yego.me
💡 Stop wasting time. Read Youtube instead of watch. Download Chrome Extension

Flight at the Edge of the Ozone Layer | One Strange Rock


2m read
·Nov 11, 2024

NARRATOR: 30 years ago, we discovered man-made chemicals had punched a hole in the ozone layer. Is that hole here to stay, waiting around to kill us? Today, we're trying hard to find out. Morgan Sandercock is about to test an experimental plane, perfect for sampling ozone.

MAN: (ON RADIO) Copy that. So I felt pressure rising.

MORGAN SANDERCOCK: (VOICEOVER) We think we can go as high as 90,000 feet.

MAN: (ON RADIO) Jim, you ready to go?

JIM PAYNE: (ON RADIO) We're ready.

MORGAN SANDERCOCK: (VOICEOVER) That's the big boy territory. That's where things can go wrong very, very quickly. If we lose cabin pressure, then, the pilots could very easily pass out. And we don't have any automatic systems to recover from that.

WOMAN: (ON RADIO) Getting ready to roll.

NARRATOR: Now, a glider might sound like a dangerous choice so high up. But gliders don't have engines, which means they can't pollute the team's samples.

MAN: (ON RADIO) Confirm [inaudible] off.

WOMAN: (ON RADIO) [inaudible] is off. Wing wheel is off.

MAN: (ON RADIO) Been running at 11:32.

MAN: (ON RADIO) 11:32. Written down in GPS 5.

MAN: (ON RADIO) Airborne. [music playing]

NARRATOR: The Perlan glider uses air rising over the Southern Andes to reach extraordinary heights.

MAN: (ON RADIO) Airspeed, 70 knots. Looking beautiful.

MAN: (ON RADIO) Yeah?

MAN: (ON RADIO) Really high.

MAN: (ON RADIO) Traffic.

MAN: (ON RADIO) Yeah.

NARRATOR: 52,000 feet up makes this the highest glider flight ever. But you've got to get this high to get a great picture of the ozone layer. The good news is that thanks to a global ban on ozone-harming chemicals, it looks like the hole is healing up. Our shield is regenerating.

More Articles

View All
How To Get Out of Bed More Easily | Wake Up Early with ENERGY
Looks pretty good, what can I say? Bed. When you don’t feel like—do you have a hard time getting out of bed in the morning? Well, I don’t. So in this video, I’m gonna teach you how to be less like you and more like me. That’s not true; I still struggle o…
How I started selling private jets
I started when I was 23 years old, working for a jet broker in Washington DC. In those days, it was maybe six or seven jet brokers in the United States. I don’t think there were any outside the United States at the time. It was really in the beginning of …
The Best Decisions You Can Make In Life
During the course of your life, you’ll be faced with some decisions that will completely change the way you experience what time you have on this planet. Even though most decisions are reversible, they will still have a great impact on your life. These ar…
YC SUS: Eric Migicovsky hosts founder office hours
Cool! I think so, yeah. Hi everyone, my name is Eric Michalski. Whoops! I just got a gift from Zune. My name is Eric Michalski. I’m a partner here at Y Combinator, and I’m the course facilitator for Startup School. Welcome to a new experiment that we’re g…
It Started: The Worst Market Collapse In 50 Years | Michael Burry
What’s up, Graham? It’s guys here, and it’s official: the stock market makes absolutely no sense. Despite weak earnings, a recession that’s all but confirmed, and JP Morgan’s recent warning that the market could fall another 20%, prices have begun to do t…
Revealing My ENTIRE $13 Million Investment Portfolio | 30 Years Old
What’s up you guys? It’s Graham here. So, a little over a year ago, I made a video breaking down in extreme detail every single one of my investments: how I started, how I built them up, how much money they make, and the lessons I’ve learned along the way…