01x01 - Episode 1

[bunniefuu]

I'm a long way north,

about as far north
as people live on planet Earth.

This is the Norwegian archipelago
of Svalbard.

I'm travelling south from here

around one of the most beautiful and
interesting regions of the world -

Scandinavia.

On the rugged edge of Europe

I'm visiting five
Nordic countries...

Incredible, it's incredible.

..travelling through glorious
forests and spectacular fjords.

I think Norway has a solid claim

to be the most beautiful country
in the world.

I mean, look at it!

Wow. Dogs pulling a car.

It's more than half a million
square miles of extremes.

This is low, Bent, this is low.
This is my life.

Someone's holding on to me, yeah?

Now breathe, breathe.

Off we go.

I'm hoping to understand
how they've built

some of the happiest societies
on the planet...

Hey, guys. Morning.

Good morning.

And who have we got here? Wha...?

Hello!

Welcome, welcome.

This is the most traditional
Danish lunch I have seen. Yes.

..and why they now feel
they're in the firing line.

SantaPark is a nuclear bunker?
Yes, very much so.

They are preparing
to defend Finland.

g*nf*re

Bloody hell.

You're wearing these
in urban Sweden? Yes.

There's another side to Scandinavia.

Ready to fire.

LOUD BANG

I'm travelling through
the Scandi countries

of Sweden, Denmark and Norway,

and adding in the wider
Nordic family, as well -

Finland and Iceland.

I'm starting here off
the Svalbard archipelago,

the most northerly outpost
of Norway.

Do you see it?

I do, you know.

Frida, what is it?

So it's a blue fox

A blue fox? Yeah.

It's a genetic mutation
in the polar foxes

and it's actually really rare.

It's more rare to see a blue fox
than to see a polar bear.

Look at it bouncing along.

Yeah!

You're smiling, as well.
Yeah, super nice!

Frida Schatvet left behind life
as a nurse in mainland Norway

to explore and protect the
natural wonders of Svalbard

on this scientific research boat.

How often have you seen a blue fox?

Seen it three times, four times.

Three, in how many years?

I've been here almost eight years.
Whoa!

We are very lucky.

You can clearly see the fox
bolting up the hill

just above three reindeer.

There's loads more reindeer
in the hillside.

Scandinavians first came here in
numbers to hunt reindeer and seals

for their meat and skin,
and even polar bears for their fur.

Most of all, they came to plunder
the riches of the ocean.

Whale! Whale, straight ahead.

It was whales that first drew
settlers here in the 1600s.

There was a huge population
of whales around Svalbard,

and in one of the first great
oil rushes,

the whales were hunted for their oil

to use in soaps
and as a fuel in lamps.

Thousands of whales
were slaughtered.

The fin whale is one of the
largest animals ever.

Unfortunately for the species,

each can yield more than 1,000
gallons of whale oil -

enough to fuel thousands
of old lamps.

Quick performance
and then it's gone.

Hence the hunting.

But hunting bans were put in place
on Svalbard from the 1950s.

Numbers of polar bears and
marine mammals, including whales,

have increased dramatically
over the decades.

It's proved a simple
but successful strategy.

Turns out, one of the best ways
to conserve endangered animals

is just to stop k*lling them.

As an outpost of Scandinavia,

Svalbard is a long way north,

roughly halfway between
the Norwegian mainland

and the North Pole.

The temperature up here
can drop to minus 30.

There are no trees,
hardly anything grows here.

But there are people.

Scientists, biologists, researchers
and tourism industry workers,

a couple of thousand hardy souls
call this place home.

So, this is the settlement
of Longyearbyen.

It is the most northerly town
in the world

with more than 1,000 inhabitants.

It's a little bit late now,

but in the morning Frida's
going to show me around.

This is very Svalbard, I think.

Yeah.
Not a car park, but a Ski-Doo park.

Yeah. Everyone has a snowmobile.

When you moved here,
what were some of the big surprises?

It is a very tight-knit community.

I mean, we have a hospital
on the island, but it's very tiny,

and you don't want to take a risk
with newborn babies.

So, all the pregnant women, they get
shipped down to the mainland,

Norway, to give birth
almost four weeks before.

Right. And, I mean, you can't
really control where you die,

but you can't be buried here
even if you wanted to.

You can't be buried here?
Not at all, no.

Oh, because...?

Yeah, because the permafrost
won't decompose your body.

So, we've seen now, over time,
as well, that a lot of the whalers,

officials that have been buried
many years ago,

their caskets and bodies are just
being pushed up... Oh, my goodness.

..by the permafrost.

Lovely.

You can't be born here
and you can't be buried either -

and life in between is
spent in the freezer zone.

So, what keeps people here?

It's raw, rugged,
and there's adventure

and the Norwegians also sweeten the
deal with low tax rates and no VAT.

That's got to help.

Wow, dogs pulling a car.

They're training?

Svalbard!

Norway has wanted to keep
a viable community here.

It's keen to maintain
a strong presence.

For decades, one of the main reasons
that people were on Svalbard

was mining.

And this is one of the last
coal mines on Svalbard.

Coal from here fuelled the power
station which generates electricity,

and it also helped create
a strong local community

of workers and families.

SPEAKS NORWEGIAN

Bent Jakobsen and hundreds of other
miners have done the tough work -

yet not for much longer.

We're going to get in the car.

You'll see, we're going to
drive down on the low seam.

How deep in the mountain are we now?

We are 6km inside the mountain

and we have 350m of mountains
over our heads now.

Flippin' heck.

OK, let's go.

Take a seat. All right.

There is only one rule
when we're driving.

As long as you keep your head
lower than the bar, you're fine.

I was just planning on keeping
my head lower than you!

A fun thing, when I have people
in the mine,

they start up here
and then they're like this. Right.

OK. About here. You will know
when we get in there.

All right, all right.

I'm taking it seriously.

Good. I'll ring the bell.

BELL DINGS

Bloody hell, Bent, this is low,
isn't it?

No, this is quite high, actually.
Really? Yes.

It's going to get lower,
so keep your head down.

OK, now it's low. Like, this is low.
This is low, Bent, this is low.

The thing when you
start working here,

either you love it or you hate it.
There's nothing in between.

And you loved it
right from the beginning?

This is my life.

Oh, goodness,
we're right at the end.

If you step out on the right side,
I'll show you something. OK.

This is actually
like a mining tunnel.

Actually, here you see
the coal seam.

Grab a hand of coal if you want.

This is the compressed value

of sunlight and plants,

flowers, trees,

has been your life, Bent.

Yes, it has.

For so long. Yeah.

But soon coming to an end.

How do you feel about that?
Yeah, of course it's sad.

It's a long, proud tradition
of miners,

or mining that's going to be gone.

And the reason?

First of all, we don't have actually
enough good quality coal,

that's one thing. And another one
is the green shift is here also.

So, mining is not, or should I say,
not very popular any more.

And so ends a tradition of mining

not just for you or your family,
but for this community.

Yeah, we are 70 guys,
that's out of work or out of a job.

Yeah, we're done. So...

What will you do? I have no idea.

We'll see.

I'll probably get a job somewhere.

The mine closure is tough for Bent,
and Svalbard.

Despite a growing tourism industry,

fewer people here
are permanent residents -

and that's not great news
for Norway,

which is desperate
to maintain control over Svalbard,

because as the Arctic
warms and melts,

Svalbard's situated in a
globally strategic position,

on an increasingly important
shipping lane

with huge mineral resources
and fishing in the ocean around.

Other countries want a slice,
including Russia.

Under international agreements,
Norway is in charge of Svalbard

but it has to share Svalbard
with other countries.

That can lead to tensions.

I'm off to meet the neighbours.

Russians have been coming to
Svalbard for centuries,

hunting furs originally.

In 1920, a treaty was signed in
Paris giving Svalbard to Norway,

but Russians are among those allowed
to travel here without visas

and to settle here.

There are whole Russian towns.

I have to say, I'm feeling
quite apprehensive

about going to this community.

It's called Barentsburg.

This is a Russian outpost,

a Russian base,

a settlement up here
in the very far north.

There were relations between
the Russian settlement

and the main
Norwegian community here.

And then Russia invaded Ukraine

and relationships here
have got decidedly frosty.

Russia recently downgraded Norway
as a country from unfriendly

to very unfriendly.

Russia is THE dominant power
in the Arctic.

President Putin has claimed
as it melts, natural resources

like oil and gas, worth trillions,
will become available

so Russia's been upgrading
its naval forces

and building bases
across the Arctic.

All right, just need to work out
what's going on

and what we can film, and then...

..hopefully, we can get a sense
of the place.

They're flying the
bloody Soviet flag here.

That's astonishing.

There's a coal mine
on the Russian side too,

owned by the state-owned mining
company which also controls

almost everything else in the town.

I headed for the mining company HQ
where the general director

had agreed to meet me.

Or so I thought.

Hi. Darea? Daria. Daria, Simon.

Now we're going to have a short
meeting with general director.

OK. All right. Welcome.

It turned out the general director
had had a change of heart.

And I think it's better to leave
the equipment outside the office

because he doesn't want
that you can...

He doesn't want to be filmed?

Well, that was weird.

It was a sort of slightly
farcical situation.

If you're going to design
a Russian bureaucrat

who's living in the middle
of nowhere, it would be him.

Big office, big table,

very starched, white
ironed shirt and a tie,

photograph of President Putin there,
looked very stern.

Basically, he won't talk to us
and he's palmed us off

to a young interpreter.

At least she's going to
show us around.

I felt a bit guilty
Daria had been lumbered with us -

but it turned out
it wasn't her first rodeo.

She took me straight to the
number one tourist site.

Well, usually...

..journalists stop here and...

..make the interview on this spot.

We've got a statue of Lenin here.
Mm.

Still standing. Still standing.

Looking around,
and we can very clearly see

Russia is definitely back here
and there is a sizeable community.

What is the plan?
What is the future for Barentsburg?

For sure, we will continue
coal mining

and develop tourism.

So we're trying to make this place
as attractive as possible

for tourists.

LOUD ENGINE RUMBLES

So, the tourism boycott
and Western sanctions,

the plan is not to
shut this place down,

you are actually expanding it

and you are hoping more
people will come.

Mm. Yeah, that's true.

A lot of people are romantics,
you know,

who come here - or adventurous,

because they want to travel
around the world,

see as many places as possible.

What's he saying?
He says some rude words.

Just don't pay attention.

I don't think that they are locals.

I have never seen them here before.

Hmm, well, I've heard worse.

Like Norway, the Kremlin wants
Russians to settle here

and they've stumped-up
for spanking new facilities

to act as encouragement.

This is our swimming pool.

Oh, my good lord.

It is not cheap.

It costs a lot of money to do this,
doesn't it?

Yeah. But it is free for locals.

We swim here for free.

Despite sanctions,
some suggest Russia still makes

half a billion pounds a day
in oil and gas exports.

They've got money and have plans
for more investment in Svalbard,

including a science complex
involving China and Iran.

Meanwhile, the Russian Navy
plies the seas around Svalbard,

and the Kremlin now questions
how Norway runs the islands.

It's good vodka.

Russia has also been accused
of sabotaging

critical undersea internet cables
here and right around Scandinavia.

There's lots going on here that
feels like it's out of the pages

of a Cold w*r spy thriller.

One of the communication cables
linking Svalbard

to the outside world
was cut not long ago.

And the prime suspect
is a Russian fishing trawler

that was tracked going backwards
and forwards over the cable

that runs under the sea
about 100 times.

It feels like there is a bit
of a scramble for the far north,

for the mineral wealth
that is up here.

But also, just to have this land
as real estate, really,

because controlling it
means you can control access

to the North Atlantic.

And for Russia's naval fleet,

they need to come round the top
of Scandinavia

to get into the North Atlantic.

They need to come pretty close
to Svalbard.

Remember, Russia is just across
the border from Scandinavia,

and many Scandinavians
really feel that presence.

Russia has denied allegations
of interference.

It was time to leave Svalbard.

In mid-winter,
I travelled to Lapland

in the northernmost region
of Finland.

It's one of the
wildest areas of Europe.

It looks utterly ethereal

in the early morning light.

Incredible. Incredible.

I was heading towards
the edge of Europe -

Finland's historically bloody border
with Russia,

Europe's longest
at more than 800 miles.

It was brutally cold,
minus 30 centigrade.

The moisture in my nose
is freezing up.

This is a very tough time of year

in a very tough part of the world.

The cold, the bitter cold,

it seeps through every gap
and crevice in your clothing.

I've lost my guide,
I can't see him ahead.

I'd better speed up.

A history of w*r looms over
this magical frozen wilderness.

Time and again, Finland has been
invaded from the east.

Under Russian Tsar Peter the Great,
horrific atrocities

committed against the Finns became
known as the Great Wrath.

During World w*r II,
the Soviet Red Army invaded,

and Finland sided with Germany.

In the Cold w*r that followed
the country became neutral,

always nervously watching
the Russian bear next door.

Oh!

OK, Simon,
this is as far as we can go.

The Russia border is just
right over there, 150 metres.

It's just there. Yes, just there,

and there's nothing between us
and the border.

Since Russia's full-scale
invasion of Ukraine in 2022,

tensions have ramped up.

There's a sign up here.

Border Zone.

There's no fence.

but it's very definitely
a border now -

a closed border, as well,

for many months.

Opinion polls in Finland show that
more than 80% of Finns

fear and think that Russia poses
a military threat to the country.

The Finns say Russia has weaponised
this border

by bussing hundreds of migrants
and refugees here

and encouraging them to cross, in an
attempt to destabilise Finland.

The border's now permanently shut.

The gates closed.

Even in magical Lapland, thoughts
and fears about future conflict

are never that far way.

As I found when I travelled west.

PEOPLE LAUGH AND CHEER

This is very strange.

It's not Christmas,

but it is here,


They now make huge amounts of money
here in Lapland

and attract hundreds of thousands
of tourists every single year

by branding Lapland as the
real home of Father Christmas -

despite the fact that we are
hundreds of miles away here

from the North Pole, which is
where I rather stupidly thought

Father Christmas actually lives.

This is called Santa's Village.

There's been fierce competition from
towns in Sweden, Norway, Greenland

and Alaska to be seen
as the authentic home

of Santa Claus - Father Christmas.

But it's here, Rovaniemi in Finland,
that seems to be the winner.

Billions have been invested here,

and tourists now come
from around the world.

Yeah, it is pretty damn
impressive, really,

that the Finns have built this
luxury tourism economy here

in a very hostile,
extreme environment.

At the end of the Second World w*r,

large parts of their
towns and cities

were reduced to ash and rubble,

and they were really poor,

and they have built one of the
most extraordinary countries

on planet Earth.

Dozens of Santa-themed resorts
and attractions

have sprung up around Rovaniemi.

This one's called
Santa Claus Secret Forest,

set up by local businessman
Ilkka Lankinen.

Ilkka? Yes.

Ilkka, hello.
Hello, hello, good morning.

Simon Reeve. Good morning.
Is it possible to come in? Yeah.

Hey, good morning, good morning.
Welcome, welcome. Good morning.

What brought you to Lapland?

I came here to study forestry,

and forestry is still quite big here
in Finland and Lapland.

Forestry is a massive
industry in Finland, isn't it?

It is. I read that you
have 13,000 trees per person.

Yes, but travel and tourism industry
is larger than the forest industry -

and that's something that
people don't many times realise,

but this is much larger than
the forest industry. Wow.

You've really managed
to turn Lapland into...

..some would see it as the ultimate
Christmas experience, really.

Yes, we are creating the best
Christmas experiences in the world.

And what have we got here? Wha...?

Hello!

Welcome, welcome.

Oh, yes! Oh, yes!
Oh, yes! Are you all right?

I think so. Oh!

I'm surprised to see you.

Why? You didn't expect elves
in the forest?

No, I didn't expect elves
in the forest.

How stupid of me!

Right here, we are in front
of one of our toy factories.

Go. He's got a sharp knife,
just in case.

This is what I would have imagined.

Ah! Yes.

Santa's toy factory to be.

Yes.

Come, we go this way.
We'll go this way quickly.

Hello. What an honour
to see you here.

It's nice and warm here.

It's definitely nice and warm.

There is a significant risk of us
overheating in here, Ilkka.

Well, it's not that hot.

And, you know, besides, you can
always take a step outside,

and then I think that problem
would disappear quite quickly.

You are so right.

Since you are here in Lapland,

maybe we should give you a
little reminder of our meeting.

So, here's a little remin...
Thank you very much.

This is our fluffiest reindeer
that they'll be able to make here.

This is, this is indeed
a very fluffy reindeer. Yes.

Thank you very much indeed.
You're very welcome.

Oh, wow.

Ilkka's stuck with the theme.

He also owns SantaPark,
an underground shopping centre

where visitors from around the world
can meet Father Christmas

and his army of little helpers.

But there's a little bit more
to this grotto

than reindeer
and Christmas stockings.

Going to show you something
that I normally won't share,

but let's have a quick peek.

Literally behind the sign.

So now we are actually entering
for the restricted kind of space.

I mean, if you look at the doors.

Oh, my goodness,
look at the size of that beast!

And it's made from 50mm steel -

and this is the first set of doors.

This is...

This is a bunker? Yes.

Nothing, no m*ssile or anything
can penetrate this.

SantaPark is also a nuclear bunker?

Yes, very much so.

Oh, my good lordy.

So how far do the tunnels extend?

About 400 metres.

And we have several sets of tunnels,
because in the case of emergency,

you have to get in the people,
you have to get in all the supplies

and everything. So you can drive
a semi-truck inside here.

An articulated lorry?

Yes, yes. My goodness.

How many people can you house here?

Over 3,000. 3,400.

So, you have, presumably,
the kit, equipment,

bedding, food
and stores here for that.

Bedding, toilets, dry toilets.

We have our own water supplies,

we have our own waste supplies.

And Finns are always prepared,

because we must have a
shelter for all the Finns -

but Finns are also very creative

because if we would not have
SantaPark here, then the city people

will pay for the heating and
electricity and everything.

So, we have utilised all
the shelters for swimming pools,

tennis, swimming centres,
tennis places, inside tracks.

And this happened to be
the Christmas Santa's home cavern.

So go to a swimming pool in Finland

and you may well
actually be inside...

A shelter. A shelter...
A public shelter, yes.

..from a nuclear w*r. Yes, yes.

Across Finland, there are more than


to shelter almost the entire
population of more than five million

in the event of w*r.

We're not going to go any further.

This is another exit, entrance
to the bunker? Yes, yes.

DOOR SLAMS

Like a huge number of
Finns of all backgrounds,

Ilkka's also an army reservist,
an officer.

He trains at a local r*fle range.

So, we're going to take
a big, big boy.

OK, right.

So, what have you got in here?

This is what we call
long distance r*fle.

There are hundreds of
sh**ting ranges across Finland,

and for national defence
the government's opening 300 more.

Finns have one of the
highest rates of g*n ownership,

after countries
like the US and Yemen.

Morning.

Good morning. Good morning.
This is Janne. Janne.

Janne, Simon. Lovely to see you.
Hello. Hello.

Yanne is a university lecturer
and also an army reservist.

It's the sheer number of reservists
in the Finnish Armed Forces

that make their military
huge in terms of numbers.

They have a military -

total military, combined,
including reserves -

of nearly 900,000.

That's five times the size
of the UK's Armed Forces

of around 180,000,

even though the UK's population is


LOUD g*nsh*t

It's almost like a piece
of a*tillery.

Very powerful.

LOUD g*nsh*t

I think what really surprises me

about your armed reserve
is just the scale of it.

Some might call Finland
the Sparta of the North.

I think the model is that the
civil society defends itself,

not outsourcing it.

So, everyone's responsible
for the society.

And you've got the Finnish flag and
you've got the Freedom Flag as well.

Yeah. And when I talked about the
society taking responsibility

of defending itself, I think
that covers all of your values.

So, for example, if one of these
things is part of your values,

if you're not ready to defend them,
even with violence,

do you really believe in them?

Are they values
or are they just opinions?

You're saying if you believe
in the values of the Freedom Flag,

then you need to be willing
to defend those.

Yeah, exactly.

And that is a possibility.

Unfortunately so, yeah.

RAPID g*nf*re

It might seem unthinkable
elsewhere in Western Europe,

but they fear w*r here.

It's happened before,

and, as a result, Finland is
a highly militarised country.

There's conscription.

Each year, more than 20,000
young men and women

head off for military training.

I'm really quite moved by this.

Just seeing these youngsters
marching across.

People's sons.

People's daughters.

National Service is compulsory
for men, voluntary for women.

When it's finished they join
the reserves and are liable

to be called up for refresher
training until the age of 50.

It's a doctrine of total defence.

Under the Finnish constitution,

all citizens have a duty
to defend the nation.

This is total belief in the country,

trust in the state.

Trust that the state
will do the right thing

and the state will, through
its people, protect everyone.

Surveys have shown 80% of Finns
support compulsory National Service.

SIMON CHUCKLES

It is quite something to see.

I've come to see the Jaeger Brigade,
an elite Arctic warfare unit.

They're in charge of training
green young conscripts

in cold weather combat.

INSTRUCTS IN FINNISH

Youngsters leave behind

often comfortable, warm lives
in cities and towns

to be turned into soldiers.

g*nf*re

Are you happy with that?

Well, it was the first time.

I'm not happy for every individual.

But anyway, they are doing what they
should do at the moment, yeah.

So this is their first time
sh**ting from skis?

Yeah, I think so.

At least it looked like it was.
Right.

But they're also,
they're less familiar with skis

and they're more familiar
with central heating.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And telephones and so on.

Yeah! Yeah.

Well, they are preparing
to defend Finland.

That is the purpose
for the whole thing.

In opinion polls, more
than 80% of all Finns

say they'd defend their country.

In a similar poll of Brits,
it was only 35%.

What is it about Finland that means
you feel such a part of the country

that you are willing to defend it
in that way?

We all love Finland, even
if it's cold, even if it's dark.

It feels like it's our obligation
to defend the country.

In my opinion,
the greatest country in the world

and something to defend.

I mean, we have a very good
standard of living,

best education, and we are wealthy

and we have gotten everything
we ever could ask for from Finland.

So it's only right
that we defend it.

After the invasion of Ukraine,

Finland and neighbouring Sweden have
joined the NATO military alliance,

as protection
from the Russian threat.

But the Finns are their own force
to be reckoned with.

Apart from a massive army, they have
the largest a*tillery force

in Western Europe -
hundreds of huge howitzers.

But they also bring something
less easy to rate and measure -

passion, patriotism and knowledge.

What they're teaching the conscripts
here

isn't just how to be a soldier,

it's how to survive

in these extremely harsh conditions.

The Jaeger Brigade teach Arctic
warfare to soldiers

from other NATO countries,
including the UK and US.

Bloody hell.

Students are learning
how to rescue themselves

in case if they go through
the weak ice.

INSTRUCTOR SPEAKS FINNISH

Tell us about this word,
this Finnish word, "sisu".

Sisu. What does it mean?

Ah, I guess it's sort of a...

..some kind of a Finnish version
of some kind of grit.

Grit. Grit, or something like that.

That's probably
the closest English word.

Guts. Guts, yes.

It's a big thing in Finland and it's
something you try to cultivate?

Yeah. Yeah.

This is one example.

Yeah. This is sisu.

This is proper sisu. Yeah, yeah.

They're pretty quiet
when they go in.

They're doing well.

Screaming doesn't help.
Screaming doesn't...!

SIMON LAUGHS

Maybe we all need
a bit of extra sisu.

Oh, my God.

Little bit of me
is keen to test myself.

And a lot of me is definitely not.

Last time we met, you were smiling.

Do I see you smiling again?

Well, sort of.

Of course, because this
is absolutely great fun.

Yeah, that's exactly the phrase
I would use.

Put this on one shoulder.
Oh, my God.

OK, are you ready?

Somebody's holding on to me, yeah?

Are you ready? Ah, yeah, I think so.

You can go. Is anyone ever?

Oh, my God.

Now breathe, breathe.

Good.

Bring your backpack here.

SIMON BREATHES DEEPLY

Yes, like that.

Get your skis. Oh, my God.

Both skis.

Ah, it's really sharp.

Take your pole.

Now, use your arms, use your legs.

Exactly like that.

Almost there.

Keep moving, keep crawling.

Little bit more.

Remove the rope.

Good job, good job. Thank you, guys.

Oh! All right, Simon?

Now, get warm. Yeah. OK.

The Finns,
they're a little bit bonkers

but they really believe
in this sisu.

And you know what?
They start them young.

Patriotism and a whopping army
aren't what most of us associate

with Scandinavia
and the wider region.

Just like its Scandi neighbours,
Finland also cherishes

liberal values like gender equality,
g*y rights

and a generous welfare state.

As a country, it scores near the top
for wealth, health and happiness.

And they start encouraging
all those Nordic values,

plus a dose of sisu,
even in their toddlers.

They've very kindly let us come
and see a Finnish school.

It is minus 18 Centigrade.

CHILDREN: Good morning.

Welcome to Salla.

Hello to you. Look, a lovely wave.

Hello, hello, hello!

They're asking if you are coming
with us to the forest?

Yes!

These three- to six-year-olds
are off out to forest school -

hours outside.

The head teacher, Josefiina Marola,

only takes them inside when
the temperature drops below

minus 30 degrees.

They're different in Finland.

It is a little surprising to me
to see...

..really, really young children
going off in these conditions.

But...they have just a different
mentality in Finland.

It's a matter of wearing
enough layers.

It's not really cold,
like, right now.

No, I've got about 47 layers on.

If you can go to that sort of level,
then, yeah. But you can...

You can be OK. ..put 47 layers on,
and you will be fine. Yes.

CHILDREN SHRIEK

Formal education here doesn't start
until kids are seven.

Before that they're playing.

In Finland, it's all about
the great outdoors,

about getting mucky and not endless
worrying about health and safety.

What are the advantages of
raising children this way?

They don't get sick.

They sleep well.

They learn things more naturally.
They have more space.

Do the kids get colds a lot?

No, hardly ever. Right.

No.

Their immune system
is just really good.

They don't get colds
or get sick at all.

I mean, it's minus 20 and something,
but, yeah.

And what I think is like the most
important thing about going

to school and growing up is
that they get along together.

Their social skills are just like,
great, I think.

When they're in the forest they just
naturally, like, help each other,

and no-one gets left behind.

I don't know why it happens.

Maybe it's just the forest is such,
like, a calming place.

CHILDREN CHATTER

Forest schools boost
children's immune systems.

Finnish scientists claim
contact with nature,

with mud and friendly bacteria,

prevents autoimmune diseases
and allergies.

Teachers here don't mollycoddle.

They keep watch, but children
are allowed to take risks.

Yes, even leaping off anti-tank
defences left from the w*r.

When we know the children well

and we know the whole family
and stuff,

it's easy to, you know,
build a trust.

I think education overall

just is like a really,
really respected thing in Finland.

So, respect and trust are two key
words that leap out at me there.

Well, yeah definitely.

Yeah, and they don't really question
the things we do here.

And if the teacher says it's OK
to be outside, then it is.

What a difference with the UK, where
teachers too often face parents

who don't trust or respect them.

Here there were no complaints
from the hardy youngsters

or at school pick-up time.

You're happy for Josefiina
to take your precious son

into the forest when it is
minus 18 up there?

Yes, because I know my son
will survive.

THEY LAUGH

You have a lot of respect
for education

and educators, for teachers.

Yes.

You trust them. Yes, very much.

Well, this has been fascinating,
mind-blowing even.

I'm hearing a lot about trust.

And trust is something
I'm really interested in.

People in Scandinavia and the Nordic
countries have much higher levels

of trust in their institutions,
their governments and each other.

As this journey goes on
I'm really keen to learn the role

that trust plays in making
Scandinavia such a success.

I headed west through
Lapland's vast forests

and crossed the border into Sweden.

Lapland is a region of


across northern Finland,
Sweden, Norway

and even a small bit of Russia.

During winter
it's buried under snow,

but Lapland's still a major
provider of resources.

Swedes chop and plant
millions of trees up here

for all that flat-pack furniture.

Lapland's also important
for green energy.

Hydroelectric power provides


but requires power lines
and railways crisscrossing Lapland.

During the 20th century,
Europe often outsourced

its extraction of fossil fuels
and heavy industry as well to...

..poorer, less developed
parts of the world.

But during what's being described
as the green transition now

to renewable energy, there will be
a need for a huge number of mines,

solar farms, wind turbines,
wind farms,

and that will cause problems with
other people, with other groups.

Lapland's home to the Sami people.

They've lived here
for thousands of years -

long before modern countries -

with their own language and culture,

for many, inextricably linked
to the reindeer.

I'm meeting a reindeer herder
called Mikael.

I've got a pin on a map

where we've got to meet him
in the middle of nowhere.

Once nomadic,
the Sami are now mostly settled.

They still keep and herd reindeer.

Sami elder Mikael Kuhmunen
makes his living out here.

Mikael. Hello. Hi, Mikael, Simon.

Mikael. Very lovely to see you

The same.

Hello, lads. Good morning. Hello.

SIMON LAUGHS

So...

..where are the reindeer?

They are up there.

Right, OK.

We're going to move the reindeers
away from there,

take them down
to the road and then...

ENGINE TURNS OVER

..the reindeers will probably
follow the road.

And how many -
how many reindeer do you have?

That's a funny question.

You don't ask anyone how many
reindeers they have. Oh...

It's quite... It's not polite.
It's not polite.

It's like asking you how much money
you have in the bank. Right.

It's the same question. But I have
reindeers so I can survive.

SIMON CHUCKLES

We're going to make a
snowmobile track here so...

I'm quite lazy,
I let the sons do the job.

SIMON LAUGHS

Reindeers, they should not be
too long in the same place.

That's why we herd the reindeers,
move them from one place to another.

Right. So they don't destroy
the grazing area.

So they'll move in search of food,

but that can obviously split them up
and move them apart too far

and also presumably expose them
to danger as well.

Yes, a couple of years ago
we had about 50 reindeers,

they went out on the railway
and they were hit by a train.

It was nothing left of them.


By one train. By one train.

Oh, my goodness.

So then we learned the lesson.

We are very afraid of the train,
of the railroads.

How do you avoid that?

We can't. We can only take away
the reindeers from the danger.

This is something that has
made our lives more easy.

Mm.

We are experts to adapt ourselves,
and every new thing, we take it.

OK, now we go up in the air.

DRONE WHIRS

Reindeer used to roam
wherever they liked.

Now, there are dangers everywhere.

Mikael and his sons, Aslat and Nils,
are worried about a small group

from their herd that have
strayed too close to railway tracks.

We need to find them.

So there's the reindeer. Yes.

Then I put the GPS spot on it.

So now I see on the map, and then
I can show my sons where they are.

Clever, clever.

SNOWMOBILE STARTS

So, we're heading out
to look for the reindeer.

Reindeer are tough,
yet they still need looking after.

They're crucial to the ecosystem
in Lapland,

but forests rich in lichen,
the reindeers' favourite food,

have declined by 71% in Sweden.

OK, so the reindeer,
there's reindeer just ahead of us,

and they're being corralled
by the lads and by our Ski-Doos,

and hopefully they're moving
in the right direction.

OK, they've got them into the open

and they're now... Ooh!
..moving them towards the road.

We gently guided them away
from the train tracks...

..but roads, tracks,
industry, people -

it's all disrupting
reindeer behaviour and migration.

Even new green industries up here
pose threats to wildlife

and the livelihoods of Sami herders.

That's it, they've reached the road.

And so have we.

SNOWMOBILE ENGINE PUTTERS OUT

What are they doing, Mikael?
They are eating salt.

Yesterday, it was ice on the road
so they put salt on.

Now they... They love it.
They love it.

Of course, like a salt lick almost.

Yes.

When they once find the salt,
they will always come back.

It's like a drug.

And they're drawn
to the road to eat it,

and that presumably
results in collisions. Yes.

Most of the people that are driving
car they say that reindeer,

it is the most stupid
animal on the earth.

Right!

Because they stand on the salt

just waiting to get hit by a car.

So that affects...that affects
their migration, their movement,

your ability to herd them?
Yes, it does.

We are already so affected
by everything you can imagine.

We have the railroad,

we have the hydropower dam

just 15km away from here,

power lines.

How do the power lines
affect you and the reindeer?

They stopped before the power line.

There's something that we don't see,

something is scaring them.

They avoid the power lines.

We don't need no more, erm...

..more things that affect us.

It's so difficult, isn't it,
because obviously people will say

that Lapland needs development,
it needs jobs?

But, understandably, you see your
way of life being threatened.

I see it that way, yes.

It's like... It's like a lifestyle
that's slowly fading away.

The major threat here's
climate change.

The Arctic's heating
nearly four times faster

than the rest of the planet.

It's simply not as cold
as it is normally.

This kind of snow,
it's usually in the springtime.

Now we're in the middle
of the winter,

it should be 30, 30 minus.

Should it really?
Yes, but now it's almost 10.

So you're caught, really, in a
terrible Catch-22, I sense,

where on the one hand
you're seeing climate change...

I have seen it
for almost 20 years now.

..and on the other hand,
you're threatened by the industry

that is being developed
to try and help prevent

or at least mitigate the climate
change that we're all threatened by.

A rock and a hard place.

The ones who get sacrificed,
it's us,

we, the reindeers, the reindeer
herders, the Sami people.

The thing I wonder why,

why do you have to destroy
the planet to save it?

It doesn't make sense to me. Mm.

ENGINES TURN OVER

Not far from where
Mikael herds his reindeer

is the small Swedish mining town
of Kiruna.

Legend says, in the mid 1600s,

a farmer, hunting squirrels, found a
strange heavy black rock here.

Turned out it was iron ore.

Kiruna's grown up around what's now
a vast underground iron ore mine,

the biggest in the world.

All the mining and tunnelling
underground has, of course,

turned to land here, this area,

into Swiss cheese,

and it's destabilised
many of the buildings here,

and as a result, a number of them
have got to be destroyed,

and a large part of the town here
has got to be moved.

So some of the buildings here,
they're actually just relocating.

This huge old church, for example,
they're going to jack that up

and then later this year,
they're going to move it to a new

location at the very stately
pace of half a mile an hour.

Much of Kiruna's being moved so
they can keep digging underground,

because, for Sweden, and for Europe,
the mine is vital.

Geologist Laura Lauri
works for LKAB,

the state-owned Swedish mining
company.

They've extracted more than two
billion tons of iron ore

from this mine alone.

By one reckoning, that's equivalent
to the top third of Mount Everest.

We headed in.

Here you see the mine entrance.

So, this is the largest underground
iron ore mine in the world.

It's about 80% of what
we use in Europe.


comes from...comes from here? Yeah.

I guess that if you have products
that have been produced in Europe

that contain steel,
then it mostly comes from here.

Well, this is very definitely
not like the mine in Svalbard.

So we will just park the car here.
All right.

We were nearly a mile underground,

a subterranean world of huge
tunnels, offices,

a staff canteen, coffee machines,

even pot plants.

Hiya. Hello, hello, hello.

It's one of the most
high-tech mines in the world

and Emil is a very modern
sort of miner.

Hello. Hello.

What are you doing?

I'm remote operating.

I have my cameras on the machine.

Yeah.

And I also have rock breaker
to break the larger boulders.

Oh, my goodness.

So now I just press the button and
now it's going to dump the bucket.

Well, what's going on?
It's driving itself. Yeah.

It's driving itself,
it's autonomously.

So, I'm always going to
the ore pass,

and it dumps the rock
down the ore pass.

Right. And then it returns to the
drift where I fill the bucket.

So this is a very new style mining,
isn't it?

Where are the hard
calluses on your hands? No.

No. Where is your pick and shovel?

No pick and shovel here.

Now you have a joystick!

Yeah, a joystick
and an Xbox control.

Now, we mustn't film this,
because all the youngsters watching,

who are playing on their
consoles will say,

"Look, Mum and Dad, this is why
I need to be gaming,

"so I can work in a Swedish mine."
Exactly.

So now I shake the bucket. Look.

No, you're not. Yeah. Go on,
give the bucket a little shake.

Oh, my goodness.

You seem very happy with your job.
Yeah. Yeah, I love my job.

This is very fun.

Miles underground, machines do most
of the dangerous and grubby work.

Machines bring the iron ore
to the surface -

and if something goes wrong,
there's someone, or something,

who goes to investigate.

This looks like a kennel.

It does look like a kennel.

Whoa!

Oh, my goodness.

The robot reconnaissance dog

can be sent into the most dangerous
parts of the mine.

I was a little bit taken aback.

That was my first time,
anywhere on the planet,

I've encountered a moving
robotic creature, as it were.

What can Spot do?

After the blasting,
it checks if something has happened,

if there has been any rock falls.

This is, like, the future of
mining here, isn't it? Yes.

Taking humans...
not out of the equation,

but out of the danger zone.

Out of the danger, yes. Yeah.

Come on, you've got to see this.

Look.

I'll bring it out.

They really have put
dog treats in here.

HE LAUGHS

The miners and their machines are
still exploring underground here,

hunting for more iron
deep beneath the snows of Lapland.

But a couple of years ago
they made a startling discovery

which could be a game-changer
for the whole of Europe,

and for the future of green
technology.

Under this forested area, here,

we have another iron ore body which
contains quite a lot of iron,

phosphorus
and also rare earth elements.

Rare earth elements.

Most used ones are, for instance
are neodymium and praseodymium,

that are used for example for wind
turbines and battery technology.

There's 17 rare earth minerals,

including samarium,
europium and scandium.

They're critical
for next-generation tech.

What coal was to the 19th century,
and oil to the 20th,

rare earth elements
could be to the 21st.

So, I've got a couple
of pieces of drill core

and there's quite a lot of those
pink and whitish minerals here -

and that's the mineral apatite,

the phosphorus mineral that contains
also the rare earths.

We have numbers that
show that this deposit,

it's almost one billion tons of ore.

That's billion with a B?

Yeah, one billion tons of ore.

Here, these are the fundamentals

of...potentially of Europe's
future economy.

It's really true.

And this only strengthens
the importance of this region.

This is geopolitics, right here.

The great powers are now scrambling
to secure rare earth minerals.

China currently has most of them.

Europe doesn't produce any.

This mine could change that.

The environment here
will be affected -

perhaps we don't have a choice -

but it's a consequence
we shouldn't ignore.

You can see a train down here,
taking out iron ore.

What's happening here
is really important.

Europe is going to need these rare
earth minerals and metals

if we are going to transition to
a cleaner, greener future -

but there are costs.

Next time,
I'm in western Scandinavia...

Orca!

..exploring the fjords of Norway...

..and further west,
the volcanoes of Iceland.

Need to get out of here.