People manage to live in some pretty remote
places. Take the 258 folks that live on the island
of Tristan da Cunha in the South Atlantic. If you want to visit them, you’ll have to
take a ship from Cape Town for a journey of 1,732 miles [2,787 km]. For some peace and quiet you might also visit
Barrow, Alaska, which is only reachable by plane. The 4,200 inhabitants of this town spend much
of their extremely cold winters in total darkness. Even more remote is the town of Ittoqqortoormiit
in Greenland, whose 452 population make their money fishing shrimp and hunting whales and
polar bears. They are also happy to put the intrepid tourist
up for the night. How would you fare in one of these far-flung
destinations? That’s what we’ll find out today, in this
episode of the Infographics Show, Could you survive in Siberia? It really depends which part of Siberia we
are talking about of course. If, for example, you were dropped off in the
city of Novosibirsk, the largest city in Siberia, you’d be fine as it’s a modern city and
you’d be living there with around 1.5 million other people. Ok, so the winter is not exactly inviting,
but survival wouldn’t be an issue at all. But the Soviets chose Siberia as the location
where people deemed a threat to the regime were sent to die for a good reason. Parts of it are about as remote as you can
get. Siberia itself is massive, with a total land
area of 5,050,000 square miles [13,100,000 km2]. That’s about 77 percent of the land area
in the whole of Russia. Despite that, only 27 percent of Russia’s
population lives there. The harsh climate doesn’t exactly make life
easy for the 36 million people that inhabit Siberia. The more remote you get, the more space people
have. The almost-19,000 people that live in Koryak
Okrug on the western tip of Siberia have 116,000 square miles [301,500 km2] to play with. The largest ethnic group there are the Koryaks,
and we bet you’ve never even heard of them. They live alongside other indigenous people,
such as the Evens, Itelmens and the Chukchi people. But let’s say we are sending you to the
most remote part of Siberia, also sometimes called the coldest year-round inhabited place
on the planet. This place is called Oymyakon, and the 500
folks that live here can enjoy just an average of 3 hours of daylight per day in December. In June the sun comes out, but it’s out
for 21 hours a day. The lowest recorded temperature there was
−89.9F [−67.7C], which is a bit chilly for most people. If you go there next winter, you can expect
the average temperature to be around -58F [-50C]. In fact, it’s bitterly cold most of the
year, with temperatures at the peak of summer being 58.8F [14.9C] on average. You get the picture. But could you survive there? Well, people do, even though pictures of them
online depict them walking through a landscape that looks like a miniature town that’s
been sitting in your freezer for 10 years. Once you are there, it’s not easy getting
out. The nearest town called Yakutsk is 576 miles
[926km] away. One journalist that visited the town said
he was surprised that people living there were not exactly hardened to the freezing
temperatures. “I'd expected that the locals would be accustomed
to the winters and there would be everyday life happening in the streets,” he told
The Telegraph newspaper, adding, “But people were very wary of the cold.” Yep, if it gets too bad, say below -50, the
kids don’t even go to school. He said the entire town felt abandoned, as
anything that happened generally happened inside. That meant that he didn’t get to meet many
of the local folks. “The only companions I had were the occasional
street dog, or one of the drunks,” he said. Thank God for dogs and drunks. But he also said the locals were not exactly
the warmest people in the world. “They were a tough people,” he said. “I expected there to be human warmth there,
but I didn't experience that at all.” He went as far as to say that during his trip
he was threatened outside twice by drunks, adding that if you end up unconscious on the
floor there it means you’ll likely die. He was only there a short while, too. His conclusion. “It didn't feel like a happy place.” Living there is hard on you in many ways. Reports suggest that just a walk down the
street to the local store is exhausting, with everyday tasks like tying a shoe lace outside
are difficult. The weather rules over every aspect of your
life, and get things wrong and it could mean frostbite or worse. The BBC said the same thing. Its journalist said that even though the frost
melts during some parts of the year, it melts slowly, and the ground is not much good for
farming. Even dying is hard. “It takes two or three days to dig a grave
in frozen ground,” wrote the BBC. So, first things first, if you do get sent
there to live you will have to get decked out in the local-style clothes. Fashion is of little importance of course,
and most people there wear the best survival gear there is – not available in your local
sporting goods store. The inhabitants just about all wear fur hats
and fur coats. A coat will set you back about $1,500. One journalist explained what it’s like
not having the right clothes. “This was so cold that after no more than
a few minutes outside, exposed skin started to smart with pain, damp surfaces in my nostrils
froze, and toes and fingers turned uncomfortably cold very quickly, despite three layers of
thick socks and two pairs of gloves.” Yep, you really have to follow the locals
here, so don’t think about getting precious about wearing something fashioned out of a
dead Arctic fox. The BBC journalist had better luck than the
Telegraph journalist who only seemed to meet angry drunk men. She was invited into a house to watch a mother
dressing her daughter before she went to school. Dressing was an important part of the day. “In other parts of Russia, you can throw
on a coat to go outdoors, here it takes ages to dress. But we are used to it. This is our home,” the mother said. Ok, so what do the locals do to survive. Hardly anything grows, you can’t be out
for long, and even if you are out it’s hardly Disney Land. Well, one western photographer wrote that
a way people deal with the harsh climate is to booze the dark days away. “Russki chai, literally Russian tea, which
is their word for vodka,” said the guy, adding that they drink a lot of ‘tea’. He wrote that as plumbing is virtually impossible
so most people use outhouses to do their business in. Cars cannot even be left in a garage if it’s
not heated as they won’t start again. If for some reason your car fails to keep
running outdoors, it’s likely it won’t start again. This is not a town where you want to break
down. Oh, and once you get dropped off there by
plane at the beginning of winter, that’s it for air travel for the rest of the winter
season. Those are private planes, too, there is no
regular airline that goes there. Most people take the long drive, but that’s
also perilous. The road in is called the “Road of Bones.” It’s perilous, but it actually got that
name because of all the people that died constructing the road. So, let’s say you have a house and have
all your furs. Now, you’re hungry, what are you going to
eat? Well, as hardly anything grows people hunt
for their grub. “Yakutians love the cold food, the frozen
raw Arctic fish, white salmon, whitefish, frozen raw horse liver, but they are considered
to be delicacy,” one local man told weather.com. “In daily life, we like eating the soup
with meat. The meat is a must. It helps our health much.” You are either going to have to learn how
to hunt, or look for somewhere to buy some food. Another journalist said he managed to find
a place that served him reindeer soup, and that’s what he lived on for two days. He also said that you build-up a good appetite
just from getting around. “After the first couple of days I was physically
wrecked just from strolling around the streets for a few hours,” he said. On the menu the dishes mostly consist of stroganina,
(raw frozen fish) the aforementioned reindeer meat, frozen raw horse liver, and a specialty
which is ice cubes of horse blood with macaroni. Hmm, yum, yum. You can see one video made there that shows
a local market where you can buy this stuff, but it’s not exactly bustling. In the film there is one customer with her
child, walking around the market in -68.8F [-56C] cold. “While filming the trading rows my hands
froze to wild pain. And sellers stand here all day long. How do they warm themselves?” said the filmmaker. The answer is good clothing, but also the
fact these people are very, very tough. So, the answer to the question this show asks
is no, we don’t think you could survive living here without a great deal of help. But it all depends on which part of Siberia
of course. The more remote, the less chance you will
have of survival. Or, do you disagree? Let us know in the comments! Also, be sure to check out our other video
Why 2019 Will Be Horrible. Thanks for watching, and as always, please
don’t forget to like, share and subscribe. See you next time!
