they just opinions?
29:40You're saying if you believe in the values of the freedom flag,
29:44then you need to be willing to defend those.
29:47Yeah, exactly.
29:49And that is a possibility.
29:52Unfortunately so, yeah.
29:56GUNSHOTS
29:59GUNSHOTS
30:05It might seem unthinkable elsewhere in Western Europe,
30:09but they fear war here.
30:11It's happened before.
30:13And as a result, Finland is a highly militarised country.
30:17There's conscription.
30:19Each year, more than 20,000 young men and women
30:22head off for military training.
30:24I'm really quite moved by this.
30:27Just seeing these youngsters marching across.
30:31People's sons, people's daughters.
30:35National service is compulsory for men, voluntary for women.
30:39When it's finished, they join the reserves
30:41and are liable to be called up for refresher training
30:44until the age of 50.
30:46It's a doctrine of total defence.
30:48Under the Finnish constitution,
30:50all citizens have a duty to defend the nation.
30:53This is total belief in the country.
30:57Trust in the state.
30:59Trust that the state will do the right thing
31:02and that the state will, through its people, protect everyone.
31:07Surveys have shown 80% of Finns support compulsory national service.
31:17It is quite something to see.
31:21I've come to see the Jäger Brigade, an elite Arctic warfare unit.
31:25They're in charge of training green, young conscripts
31:28in cold-weather combat.
31:34Youngsters leave behind often comfortable, warm lives
31:37in cities and towns to be turned into soldiers.
31:41Yes.
31:49Are you happy with that?
31:51Well, it was the first time.
31:53I'm not happy for every individual,
31:56but anyway, they are doing what they should do at the moment, yeah.
32:01So this is their first time shooting from skis?
32:05Yeah, I think so. At least it looked like it was.
32:08Right.
32:09But they're less familiar with skis
32:11and they're more familiar with central heating.
32:14Yeah, yeah, and...
32:15Telephones and so on. Yeah.
32:17Well, they are preparing to defend Finland.
32:20That is the purpose for the whole thing.
32:24In opinion polls, more than 80% of all Finns
32:27say they defend their country.
32:30In a similar poll of Brits, it was only 35%.
32:35What is it about Finland that means you all feel
32:38such a part of the country
32:40that you are willing to defend it in that way?
32:43We both love Finland, even if it's cold, even if it's dark.
32:48It feels like it's our obligation to defend the country.
32:52In my opinion, the greatest country in the world
32:55and something to defend.
32:57I mean, we have very good standards of living,
33:00best education, we are wealthy.
33:03I mean, we have gotten everything we ever could ask for from Finland.
33:07So it's only right that we defend it.
33:10After the invasion of Ukraine, Finland and neighbouring Sweden
33:14have joined the NATO military alliance
33:16as protection from the Russian threat.
33:19But the Finns are their own force to be reckoned with.
33:22Apart from a massive army,
33:24they have the largest artillery force in Western Europe,
33:27hundreds of huge howitzers.
33:29But they also bring something less easy to rate and measure.
33:33Passion, patriotism and knowledge.
33:36What they're teaching the conscripts here
33:38isn't just how to be a soldier,
33:40it's how to survive in these extremely harsh conditions.
33:47The Jäger Brigade teach Arctic warfare
33:50to soldiers from other NATO countries,
33:52including the UK and US.
34:00Bloody hell.
34:02Students are learning how to rescue themselves
34:06in case if they go through the weak ice.
34:14Tell us about this word, this Finnish word, sisu.
34:18Sisu.
34:19What does it mean?
34:21I guess it's a sort of a word that means
34:25Grit.
34:26Grit or something like that.
34:28That's probably the closest English word.
34:30Guts.
34:31Guts, yeah.
34:32It's a big thing in Finland
34:34and it's something you try to cultivate.
34:36Yeah, yeah.
34:37This is one example.
34:39Sisu.
34:41This is proper sisu.
34:43Yeah, yeah.
34:47They're pretty good at this.
34:49Yeah, they are.
34:52They're pretty quiet when they go in.
34:54They're doing well.
34:56Yeah, screaming doesn't help.
35:06Maybe we all need a bit of extra sisu.
35:12Oh, my God.
35:14A little bit of me is keen to test myself
35:18and a lot of me is definitely not.
35:23Last time we met, you were smiling.
35:28Do I see you smiling again?
35:30Well, sort of, of course,
35:32because this is absolutely great fun.
35:34Yeah, that's exactly the phrase I would use.
35:37Put this on one shoulder.
35:39Oh, my God.
35:42OK, are you ready?
35:44Somebody's holding on to me.
35:46Somebody's holding on to me, yeah?
35:48Are you ready?
35:49Yeah, I think so.
35:51Is anyone ever?
35:58Now breathe, breathe.
36:00Good.
36:02Bring your backpack here.
36:07Yeah, just like that.
36:09Get your skis.
36:10Oh, my God.
36:12You're doing good.
36:13It's really sharp.
36:15Take your pole.
36:17Use your arms, use your legs.
36:21Exactly like that.
36:23Almost there.
36:26Keep crawling.
36:28A little bit more.
36:31Remove the rope.
36:34Good job, good job.
36:36Thank you, guys.
36:38All right, Simon.
36:39Now get warm.
36:40Yeah, let's run up the hill.
36:42Down.
36:44The Finns, they're a little bit bonkers,
36:47but they really believe in this,
36:49and you know what?
36:50They start them young.
37:01Patriotism and a whopping army
37:03aren't what most of us associate
37:05with Scandinavia and the wider region.
37:08Just like its Scandi neighbours,
37:10Finland also cherishes liberal values
37:12like gender equality, gay rights
37:14and a generous welfare state.
37:17As a country, it scores near the top
37:19for wealth, health and happiness.
37:23And they start encouraging all those Nordic values,
37:26plus a dose of Sisu,
37:28even in their toddlers.
37:31They very kindly let us come and see
37:33a Finnish school.
37:35It is minus 18 degrees centigrade.
37:39Welcome to Sisu.
37:41Hello to you, little lovely wave.
37:43Hello, hello.
37:44They're asking if you are coming with us
37:46to the forest.
37:47Yes!
37:50These three- to six-year-olds
37:52are off out to forest school,
37:54hours outside.
37:56The headteacher, Josefina Marola,
37:58only takes them inside when the temperature
38:00drops below minus 30 degrees.
38:02They're different in Finland.
38:05There's a little bit surprising one.
38:07It's surprising to me to see
38:09really, really young children
38:11going off in these conditions,
38:13but they have just a different
38:15mentality in Finland.
38:18It's a matter of wearing enough layers.
38:21It's not really cold, like, right now.
38:25No, I've got about 47 layers on.
38:27If you can go to that sort of level,
38:29then, yeah, you can be OK.
38:3147 layers on, and you'll be fine?
38:33Yes!
38:35Formal education here doesn't start
38:37until kids are seven.
38:39Before that, they're playing.
38:41In Finland, it's all about the great outdoors,
38:44about getting mucky, and not endless
38:46worrying about health and safety.
38:48What are the advantages of
38:50raising children this way?
38:52They don't get sick.
38:54They sleep well.
38:57They learn things more naturally.
38:59They have more space.
39:01Do the kids get cold a lot?
39:03No.
39:04Hardly ever.
39:06No.
39:07Their immune system is just really good.
39:10They don't get colds or get sick at all.
39:13I mean, it's minus 20 and something, but yeah.
39:16And what I think is, like,
39:18the most important about going to school
39:21and growing up is that they get along together.
39:24Their social skills are just, like, great, I think.
39:27When they're in the forest,
39:29they just naturally, like, help each other,
39:32and no one gets left behind.
39:34I don't know why it happens.
39:36Maybe it's just the forest is such, like, calming place.
39:47Forest schools boost children's immune systems.
39:50Finnish scientists claim contact with nature,
39:53with mud and friendly bacteria,
39:55prevents autoimmune diseases and allergies.
39:58Teachers here don't mollycoddle.
40:00They keep watch, but children are allowed to take risks.
40:03Yes, even leaping off anti-tank defences left from the war.
40:07When we know the children well
40:10and we know the whole family and staff,
40:13it's easy to, you know, build a trust.
40:16I think education overall just is, like,
40:19really, really respected thing in Finland.
40:22So respect and trust are two key words that leap out at you there.
40:27Oh, yeah, definitely.
40:29Yeah, and they don't really question the things we do here.
40:35And if the teacher says it's OK to be outside, then it is.
40:39What a difference with the UK,
40:41where teachers too often face parents who don't trust or respect them.
40:45Here there were no complaints from the hardy youngsters,
40:48or at school pick-up time.
40:50You are happy for Josefina to take your precious son
40:54into the forest when it is minus 18 up there.
40:58Yes, because I know my son will survive.
41:02You have a lot of respect for education and educators, for teachers.
41:09Yes.
41:10You trust them.
41:11Yes, very much.
41:14This has been fascinating, mind-blowing even.
41:17I'm hearing a lot about trust,
41:20and trust is something I'm really interested in.
41:23People in Scandinavia and the Nordic countries
41:25have much higher levels of trust in their institutions,
41:29their governments and each other.
41:31As this journey goes on, I'm really keen to learn the role
41:34that trust plays in making Scandinavia such a success.
41:48I headed west through Lapland's vast forests
41:51and crossed the border into Sweden.
41:55Lapland is a region of 150,000 square miles
41:59across northern Finland, Sweden, Norway and even a small bit of Russia.
42:04During winter it's buried under snow,
42:06but Lapland's still a major provider of resources.
42:10Swedes chop and plant millions of trees up here
42:13for all that flat-back furniture.
42:15Lapland's also important for green energy.
42:18Hydroelectric power provides 40% of Sweden's electricity,
42:22but requires power lines and railways criss-crossing Lapland.
42:28During the 20th century, Europe often outsourced
42:32its extraction of fossil fuels and heavy industry as well
42:37to poorer, less developed parts of the world.
42:42But during what's being described as the green transition now
42:46to renewable energy, there will be a need for a huge number of mines,
42:52solar farms, wind turbines, wind farms,
42:56and that will cause problems with other people, with other groups.
43:02Lapland's home to the Sami people.
43:05They've lived here for thousands of years,
43:07long before modern countries, with their own language and culture,
43:11for many inextricably linked to the reindeer.
43:14I'm meeting a reindeer herder called Mikael.
43:18I've got a pin on a map where we've got to meet him,
43:21in the middle of nowhere.
43:24Once nomadic, the Sami are now mostly settled.
43:28They still keep and herd reindeer.
43:30Sami elder Mikael Kumonen makes his living out here.
43:35Mikael? Hello! Hi, Mikael, Simon.
43:38Mikael. Very lovely to see you. The same.
43:41Hello, lads. Good morning.
43:43Hello.
43:45So, where are the reindeer?
43:49They are up there. Right, OK.
43:52We're going to move the reindeers away from there,
43:55take them down to the road,
43:57and then the reindeers will probably follow the road.
44:03And how many reindeer do you have?
44:06That's a funny question.
44:08You don't ask anyone how many reindeers they have.
44:11It's not polite? It's not polite.
44:13It's like asking how much money you have in the bank.
44:16Right. It's the same question.
44:18But I have reindeers, so I can survive.
44:24We're going to make a snowmobile track here,
44:27so I'm quite lazy. I'll let the sons do the job.
44:31Reindeers, they should not be too long in the same place.
44:35That's why we herd the reindeers,
44:37move them from one place to another,
44:39so they don't destroy the grazing area.
44:42So they'll move in search of food,
44:45but that can obviously split them up and move them apart too far,
44:49and also presumably expose them to danger as well.
44:52Yes. A couple of years ago, we had about 50 reindeers.
44:55They went out on the railway and they were hit by a train.
44:58It was nothing left of them.
45:0050 reindeer were killed... By one train.
45:03..by one train. Oh, my goodness.
45:05So then we learnt a lesson.
45:07We are very afraid of the train, of the railroads.
45:11How do you avoid that?
45:13We can't. We can only take away the reindeers from the danger.
45:24This is something that has made our lives very easy.
45:30We are experts to adapt ourselves,
45:32and every new thing, we take it.
45:36OK, now we go up in the air.
45:42Reindeer used to roam wherever they liked.
45:45Now there are dangers everywhere.
45:48Mikael and his sons, Asla and Nils,
45:50are worried about a small group from their herd
45:53that have strayed too close to railway tracks.
45:56We need to find them.
45:58So there's the reindeer. Yes.
46:00Then I put a GPS spot on it, so now I see on the map.
46:04Then I can show my sons where they are.
46:06Clever, clever.
46:13So we're heading out to look for the reindeer.
46:18Reindeer are tough, and they still need looking after.
46:21They're crucial to the ecosystem in Lapland.
46:24But forests rich in lichen, the reindeer's favourite food,
46:27have declined by 71% in Sweden.
46:34OK, so the reindeer, there's reindeer just ahead of us,
46:37and they're being corralled by the lads and by our skidoos,
46:42and hopefully they're moving in the right direction.
46:46OK, they've got them into the open,
46:48and they're now moving them towards the road.
46:57We gently guided them away from the train tracks.
47:01But roads, tracks, industry, people,
47:04it's all disrupting reindeer behaviour and migration.
47:08Even new green industries up here pose threats
47:12to wildlife and the livelihoods of Sami herders.
47:21That's it, they've reached the road.
47:28And so have we.
47:31We're on our way.
47:38What are they doing, Mikael?
47:40They are eating salt.
47:42Yesterday it was ice on the road, so they put salt on it.
47:45Now they... They love it.
47:47They love it. Of course, like a salt lick, almost.
47:51Yes. When they once find the salt, they will always come back.
47:55It's like a drug.
47:57And they're drawn to the road to eat it,
47:59and that's causing collisions.
48:01Yes. Most of the people that are driving cars,
48:04they say that reindeer, it is the most stupid animal on the earth.
48:09Because they stand on the salt,
48:12just waiting to get hit by a car.
48:16So that affects their migration, their movement,
48:19your ability to herd them?
48:21Yes, it does.
48:23We are already so affected by everything you can imagine.
48:27We have the hydropower dam
48:30just 15 kilometres away from here, power lines.
48:34How do the power lines affect you and the reindeer?
48:38They stop before the power line.
48:40There's something that we don't see.
48:43Something is scaring them.
48:45They avoid the power lines.
48:47We don't need more things that affect us.
48:52It's so difficult, isn't it?
48:54Obviously people will say that Lapland needs development,
48:59it needs jobs,
49:01but understandably you see your way of life being threatened.
49:06I see it that way, yes.
49:08It's like a lifestyle that's slowly fading away.
49:12The major threat here is climate change.
49:15The Arctic's heating nearly four times faster
49:17than the rest of the planet.
49:19It's simply not as cold as it is normally.
49:21This kind of snow, it's usually in the springtime.
49:25Now we're in the middle of the winter.
49:27It should be 30 minus.
49:29Should it really?
49:31Yes, but now it's almost 10.
49:33So you're caught really in a terrible catch-22, I sense,
49:39where on the one hand you're seeing climate change.
49:43I have seen it for almost 20 years now.
49:47And on the other hand, you're threatened by the industry
49:51that is being developed to try and help prevent
49:55or at least mitigate the climate change
49:57that we're all threatened by.
50:00A rock and a hard place.
50:03The ones who get sacrificed, it's us, we, the rangers,
50:06the ranger herders, the Sami people.
50:08The thing I wonder, why do you have to destroy the planet to save it?
50:14It's quite... It doesn't make sense to me.
50:33Not far from where Mikael herds his reindeer
50:36is the small Swedish mining town of Koruna.
50:40It says in the mid-1600s, a farmer hunting squirrels
50:44found a strange heavy black rock here.
50:47Turned out it was iron ore.
50:49Koruna's grown up around what's now a vast underground iron ore mine,
50:54the biggest in the world.
50:56All the mining and tunnelling underground has, of course,
50:59turned the land here, this area, into Swiss cheese.
51:02And it's destabilised many of the buildings here.
51:06And as a result, a number of them have got to be destroyed
51:09and a large part of the town here has got to be moved.
51:16So some of the buildings here, they're actually just relocating.
51:19This huge old church, for example, they're going to jack that up
51:23and then later this year they're going to move it to a new location
51:26at the very stately pace of half a mile an hour.
51:30Much of Koruna's being moved so they can keep digging underground,
51:34because for Sweden and for Europe, the mine is vital.
51:39Geologist Laura Lauri works for LKAB,
51:42the state-owned Swedish mining company.
51:45They've extracted more than two billion tonnes of iron ore
51:48from this mine alone.
51:50By one reckoning, that's equivalent to the top third of Mount Everest.
51:54We headed in.
51:56There you see the mine entrance.
51:58So this is the largest underground iron ore mine in the world.
52:03It's about 80% what we use in Europe.
52:0780% of Europe's iron ore comes from here?
52:11Yep. I would guess that if you have products that have been produced
52:16in Europe that contain steel, then it mostly comes from here.
52:22Well, this is very definitely not like the mine in Svalbard.
52:28So we will just park the car here.
52:30All right.
52:32We were nearly a mile underground,
52:35a subterranean world of huge tunnels, offices,
52:39a staff canteen, coffee machines, even pot plants.
52:46Hiya. Hello, hello, hello.
52:49It's one of the most high-tech mines in the world,
52:52and Emil is a very modern sort of miner.
52:56Hello. Hello.
52:58What are you doing? I'm remotely operating.
53:01I have my cameras on the machine. Yeah.
53:04And I also have a rock breaker to break the larger boulders.
53:07Oh, my goodness.
53:10So now I've just pressed the button, and now it's going to dump the bucket.
53:13What's going on? It's driving itself.
53:15It's driving itself. It's autonomously.
53:17So now it's going to the ore pass, and it dumps the rock down the ore pass.
53:21Right.
53:22And then it returns to the drift where I fill the bucket.
53:26So this is a very new style mining, isn't it?
53:30Where are the hard calluses on your hands? No.
53:33Where's your pick and your shovel?
53:35No, no pick and shovel here.
53:36Now you have a joystick.
53:37Yep, joystick and Xbox control.
53:40Look, we mustn't film this, because all the youngsters watching
53:44who are playing on their consoles will say,
53:46look, Mum and Dad, this is why I need to be gaming,
53:49so I can work in a Swedish mine.
53:52Exactly.
53:53So now I'm shaking the bucket.
53:55No, you're not. Go on, give the bucket a little shake.
53:59Oh, my goodness.
54:00You seem very happy with your job.
54:02Yeah, I love my job. This is very fun.
54:05Miles underground.
54:07Machines do most of the dangerous and grubby work.
54:10Machines bring the iron ore to the surface.
54:13And if something goes wrong,
54:15there's someone or something who goes to investigate.
54:19This looks like a kennel.
54:21It does look like a kennel.
54:29DRAMATIC MUSIC
54:40Whoa!
54:45Oh, my goodness.
54:48DRAMATIC MUSIC
54:56The robot reconnaissance dog can be sent
54:58into the most dangerous parts of the mine.
55:01I was a little bit taken aback.
55:03That was my first time anywhere on the planet
55:06I have encountered a moving robotic creature, as it were.
55:12What can Spot do?
55:15It checks if something has happened,
55:17if there have been any rockfalls.
55:19This is like the future of mining here, isn't it?
55:22Taking humans, not out of the equation,
55:25but out of the danger zone.
55:35Come on, you've got to see this.
55:40I'll bring it out.
55:43They really have put dog treats in here.
55:49The miners and their machines are still exploring underground here,
55:53hunting for more iron deep beneath the snows of Lapland.
55:57But a couple of years ago, they made a startling discovery,
56:00which could be a game-changer for the whole of Europe
56:03and for the future of green technology.
56:06Under this forested area here, we have another iron ore body,
56:10which contains quite a lot of iron, phosphorus and also rare earth elements.
56:16Rare earth elements.
56:18Most used ones are, for example, neodymium and praseodymium
56:21that are used, for example, for the wind turbines and battery technology.
56:26There's 17 rare earth minerals, including samarium, europium and scandium.
56:31They're critical for next-generation tech.
56:34What coal was to the 19th century and oil to the 20th.
56:37Rare earth elements could be to the 21st.
56:40So I've got a couple of pieces of drill core,
56:42and there's quite a lot of this pink and whitish minerals here,
56:46and that's the mineral apatite,
56:48the phosphorus mineral that contains also the rare earths.
56:51We have numbers that show that this deposit, it's almost one billion tonnes of ore.
56:55That's billion with a B.
56:58Yeah, one billion tonnes of ore.
57:00Here, these are the fundamentals of potentially of Europe's future economy.
57:06It's really true, and this only strengthens the importance of this region.
57:12This is geopolitics, right here.
57:15The great powers are now scrambling to secure rare earth minerals.
57:20China currently has most of them.
57:22Europe doesn't produce any.
57:25This mine could change that.
57:27The environment here will be affected.
57:30Perhaps we don't have a choice.
57:32But it's a consequence we shouldn't ignore.
57:35You can see a train moving down there, taking out iron ore.
57:41What's happening here is really important.
57:44Europe is going to need these rare earth minerals and metals
57:49if we're going to transition to a cleaner, greener future,
57:52but there are costs.
57:55Next time, I'm in Western Scandinavia,
57:59Orca, exploring the fjords of Norway
58:03and further west, the volcanoes of Iceland.
58:06I need to get out of here.
58:24Transcription by ESO. Translation by —
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