All language subtitles for BBC.Scandinavia.with.Simon.Reeve.1080p.x265.AAC.MVGroup.org.eng

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.

- GUNFIRE

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 killing 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.

- BELL DINGS
- Good. I'll ring the bell.

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

- LOUD ENGINE RUMBLES
for tourists.

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 War 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 war 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 War II, the Soviet Red
Army invaded,

and Finland sided with Germany.

In the Cold War 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, 365 days of the year.

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 War,

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 missile 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 war.
- Yes, yes.

- Across Finland, there are more than
50,000 bunkers

to shelter almost the entire
population of more than five million

in the event of war.

- 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 rifle 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
rifle.

- There are hundreds of shooting
ranges across Finland,

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

Finns have one of the highest rates of
gun 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 12
times larger than Finland's.

LOUD GUNSHOT

It's almost like a piece of artillery.

Very powerful.

LOUD GUNSHOT

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 GUNFIRE

It might seem unthinkable elsewhere in
Western Europe,

but they fear war 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.

GUNFIRE

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 shooting
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 artillery 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,
gay 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 war.

- 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 150,000 square
miles

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 40% of
Sweden's electricity,

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.

- 50 reindeer were killed...
- 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.

- 80% of Europe's iron ore 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.

I'm on the rugged edge of Europe,

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.

- Somebody's holding on to me, yeah?!

- Now breathe, breathe.

- Off we go.

- I'm hoping to understand how they
built

some of the happiest societies on the
planet...

Hey, guys.
- Morning.

LAUGHTER
- Good morning.

And who have we got here?

What...?

- Hello!
- Welcome, welcome!
LAUGHTER

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

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

Santa Park is also a nuclear bunker?

- Yes. Very much so.

- They are preparing to defend
Finland.

- GUNFIRE

Bloody hell.

You're wearing these in urban Sweden?

- Yes.

- There's another side to Scandinavia.

- Ready to fire?

- On this second leg of my
Scandinavian journey,

I'm travelling from the west coast of
Norway

across the North Atlantic to the
volcanic island of Iceland.

Norway's shoreline is gouged and
carved

by spectacular fjords and islands -

almost a quarter of a million islands
-

along the longest coast in Europe.

Second longest in the world.

Rex is checking out the coastline
here.

It is fairly astonishing.

Norway does have an almost excessively
rugged,

jagged, fragmented coastline.

Since the time of the Vikings,

when they weren't out doing a spot of
pillaging,

people here have fished and farmed
their sheep.

For Roy and Inger Oksnes, this is
home.

They're taking me to a small island
where they keep their family flock.

Let's go. Are you ready to go?

- After you.
- All right.

Well, I think the dog is going to be
doing most of the work

ROY WHISTLES

Hey, look, there they are.

ROY WHISTLES

I sense Rex wants to round up the
sheep.

Tell us what to do, Roy.

ROY WHISTLES

Er, they're making a break!

ROY SHOUTS

Ah-ah-ah!

There's a breakaway flock over there.

Another flock over here.

I mean, they do say a flock of sheep
comes with a flock of problems.

- So, Simon, did you get the speed?
Heating up?

- I'm warming up Roy, I am.
- You're warming up?

- It gets the blood flowing, that's
for sure.

- You feel the blood flowing, blood
flowing, very good.

- You love it, don't you? I can tell!

- Yes, and we get some exercise out of
it.

- Mush! Mush! Mush!

Roy's family have farmed these remote
islands for generations.

Each year, when summer arrives,

it's shearing time for Roy and his
burly lads -

or rather for the sheep.

There we go.

- Well done, guys.
- And they're in.

After Vikings here put down their
battle axes,

Norway spent centuries as almost a
rural backwater of Scandinavia.

Only around 3% of the land is
farmable.

The sea up here is harsh and
dangerous.

Many struggled.

What was life like here for your
parents, your grandparents?

Other Scandis viewed Norwegians as
country bumpkins.

They were the butt of jokes.

- 50ml...

- Then, 50 years ago, everything
changed

when the Norwegians hit the national
equivalent of a Vegas jackpot.

So, it's 9:30 on a Wednesday,

and Roy is off to work.

So, this is where you work?

- Yes. I work on the other side of the
plant.

- Look at the size of this.

This tangled eruption of pipes and
chimneys is Mongstad...

..home to Norway's biggest oil and gas
refinery.

Roy is one of more than 1,000 people
working here.

You wear it well.

Ah, it's the belt, isn't it?

Roy's family farm is now just a
sideline.

During the week, he works for Equinor,

Norway's largely state-owned oil and
gas company.

He belongs to a lucky generation of
Norwegians

gifted one of history's biggest
Christmas presents.

All right.

It was the night before Christmas Eve,
1969.

Norway discovered oil in the North
Sea.

It was their last attempt.

They were about to give up.

What they found became the largest oil
field ever discovered at sea

anywhere in the world.

Oh, my God.

So, this is a tanker coming in empty
or full?

- This is an empty tanker coming in
for loading crude.

- It's like a four-storey metal wall
just moving in front.

It's colossal.

- Little bit away from the mooring
lines.

- Over the last 50 years,

this small nation of farmers and
fisherman

has sucked out trillions of pounds'
worth of oil and gas

from under the North Sea.

They pump more of the stuff per head
than even Saudi Arabia.

You live quite a double life, Roy.

- Ja...
- One moment, you're with your sheep
and the next...

Have we got enough?
- Ja.

- I'm going to really mess this up,
aren't I?

- I don't think so.

- In front of these burly bloody
Norwegians.

Good afternoon.

Say when, sir.

- Whenever you're ready.
- Yeah.

- Thank you.
- He's got it.

- Yep.
- Look at that.

The job is done.

- So now you can start to work in the
oil business.

- They're loading this tanker with
enough oil

to fuel more than one million cars
with petrol -

all of it for export.

But at home, at least,

Norway's enthusiastically adopted
green energy.

They have the highest number of
electric cars

per head in the world -

and most of them have ditched their
gas boilers

for electric heat pumps.

Just a little bit of a contradiction.

Hardly any of this oil is actually
used here in Norway.

Norway sources almost all of its
electricity

from cleaner, greener hydroelectric
power -

thus absolving itself of any sort of
direct consumer guilt.

They're a little bit like a drug
pusher, really,

who refuses to use their own product.

But they will very happily sell it to
almost anyone else.

With sanctions on Russia,

Norway's now the biggest supplier of
gas to the UK and Germany.

It's a trade that has helped to make
the 5.5 million Norwegians

among the richest people on the
planet.

An hour down the coast is Bergen, an
oil boom town,

but not like any I've ever seen.

It really looks like Diagon Alley from
Harry Potter.

If you were expecting oil bling like
Abu Dhabi or Houston,

or somewhere like that, think again.

Here, they spent a lot of their oil
money restoring old Bergen.

Lovingly restoring it.

It's all very understated
Scandinavian.

Of course, in many countries,
discovering oil

doesn't always bring benefits for the
people, the masses.

Often it fuels corruption, and even
war -

or a pampered elite just fritter away
the oil billions.

But to their credit, at least here
even ordinary Norwegians

have shared in the oil bonanza.

Alf?
- Yes!

- Hello, Alf.
- Hello.

- I'm Simon.

- Hello, Simon.
- It's lovely to see you.

I've got a slightly fractured finger,

so I'll go with that one.
- Ja.

- Hello.
- Welcome here.

- Thank you very much. Carolina?
- Hello, Simon.

- Hi, Carolina. Simon. Yes, hello.

- Nice to meet you.
- Nice to meet you, too.

- Well, come on board.
- Yes.

- All right. Thank you.

Alf Roald Saetre and Carolina Saetre
are local entrepreneurs.

Ah, straight into the cabin.
- Yes.
- Straight in.

- I definitely should not be here.

The lives of Norwegians - all of them
-

have been transformed by oil.

Alf comes from a humble background -
his family were oyster farmers -

and he's still obsessed with seafood.

Locals have given him a nickname.

Oyster Dundee, named after Crocodile
Dundee?

- Yeah. But I've been working with
oysters.

I still have a big knife also.
- You have a big knife?
- Yeah, yeah.

- I'm sure you do.
- Yeah.

- Back in the 1970s, Alf started
working

on some of the first oil rigs out on
the Norwegian side

of the North Sea.

So you were a trained submarine pilot?

- Yes.
- You trained in Edinburgh,

and that was to pilot the submersibles

that were servicing the oil rigs?
- Servicing.

Yeah, and bringing divers down in the
local submarines.

So we did various jobs for the oil
industry.

- So you were there really during the
birth of Norway's oil industry?

- Yes, we were pioneers.

It was a great time, actually.

Yeah, I really loved it.

- What's sort of the coldest
temperature you would dive in?

- Around four degrees here.

- That's pretty dam chilly.

- This neoprene isolates quite a lot.

- Yeah. And good blood as well?

Good Viking spirit?
- Yeah, Viking blood, you know?

- LAUGHTER

Now aged 72, these days Oyster Dundee

dives down for shellfish.

- OK.
- Well, good luck and stay safe.

- Yeah.

- Are you happy with him diving?

- Oh...
- Oh, you're making a face.

- It makes me nervous a little bit.

- Hello!
- Hey, how was that?

- That was very nice.

"Very nice."
- SIMON LAUGHS

Good.

- You can pull it up.

- Pull it up? All right.
- Yeah.

See what we got.

- Oh, right. Quite the catch.

Wow!

There we are.
- There we are. Back.

Really nice.

- Excellent.

- I got some really big ones.

So I go in with the knife and cut it.

And...

- It just pops open.
- Yeah.

Normally they throw the gills away,

but actually there's a lot of taste in
it.

So you can eat it, yeah.

And it's so good to eat, you know?

- But this bit of the scallop is the
best, no?

- Yeah.
- Thank you.

- When you eat the scallop, this is
the muscle itself.

Mm! You can feel it works!

- Well, I'm admiring what it does for
you.

- Yeah.

This is very healthy food.

And my father, he ate this all his
life,

every day,

and he got so old that we had to kill
him.

- LAUGHTER

Actually, why am I laughing at that?!

A shocking story.

- So it's so very, very, very healthy.

- This is the other problem in the sea
now, isn't it?

- Ja.
- Little bits of plastic floating
around.

- I hate plastic in the water.
- Oh, you're going in?

- Wahey!

- LAUGHTER

Well done, Alf! Well done!

That is how people should respond to
it.

Well done.

Like many other Norwegians,

Alf earned decent money in the oil
industry.

He invested his earnings and became a
successful businessman.

Where are we going now, Alf?

- We are heading towards the little
tiny island that nobody lives on.

It's only a restaurant, Cornelius
restaurant.

- And this is your restaurant?

- Yes, it's my restaurant.

- OK.

Alf named his restaurant Cornelius

after his oyster-farming grandfather.

- Hello!
- Hello, hello!

- Come along and have a look.
- All right.

- There you see running water.
- Yeah.

- So I keep my scallops and stuff...
- Nice and fresh.

- It's nice, huh?
- Yeah.

This is where you can see how well-off
Norwegians are.

Private ferries often bring more than
200 guests a night.

- So you heard about me?

- Yes.
- I told her. I told her.

- OK.
- Very sexy guy out there.

- LAUGHTER

Diners can pay more than £150 a head -

and that's without wine from Alf's
walk-in cellar.

What's the most expensive bottle of
wine you've got here?

- This is the most expensive one.

It's actually £8,000.

- £8,000 bottle of wine!

There's few signs here of a
cost-of-living crisis in Norway.

- Oi, oi, oi!

- What is this? Thank you.

- This is our bisque crab soup.
- Ja.

- And this is the smoked salmon.

- Oh, that looks very special.

- Enjoy.
- Thank you.

When you were a lad growing up,

this was not the Norwegian reality,
was it?

- No, my mother, she knitted my
clothes.

So it was... We didn't have any money

to spend on luxury things.

- And now look!

- And now look, yeah. It's quite a
change.

So I think about it more or less every
day, actually.

- What, your good luck?

- Yes, how lucky we are that we have
been born here.

- To be born Norwegian -

that's winning a lottery, really,
isn't it?

- It feels like it. Yeah.

- I think we're just in time.

Hiya.

I think this is right.

I was taking the overnight train to
Norway's capital city, Oslo.

So, let's have a look at this.

Ooh!

It's a bit sort of prison-cell chic -

but not bad.

Didn't sleep too badly.

It's a little bit like being rocked in
a cradle.

For many years, Norway had the second
highest GDP

per capita in Europe - after tiny
Luxembourg.

And all that money wasn't splashed out

on Lamborghinis and Prada handbags.

It went on wages,

state spending,

and into just about the biggest pot of
dosh on the planet.

In the 1990s, Norway took the decision
to save and invest

a huge chunk of their earnings from
oil and gas

for the future.

They set up a giant national savings
account -

a sovereign wealth fund, as they're
called.

It's now the single largest in the
world.

So here we are.

This looks just like any other
corporate office, doesn't it?

But this is definitely not some paper
wholesalers in Slough.

What goes on in here affects the lives

of millions of people around the
world.

This is the headquarters of Norway's
sovereign wealth fund.

The fund is a financial colossus.

It's one of the largest single stores
of wealth ever assembled.

Maybe the biggest.

The fund owns global infrastructure,

ports, airports, chunks of major world
cities,

and roughly 1.5% of all the stocks and
shares listed

in the entire world.

Thank you.

The fund is worth the equivalent of
nearly 25,000 tons of gold.

Look, online, there's a website

which shows the actual market value of
the fund in real time.

It is a staggering sum.

So this is in Norwegian kroner,

but in pounds it's more than £1.2
trillion.

That is an almost unimaginable figure.

For me, the best way of understanding

how much a trillion is,

is to convert it into seconds.

So, rather than thinking of it in
pounds,

think of it in seconds.

A million seconds is almost 12 days
ago.

A billion seconds is more than 31
years ago.

But a trillion seconds is more than
31,000 years ago.

A trillion is a huge figure.

All right. Thank you.

I'd come to see the fund's chief of
staff,

Trond Grande.

Trond? Hello, Simon Reeve.

Nice to see you.
- Nice to meet you.

- I know you're very busy.
- Absolutely.

- Can we come in?
- Of course.

- Oh, fantastic.

And you've got a book here.

What is this? Pressure.

- Pressure.
- "Lessons from the..."

- "..Psychology of Penalty Shoots."

- You're a man who deals with pressure
that most of us cannot comprehend.

- Yes, but I think we all do, right?

And the point he tried make was, you
know,

how can you prepare for the pressure?

- This is a colossal store of wealth.

- Of course, it's just a staggering
amount of money.

But I mean, honestly, for us,

it's just another kind of three more
zeros

or six more zeros, or nine more zeros.
Right?

You become slightly kind of blind to
the size of it.

- Mm.

The Norwegians spend less from the
fund each year

than the amount it's increased by.

So it's just grown and grown.

So sensible and Scandinavian.

Can you imagine how good you have to
be at delaying gratification

and thinking long-term when you've got
an ice cream store

right outside your office?

How on earth do you cope with that?!

That is a source of temptation.

- It is.

- I think this says a lot about you.

- About restraint?
- Yes!

- Well, we have to fill it quite
often, right?

Some people tend...
- Yeah.

- Especially now during summer.

Late afternoon, grab an ice cream and
stay outside.

- Yeah, but look at your washboard
stomach there.

You're clearly not eating all of
these, are you?

- I'm leaving it to everybody else to
eat, yeah.

- Look, this cannot... Trond, I'm
sorry.

- Yeah.
- I've just seen another...

This is brilliant.
- This is... Yeah.

- Is this how decisions are taken?

Look at this.
- Yeah.

- So, it has buy...

..sell, hold...

..or panic.

LAUGHTER

This is a decision-making cube...

- Absolutely essential to what we do,
yeah.

- ..for anyone who trades in stocks
and shares.

Look, what's it going to come up as?

- Panic.
- Panic?!
- Panic.

- LAUGHTER

Thank you very much.

So, who's actually rolling the dice
here?

Where are we going now?

- Now we're going to the trading
floor.

Oh, sorry.
- OK.
- Please.

So, this is essentially where the
action happens.

- What's going on here?

Can you tell us anything?

What are you doing?

- Yeah, today is month end.

So, then, we have fundings or
defundings.

- Which means buying and selling?

- Yes.
- A lot.

- A lot.
- Yes.

- Define a lot.

- Yeah, right now it's 2.5 billion
dollars.

LAUGHTER
- You look remarkably calm...

..for somebody involved in such
activity,

fuelled by Coca-Cola.

- I've done many times before.
- Of course you have.

- We have a good system, so I know
it's taken care of.

- Most Norwegian oil and gas wealth
goes to the state.

Their fund is now large enough to
support Norway's schools,

welfare and hospitals for generations
to come.

Historically, Britain extracted more
oil and gas

from its North Sea drilling area,

but much of the revenue went to
companies.

Some argue it boosted our economy,
others that we squandered it.

Either way, we never set money aside
like the Norwegians.

As a Brit, I am left thinking what
might have been.

It's lunchtime.

- Yeah. Need to grab something to eat.

- I feel a bit weird being out here
with you.

I feel like... "This is Trond!

"This is Trond!"

- I'm not famous.

- But...almost, why not?

Because you hold...

Through the fund, you hold the future
of everybody here.

Y-You...

It is true?
- Yeah.

- The billions they've earned from oil
and gas has given Norwegians

one of the world's highest standards
of living...

After you.

..but, of course, pumping out all
those fossil fuels

has contributed hugely to climate
change.

What are you going to have?

I would love the prawn...

Shrimp sandwich, please.

So, do they make up for that with
their Wealth Fund?

They do follow some ethical rules -

avoiding dodgy regimes and big tobacco
-

but mostly it's run for pure profit.

Ultimately, the Norwegian government
controls the fund,

and has instructed Trond to invest up
to just 2%

in renewable energy.

Why so small?

- Well, it could be up to 2%.

- Mm.

- And we are now at 1...

Sorry, 0.2%.

Something like that. So there's a long
way to go.

- So, you've got a tiny percentage of
the fund at the moment

invested in...
- At the moment.

- ..renewables, in sustainables.
- Yeah, yeah.

- I suppose my worry, as an outsider,

looking at this incredible fund that
you've built,

is still its investments...

I don't feel like it's aggressive
enough as a national fund.
- Mm.

- Aggressively investing in the
future,

in renewables,

in green cement,

in developing green steel, for
example,

which Norway could create.

There must be people saying,

"Trond and the fund should be
investing more in such and such."

- No, absolutely. All the time.
- A lot of pressure?
- Yeah.

We're trying to keep this fund as
apolitical

as possible in Norway.
- Mm.

- So all we do is with a financial
return in mind.

- Not for ethical reasons?
- No.

But it wouldn't be right for us, as
the managers of the fund,

under the mandate that we're given,

to do anything else than what we're
told to do.

So that aggressiveness,

aggressiveness or change of direction
or pressure,

needs to come from the ultimate owners
of the fund.

- Norway.
- Norway. The people.

Yeah. No, absolutely. Absolutely.

- And there's not overwhelming
pressure here to change direction.

Norwegian politicians say they extract
oil more cleanly

than other countries,

and their fossil fuels allow Europe to
reduce reliance on states

like Russia and Saudi Arabia.

Critics say Norway's too dependent on
the fossil fuel economy,

that Norwegians are sitting rather too
happily

on their pile of oil money,

are becoming less entrepreneurial than
other Scandis

and aren't really facing-up to their
national role in climate change.

So not everyone here supports the oil
economy

and the policies behind it.

I met up with musician and campaigner
Bente Lorentzen.

- I think the oil industry has done a
very, very good job

in sort of selling a story to the
Norwegian people

about the oil adventure

and how it suddenly turned our entire
society

into a very wealthy one.

But there's a huge part of the story
that's left out.

- Which is?
- Obviously a big part of the story
that's left out

is the environmental impact.

- Bente was taking me to her home
village in northern Norway,

where she's been fighting a battle
against the oil industry.

It was a journey of around 700 miles
by rail and sea,

into the Arctic Circle

and up to a remote corner of the
country.

Bente grew up here,

in the idyllic fishing village of
Henningsvaer.

Permission to come on.
- Hi!

- She arranged for her old friend,
Captain Havard,

to take us out in his fishing boat.

- OK.
- Hi.

Thank you. I'm looking forward to
this.

Oh, come on!

Ha!

I think Norway has a solid claim

to be the most beautiful country in
the world.

I mean, look at it!

I do not say that lightly,

but this really does it for me.

Everywhere I'm looking in the
distance,

there are the misty mountains.

It gets me here.

On the edge of the Arctic Ocean,

this is one of the world's most
important fish spawning areas.

The Lofoten Islands attract
spectacular wildlife -

including orcas, sperm whales, seals,
otters,

kittiwakes and puffins.

Havard decided introductions were in
order with some of the locals.

- Ah, it's coming.
- It's coming.

No!

Wow!
- What?!

- Incoming!

- Oh, wow!
- Oh, my gosh!

I really felt that in my heart.

Boom! And it's off!

- Yeah.

To feed the kids.

- To feed the kids.
- Yeah.

They call this a particularly
vulnerable

and valuable area.

Because if you look at the Lofoten
Islands as a whole...
- Yeah.

- ..it's kind of like a small arm
sticking into the deep ocean.

And it creates this magnificent
gathering of plankton and food

for the seabirds and the fish,

which again attracts whales.

Some of the whales that we have here,

they swim from the west coast of
Africa

to come right here to get their
favourite food.

- That's quite a privilege and
responsibility, isn't it?

- Yeah.

- Given that the Norwegians have
already earned a few bob

from the fossil fuel industry,

you might think they'd try to keep the
Lofotens,

home to some of Europe's largest
seabird colonies, pristine.

But no.

- For years and years and years,

they tried to open this area for
exploration

and oil and gas activity.

This area in particular,

we're talking of a concentration of
wildlife

that's unique in the world.

If an oil spill would happen in this
area,

it would take less than 24 hours for
the oil to reach shore.

- So you're talking about the risk of
disruption

as they explore for oil,

and potentially destruction if
something goes wrong?

- Yeah.
- Which, of course, it has done
numerous times around the world.

- Yeah.

- There could be up to three billion
barrels of oil

under the seabed here -

and, of course, oil-dependent
economies want to buy that,

to run cars and generate electricity,

but a group of locals said no.

Bente helped found the People's Action
for an Oil-free Lofoten,

a grass-roots group.

More than 7,000 people joined.

Bente was one of the leaders of a
campaign

to stop the oil and gas industry
coming to these islands.

And what's incredible is they won.

Drilling's been stopped here,

but Norway's still one of the top
global oil and gas producers,

pumping out almost two million barrels
of oil every day.

Well, campaigners here won that
battle,

but Norway been described as the most
aggressive

explorer for new oil and gas fields in
Europe.

It's awarded hundreds of exploration
licenses over the last decade -

and just earlier this year,

Norway became the first country in the
world

to allow commercial mining of the
seabed,

even though campaigners and experts
have warned

that could be catastrophic for marine
life.

One day, Norway's oil will run out,

but they do have another great
resource -

the sea.

Orca!

Oh, my God!

Right in front of us!

I have never been so close!

One, two, three, four, five.

Six maybe.

Seven!

They came up, they had a play, and
they went back down.

Norway is second only to Canada

for the longest coastline on the
planet.

So, for centuries, the Norwegians have
used

the bounty of the ocean.

The deep, cold waters off the coast of
Norway

have always offered amazing fishing.

But the small communities along the
coast,

over decades, transformed themselves
from fishermen to fish farmers.

Dotted along Norway's coast

and through many of its fjords are now
huge fish pens,

collectively holding - in particular -

hundreds of millions of farmed
Atlantic salmon.

Norway now produces half of all the
world's farmed salmon.

It's a huge business,

worth almost £10 billion a year.

The industry's come in for serious
criticism -

especially about pollution.

In places, the concentration of fish
poo

and chemicals used to treat the salmon

have been devastating for the
environment.

It's a type of factory farming.

And now they've supersized their
operations.

This is Havfarm 1.

The world's largest offshore fish
farm.

Oh, my goodness.

Inge, it's absolutely enormous!

- Yes.
- Look at the length of this!

- It's 385 metres.

It's 35,000 tonnes of steel.

And the depth is 50 metres depth.

- Nearly as long as an aircraft
carrier.

- I think it's 50, 60 metres longer

than the biggest aircraft carrier,
actually.

- Inge Berg is a billionaire -

one of the godfathers of Norwegian
fish farming.

He had this built in China.

It's thought to be the largest
structure ever transported

on a heavy lift vessel.

Inge claims it's improved or resolved

many of the problems with the fish
farm industry.

- When it's bad weather, it's not so
easy - like this today.

- Yeah, I can imagine.

- Six cages like this.

- And I can see some of the fish
jumping here.
- Yeah.

- How many fish have you got here?

- Today, I think there are 2.2 million
in total.

- 2.2 million fish?!

- In total, yeah.

In the whole... Yeah.

- That is staggering.

Why didn't you want to be in a fjord?

Why did you want to be offshore?

- In the fjord, it's become more
controversial to be there.

Here, you see, there is nothing around
us,

so we don't see any environmental
footprint

of this production so far.

- Inge says, by positioning this out
at sea,

the tons of poo from the fish will be
diluted and washed away -

rather than settling on the floor of a
fjord,

damaging the marine environment and
wild salmon populations.

Apparently it's time for feeding.

Just a handful of people work here.

Feeding and pretty much everything is
automated and high-tech.

Instead of using chemicals to tackle
another problem

with farmed salmon, they use lasers.

So, this is called a Stingray.
- Yeah.

- And this is to combat a major
problem

that farmed salmon have, isn't it?

Which is that they get lice - salmon
lice - on them?
- Yeah.

We are using this to remove the salmon
lice.

- How much does a laser unit to zap
salmon lice cost?

- Very expensive.

- LAUGHTER

Yeah, I can imagine.

It's thought 90% of the planet's wild
fish stocks are over-fished.

Over the last century, life in our
oceans

has taken an absolute hammering.

The fish farm industry claims it's
better for our oceans

if we eat farmed fish rather than wild
fish.

The industry's grown dramatically,
massively.

More than half of all fish and
shellfish

consumed by humans is now farmed.

We headed back to land to see where
they zap salmon lice with lasers.

- So, here we have the operation
centre.

- Goodness me.

- We are measuring everything

and we are having control of the water
quality

and temperature and everything.

- And I can see on the screen here -
there's a zap, basically.

- Yes, the red one is the pulses.

- Right.
- It's detecting the lice on the fish

and shooting it.

- Does it dislodge the lice? Or it
kills the lice?

- It kills it.

Grills it.

- Grills it.
- Yes.

- Inge claims this is one of the most
efficient methods

of meat production -

with low inputs of feed.

How does the conversion of feed to
fish compare with other...

- Yeah, you can see here.
- ..farm products?

- We are one kilo feed to produce one
kilo fish.

When you see a chicken,

it's close to two kilo feed to produce
one kilo of chicken.

And I think pork is close to three
kilo feed

to produce one kilo pork.

- To balance sustainability with
feeding

all the people who want to eat animal
protein,

that ratio matters.

All right, I'm ready to go in.

The salmon are killed by electrocution

and then processed.

This is mechanical fish gutting.

I think I'm going to have nightmares
about this.

I feel torn seeing this.

I may well have eaten salmon

that's come through this factory.

It's definitely a better form of
industrial fish production

than in may other fish farms.

But I find it quite hard to witness

this sort of industrialisation of
farming, of fishing.

It's hard to stomach.

The industry argues that, done as
cleanly and humanely as possible,

fish farming can help protect wild
stocks of fish

from being further decimated.

But all forms of fish farming are
controversial

for welfare and environmental reasons.

The long-term impact of this new
factory is not yet known.

In midsummer,

in the far north of Scandinavia,

the days are endless.

Oh, this is weird.

So, it's now nearly 11:20 on a Sunday
night...

..and the sun is out.

Because this is the land of the
midnight sun.

And I've got to tell you, it's a bit
odd.

It's doing my head in.

Even with the sun up at night,

Scandinavia still feels familiar for a
Brit.

Then I was driving into a small town,

heading towards a bed for the night,

when I spotted something that I think

illustrates a key difference.

Oh, my goodness.

Oh, we've got to see this.

Look at this!

All of these flowers have been left
out here overnight.

It's actually even more astonishing.

So, this is...

This is like an honesty shop.

They've just left all of this open

and are trusting people to pay using a
QR code here,

or you can give this code on an app

to buy what's here.

They've just left this!

Flowers, chocolates, vases.

SIMON GASPS

Alcohol-free, but still.

As a Brit, I was immediately thinking
how,

in most towns elsewhere,

this place would be robbed or
vandalised.

But Scandinavia is special.

There's stock out here and in there

worth thousands of pounds.

This for me, I think, is one of the
greatest,

clearest examples I've seen

of something that is central to the
success of modern Scandinavia,

and that is trust.

They have trust in their community,

in their government to a large extent,

and in each other.

But they've got it.

And I think we've lost it.

It was time for me to leave Norway

and its spectacular Lofoten Islands.

I travelled across the North Atlantic

to visit another branch of the Scandi
family.

Iceland is a volcanic outcrop of fire
and ice -

not even the size of England.

And with a tiny population - about the
same as Leicester.

Geographically, this isn't strictly
part of Scandinavia,

but the links are strong.

Genetically speaking,

Iceland is definitely Scandinavian.

It was largely created by, let's be
honest,

outlaws from western Norway -

and they still speak a version of Old
Norse.

- So I'm an outlaw now?

- Yeah, are people going to take
offence at that?

- SIMON LAUGHS
- No, we're partially insane.

- Cross the Atlantic and then live on
a volcanic island with no food.

- Yes, that doesn't sound like the
wisest move by your ancestors.

Helga Torfadottir is going to be my
guide in Iceland,

a place quite unlike anywhere I've
ever been.

So, what is...? What is this?

- This is the newest addition to
Iceland.

- This is all new lava flow around us?
- Yeah.

Yeah.
- Wow.

- It's been raining, but the lava's
still hot.

So, when the water hits the lava flow,

it just turns into steam.

- Can we stop just up here? Is that
possible?

That is an astonishing sight.

As well as being one of those
partially insane Icelanders,

Helga's a volcanologist.

So this is your world?

- This is my world.

And my playground, actually - my
office.

- I think, for most of us on the
planet,

we take stability... really, for
granted.

But not here.

- Well, we have to live with it and
work with it somehow.

Like, nature is in charge

and we just learn as we go, I guess.

- This cooling lava's from the
Sundhnukur volcano -

a fissure eruption destroying
everything in its path.

- We're going to go into the town of
Grindavik.

- Is it safe to go in there?

- Well, not really.

The future of Grindavik is a bit
unsure.

- More than 3,000 people living in
Grindavik

were evacuated before the volcano
erupted.

- Oh, do not want to drive here.

- Earthquakes from the eruption opened
up deep chasms beneath the town.

- The town is sort of, like, masking a
little bit

what you should be seeing naturally
below.

- Right.

It's not just Grindavik.

Even the area around the capital city,
Reykjavik,

is under threat from nearby volcanoes
and earthquakes.

- The whole island is a volcanic
island

and there's threats everywhere,

depending on how you look at it.

Our kind of motto in life here in
Iceland

is "thetta reddast" -

which means it will work itself out
somehow.

But people also think,

"Well, not in my lifetime.

"Of course we're not going to have a
catastrophe in my lifetime."

- Mm.
- But it has to land on someone's
lifetime, and we are that lifetime.

- Iceland's volcanoes aren't just a
threat to people who live here.

In 2010, you might remember,

an ash cloud from an eruption drifted
across Europe,

shut down airspace and grounded
thousands of flights -

the largest air-traffic shut-down
since World War II.

Yet, in historical terms, that was
just a baby.

So we just stopped by the side of this
track

to have a look at this colossal lava
field here.

So, this is the lava

from one of the largest eruptions in
recorded history.

The Laki eruption of the early 1780s.

So, under here, there is stone...

..from lava, basically,

and then on top of that has grown
quite a delicate moss.

That was an eruption that had enormous
consequences

for Iceland, but also for the world as
well.

So much debris was spewed out during
the eruption,

into the atmosphere, that there was a
haze

that could be seen in the sky from
Europe

to China and Japan.

It affected crop harvests.

It caused changes to weather systems.

It's even thought to have created poor
harvests in Europe

which led quite directly

to the hunger and the famine

which was one of the main drivers
behind the French Revolution.

So don't imagine that events that
happen far away

can't have extraordinary consequences.

So, big questions for volcanologists
like Helga

are which one's next?

And how bad could it be?

To find out, she took me off-road.

We headed up onto Myrdalsjokull - one
of Iceland's 269 glaciers.

It is so stark up here.

Life is reduced down to such basic
elements.

Black and white.

Glaciers cover around 10% of Iceland.

Due to climate change, many glaciers
have retreated exceptionally fast

over the last two decades.

It's feared they could lose half their
volume

by the end of the century.

We're taking it pretty slowly just
because this is a fragile surface.

There are crevasses -

and we do not want to fall into one.

We're now really up on top of the
glacier.

You feel quite exposed up here.

No, I did not see a crevasse!

This glacier ice cap is enormous -

200 square miles,

with an average depth of 200m thick.

But what's happening below the ice is
what Helga wanted to show me.

So, just recently here...

..they made quite an amazing
discovery.

An ice cave!

- Continue forwards.

- Underneath millions of tons of ice,

this cave shows what lies further
beneath our feet.

What are you seeing there?
- This is...

..ash.

- Ash?

From a volcanic eruption?

- Yes, from a volcanic eruption

from Katla volcano,

which is just below us here.

- There's a volcano, what, underneath
us?

Over there? Where?

- Basically underneath us, yes. We're
within Katla now.

- Which has erupted before?

- Last eruption was in 1918.

That was a big explosive eruption.

And this is the ash from that.

- So, this ice contains secrets, then?

- A lot of secrets.

- Above us, the glacier's like a heavy
lid

sitting on a pressure cooker below us
-

the whopping Katla volcano.

- The rate we're melting the glacier,

it will release the pressure on Katla.

And if Katla has a shallow magma store

that technically is ready to erupt,

you just need to set it off by a
little pressure release -

similar to opening a soda bottle, you
see the bubbles rise,

that you're relieving pressure from
the soda.

That's a very similar thing here.

- Just so I understand it -

this glacier is almost like a giant
ice cap...

- Yes.
- ..on top of the Katla volcano?

And its enormous weight -

billions of tons of frozen water -

that compresses the tectonic plate, no
less, underneath it.
- The crust.

- The crust of planet Earth.
- Yeah.

- As that melts away,

it makes a volcanic eruption more
likely and more powerful?

- More likely - not necessarily more
powerful.

It's a rapid melting,

which then results in a rapid movement
of the crust.

I don't think we should spend any more
time here.
- After you.

- Thanks.

- Need to get out of here.

So, Helga's not happy with us being
through here

because it's sunny outside

and that can mean there's an increased
melt...

..and as a result, you can get a flash
flood

coming through these caves,

and obviously that could be
disastrous.

All right, well, we made it out here.

It's a little bit safer here,

but still not guaranteed safety.

The Katla volcano beneath us is huge,

with a caldera roughly the size of
Paris.

This has really surprised me.

The melting of Earth's glaciers

can seem like a very distant story and
problem -

but here we have a situation where
climate change

is melting a glacier that could then
unleash destructive forces

that could directly impact on tens or
hundreds of millions

of people around the world.

Katla's next eruption could be
catastrophic,

pumping out a vast ash cloud high into
the atmosphere,

polluting air with volcanic gasses,

grounding flights

and destroying harvests across Europe
and North America.

Scientists expect the heat to
flash-melt the ice cap above,

discharging flood waters at a greater
flow rate

than that of the Amazon River.

Living on a pressure cooker isn't all
bad

for the people of Iceland.

They've tapped the unstable geology
and magma below ground

to help provide masses of heat for
homes and power.

Iceland's a renewable energy
superpower,

generating so much electricity

they've set-up aluminium smelters and
host data centres -

which probably store some of your
photos

in those mysterious clouds.

And now they're using renewable power

to remove some of the carbon dioxide,
CO2,

we've all been pumping into the
atmosphere -

a major cause of climate change.

Oh, my goodness!
- Yeah.

- Wow.

Bergur Sigfusson is a geologist for a
firm called Carbfix.

They're into what's called carbon
capture.

So, Bergur, what is this?

- These are the collector containers.

They are sucking air into these
containers.

Inside them, they have a filter

that selectively binds CO2 from the
air.

And then what comes out of the filter

is just air without CO2.

- Since the Industrial Revolution,

we've been burning fossil fuels, coal,

cutting down our forests,

we've been pumping carbon dioxide

into the atmosphere, haven't we?
- Yeah, yeah.

- What's being done here is
essentially

sucking the carbon out of the air?
- Yes.

What comes out here is essentially air

with pre-industrial CO2
concentrations.

- So we're breathing some of the
purest air on the planet?

- Yeah, this is something that the
Earth hasn't seen

for a few hundred years.

- I'm filling my lungs.
- Yeah.

But then...
- It does taste good.

- Doesn't it?
- It does.

There's concern about whether carbon
capture is remotely viable,

or that it might become a convenient
excuse to carry on polluting -

but there's a lot of money in it.

Companies and countries are trying to
make it work.

- Voila.
- Voila, yeah.

Here, they think they've cracked one
of the major problems

with carbon capture -

where to safely store the carbon
dioxide, or CO2.

What have we got here?

LAUGHTER

- So, earlier, the CO2 was captured
from the air.

The CO2 was then compressed into a
column,

and the CO2 was dissolved in water.

So, we have like a machine that
creates soda stream.

Just like the soda stream you drink.

- Yeah, so fizzy water.

- Fizzy water. Three times more CO2

than in the fizzy water that you buy
in the supermarket.

- Right.
- And this steel pipe here...
- BERGUR KNOCKS

- ..it goes all the way down to 350
metres.

And here we see an example of basalt.

- Let's see this. So this...

Can I hold it?

When you look at it, it looks like
Swiss cheese, doesn't it?
- Yes.

And then the water goes into these
bubbles,

into the formation, and then you end
up with something similar to this.

- Wow!
- So, here, these white specks here.

- Yes?
- This is carbonate.

And this is what will happen with
time.

- This is the real magic, I think,
isn't it?

You're turning fizzy water into rock.

- Yes. We are doing this in many
locations

with very good success,

and this is what we're going to
continue to do.

Make more white rocks.

- LAUGHTER

By 2030, carbon capture firms hope -
optimistically -

to be removing perhaps a few hundred
million tons of CO2 per year.

It's promising, but let's be
realistic.

That's still less than 1% of today's
emissions.

I think this is great. I do.

But this is still really small scale.

This is like trying to bail out the
Titanic with a teaspoon.

We have to reduce and stop burning
fossil fuels

that our lives and industrialised
economies

have depended upon now for
generations.

It's tough, but we can do it!

Next time, on the final leg of my
journey...

Splash down!

- Off we go!

- ..I'm in Sweden and Denmark...

Oh, my goodness! Look at that!

Pretty raunchy.

..discovering another side of
Scandinavia.

You're wearing these in urban Sweden?

- Yes.

I'm on the rugged edge of Europe.

Visiting five Nordic countries.

It's 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, this is low!

- This is my life.

- Somebody'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?

What...?

LAUGHTER

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

- And why they now feel

they're in the firing line.

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

- They are preparing to defend
Finland.

- GUNFIRE

Bloody hell.

You're wearing these in urban Sweden?
- Yes.

- There's another side to Scandinavia.

- Ready to fire!

- ECHOING BLAST

On this final leg of my Scandinavian
journey,

I'm travelling from southern Sweden
into Denmark.

Two thirds of Sweden is covered in
trees, nearly 90 billion of them,

and a population of just over ten
million people.

Swedes love a cabin in the woods.

Not bad, eh?

I think, more than anywhere, Sweden
really defines Scandinavia.

Tradition, modern design, gender
equality,

ABBA, and flat-pack furniture.

Half of Swedes have access to a
holiday home like a simple

cabin by a lake or deep in the forest.

Nothing fancy.

Just somewhere wholesome to get away.

Where they can eat their meatballs,
light some candles,

and get nude in a sauna.

So Swedish.

What do you mean I'm going for
cliches?

MUSIC: SOS by ABBA

- # So when you're near me

# Darling, can't you hear me?

# SOS. #

- For a generation, Swedes have done
incredibly well.

- # The love you gave me

# Nothing else can save me

# SOS. #

- They've excelled in rankings of the
healthiest, wealthiest,

happiest people on Earth.

In many ways, since the 1960s, Sweden
has been the

poster child for Scandi success.

And those famous Scandinavian liberal
values.

But of course, that's not the whole
story.

All right, here we are.

- # How can I carry on? #

- Ready to fire!

- Those lovely liberal Swedes are also
one of the world's

leading arms exporters.

COMMANDS IN SWEDISH

ECHOING BLAST

Bloody hell.

ALARMS BLARE

There are car alarms going off down
there.

That is much more than a shock.

It's through your whole body, and in
the entire area.

It's, it's slightly seismic.

Swedish arms company Bofors has a
40-square-mile weapons

testing facility, one of the largest
in Europe.

The neutral Swedes avoided - some
would say dodged -

fighting in both World Wars.

But they now make and export more
weapons per head of population

than any country other than Russia and
Israel.

- Five, four, three, two, one.

Fire!

- BLAST

They're conducting hundreds and
hundreds of tests here every

year now, as the Swedish military and
Scandinavia enters a new era.

Many Scandinavians used to think they
live in a safe neighbourhood.

But after Russia invaded Ukraine in
2022, everything changed.

Many now think it poses a direct
threat to Scandinavia as well.

Sweden abandoned neutrality, joined
the NATO military alliance,

and ramped up weapons production even
more.

For Colonel Stefan Krol, business at
the Bofors test centre is booming.

- The defence industry all over Europe
goes full speed ahead now.

They're building new factories,
building new production lines,

going 24/7.

And it's all due to the war in Europe,
ongoing.

- There's almost been a handbrake turn

and funding has increased
dramatically.

- Yes, in a way, it's dramatic and
it's a, it's a change of mindset.

The threat levels have risen and it's
a huge demand of ammunition

right now that hasn't been there since
the Second World War.

- Wartime production mode?

Is that what we're seeing?

- In some way, yes.

- The Swedes were neutral for decades
and decades.

And as a result,

they didn't feel like they could rely
on anyone for their defence.

They built up their own defence
industry.

There is really no other country of
comparable size, of comparable

population that can produce its own
fighter jets and submarines.

They can do that in Sweden.

The Swedes make some of the

most advanced weapons systems in the
world.

In one naval exercise, a stealthy
Swedish submarine even sank

a US aircraft carrier.

This is gorgeous.

There's much about this region we
don't always recognise.

As I saw in Finland, there's a
steeliness.

They're also practical, competent and
innovative.

I headed to Stockholm, the capital, to
find

out more about what makes them tick.

So, I'm travelling into the centre of
Stockholm.

And I'm getting a lift.

Hello, Maria.

- Welcome.
- Is it OK to come on?
- Yes.
- Thank you.

It's not just a handshake, but...

Yeah. Oh...! Perfect.
- OK.
- Thank you!

This isn't just a fast boat.

It's a boat that flies.

This beauty's the Candela electric
hydrofoil.

I'm sure you'll see it in a Bond film
at some point.

It is so smooth as to be quite
unnerving.

You don't really realise the speed
that you're doing

until you look around.

This battery-powered boat leaves
virtually no wake

and uses a fraction of the energy of
other speedboats.

They're also hoping to use the
technology for local ferries.

A speedboat like this can be yours for
just a few 100,000...

Splashdown.

We've just landed - right in the
middle of Stockholm.

This is the way to arrive.

I might insist on this in the future.

Thank you so much, Maria.

- Thank you.
- Thank you very much indeed.

What an amazing way to arrive.

Wah!

Central Stockholm.

Thank you, Maria.

Stockholm's often described as the
most beautiful

city in Scandinavia - admittedly
mainly by Swedes.

Like much of Scandinavia, it's
well-kept, charming,

with functioning public transport.

Bit boring?

Locals certainly seem very content.

Sweden and its neighbours always top
the international

league tables for happiness.

So how on earth do they do it?

I wanted someone to explain,

so I headed to meet a man described as
looking like a hipster Jesus.

- Hey, Simon, right?

- Micael Dahlen

is a professor at the renowned
Stockholm School of Economics

So, big question -

what is, it's been called the Nordic
model.

- Yeah.
- The Scandinavian way of running an
economy.

How would you explain that?

- Well, I think I'd use two words -
welfare economy.

We want everybody to have equal
opportunity.

We have free health care, free
education,

free virtually everything.

But we also want everybody to
contribute.

We're all in it together.

- This is key.

You get a lot as a Swede, and welfare
benefits are generous.

But, people are also expected to play
their part.

- Please mind the brakes.

- Please mind the brakes, OK.

The public are expected to work

and pay their taxes - to be productive
members of society.

Not stay on benefits.

- Off we go.

- Micael's a professor of Economics
and Wellbeing, Welfare

and Happiness.

He's ranked number two in the world in
his field.

And he wanted to show me how Swedes
are all in it together...

Tell me about your tattoos, by the
way.

You've got some pretty distinctive
markings.

- Yeah, those are all notes to self.

If I get 70%, it's not perfect.

It's never the best. But it's,

it's good enough.
- Do something to 70%?

- You never give 100% cos then you
will burn out.

You'll have performance anxiety that
everything needs to be perfect.

- What is the eight signifying?

- So, the eight is the number of
seconds I need to give myself

before I react to something.

I did the maths and eight is enough.

- You did the maths?
- I always do the maths.

I can't help myself.
- You're an economics professor!

- Exactly.
- Of course you did the maths.

Well, the traffic lights have changed.
- Oh, wonderful.

- There you go -

Micael says give it 70%.

Economics is a hot topic here in
Scandinavia,

partly because tax rates are among the
highest in the world.

- You're doing beautifully.

- Yeah, I've got a foot down a lot.

But their disposable income - after
they've paid taxes -

is actually really high because so
much here is free - universities,

health care, some elderly care, and
especially childcare.

By all accounts, this is a pretty good
place to raise a child.

What's going on here?

- I'd say this is a dads' group.

Enjoying their coffee. Latte papas.

- Latte papas.
- Hey, guys.

- Good morning.
- Good morning.

- It's a toddlers' group.

And you all look very calm.

How much paternity leave do you get in
Sweden?

- 480 days.

- 480 days?
- Yeah.

- And is that total parental leave or
that's paternity leave for dads?

- Total for both.
- Total for both.
- Yeah.

- And who pays the paternity leave?

- Well, the government.
- Taxes.
- Or taxes!
- Yeah. We all do.

- I'm coming in, if that's OK.

I'll move slowly.

I feel this is not just accepted -
it's enjoyed.

It's part of life.

Would you agree? Do you know this?

- I've been home for six months, but I
can't see it affect me

negatively in any in any way.

It's natural.

- But it's also tactical by society,
isn't it?

Because it's ensuring that women not
just continue to provide

economically for the family, but also
for the state as well.

- It would be super wasteful to take
all the moms

that are super smart - we don't want
to put them

off the market - they contribute so
much to our economy and welfare.

- And of course, this being Sweden, I
think

women take up a greater percentage of
degrees than men, as well.

So they're the better-educated section
of the workforce.

- Exactly.
- So, if you do the maths

and I love doing the maths, for every
month that a dad takes

paternal leave, the average increase
in salary for the mother increases.

So, it's, it's pure mathematics and
economics.

It's good for everyone.

- Almost as one, the dads have said,

"It's nap time.

"We've got to go."

They've got a schedule and they know
what it is.

It's easy to start thinking
everything's perfect here.

Of course it isn't.

Sweden has problems familiar in other
Western countries -

an ageing population, faltering
economic growth,

and beneath the surface, this country
has some more-dramatic,

troubling fault lines.

I travelled south to the city of
Malmo.

Just check, is this it?

John?
- I suppose it's the BBC...

- I'm Simon.
- Welcome, Simon.

- Nice to see you.

John Wallender runs an elite police
unit.

Bloody hell, John

- This is our armed vehicle

and basically we use it in high-risk
tasks.

This is the first police edition of
this vehicle in the world.

Some military units use it as well.

- That is quite the beast.
- Absolutely.

- The Swedish police are arming-up

to confront an extraordinary
crimewave.

What's been happening here is
completely staggering.

There have been hundreds of shootings.

Hand grenades have been thrown into
buildings.

It's been described as low-intensity
conflict.

The Prime Minister here has said
Sweden has never known

anything like this.

Roughly ten years ago, violent crime
began to rise.

Dramatically.

Deadly shootings among drug gangs,
largely run by people

from immigrant backgrounds, have since
more than tripled.

The gun murder rate in Stockholm is
now roughly 30 times that of London.

Sweden has the highest gun-crime death
rate in Europe,

after Montenegro and Albania.

And it's not just guns.

Here's a bit of a clue to what this
squad does.

John is the head of one of Sweden's
three bomb squads.

- Welcome.

- Oh, my God.

- We have gathered a whole lot of
things during our missions.

This is what we're dealing with.

- You've got grenades here.

- The hand grenades are being used in
the criminal conflicts.

It's absolutely lethal.
- It's an astonishing situation.
- Yeah.

And most of the hand grenades being
thrown are being thrown by very

young boys and girls.

- What sort of age is very young?

- We're talking high school age.

14, 15 years old.

- Seriously?
- Yeah.

Being used by the older criminals,
giving them

assignments to, "OK, throw this
grenade on this site."

- That is quite staggering.

- It's totally non-acceptable.

- Kids throwing hand grenades?

- Yeah.

Somewhere around 2018, we experienced
a rapidly

increasing numbers of home-made bombs,
hand grenades and so on.

Those were mostly home-made bombs,
IEDs.

- IEDs, improvised explosive devices.

- Yeah.
- This is a phrase we only normally
hear about war zones.

- Yeah, I know.

- But this is what you're
encountering.

- Yeah, absolutely.

This is one of the typical Thermos
bombs.

- It's a Thermos flask?

- Yeah, just a common Thermos flask.

The criminals have stuffed them with
dynamite.

And then you have a very potent IED.

- Gangs are using this in Sweden?

- Yeah. Around 100 a year.

In criminal context.

- A year?!
- Yeah, a year.

Being used in urban areas where people
are living.

- Two a week?
- Yeah.

- That's astonishing.

Gang warfare has exploded here -
fuelled by the rise in cocaine

use in Sweden and across Europe.

Gangs have taken advantage of liberal
policies that

children shouldn't be arrested, and
actively recruited them.

Police say there's now around 1,200
child foot soldiers, bombers,

and even contract killers in their
early teens, working for the gangs.

So, they're giving me

a little bit of a sense of what it is
to be in the squad.

The situation is out of control.

Bomb units can get four call outs a
day.

- Now, let's go for the jacket.

- Oh, my God.

There's more?

- Front panel as well.
- OK.

- There you go.

- FAN WHIRS

A fan has just started up?

- Yes.
- It has built-in fans?

- It has built-in fans, a cooling
system.

- So the hands are clear?

- The hands are the most unprotected.

If anything explodes, you'll live,

but you might lose your hands.

You need the feeling in your hands.

That's why we don't use gloves.

- Your guys are wearing these into
situations in urban Sweden.

- Yes.

- INDISTINCT

Overall, many crime rates here are
around the European average...

How on earth do you guys do this?

..but exploitation of children in
crime

and gangland bombings, are among the
worst in the developed world.

Not long after I visited, Sweden
recorded 30 bombings in one month!

I mean, it feels like a situation
Sweden has still not got

full control of.

- No, I think ten years ago, no-one of
us could foresee that coming.

But today, it's our reality.

- How on earth has Sweden got to this?

SIREN WAILS

The land of ABBA is now top of all
Western countries for IED bombings.

The rise in violence follows an
increase in immigration.

Most of the perpetrators, as well as
the victims,

come from immigrant communities.

It's caused many Swedes to question
long-cherished liberal ideals.

Back in Stockholm, I arranged to meet
someone who's witnessed

the violence first-hand.

There she is.

- Hello!
- Hi, Faysa!

Do you want to come round?

26-year-old Faysa Idle is a poet who's
written about her

life growing up in Sweden in a tricky
neighbourhood.

Nice to meet you, too. Simon Reeve,
hello.

- Hello.

- So, we're in the centre of
Stockholm.

Does this feel like your Stockholm,
your city?

- No, it doesn't.

It doesn't feel like home.

- So how do you feel when you come
here?

- As a tourist.

- Really? An outsider?

- Yes.
- That's not good.

- No, it's not.

That's why I write about it in, like,

it's two different countries in one
country.

Like, this Sweden, and our Sweden.

- Faysa was born and raised here.

Her family were refugees from Somalia
31 years ago.

In recent decades, Swedes welcomed
refugees from world conflicts.

More than 100,000 from the wars in the
Balkans, and hundreds

of thousands from Syria, Iraq,
Afghanistan, many young men.

Asylum immigration into Sweden has
been roughly four times

the rate in other Western European
countries.

Housing's been provided - but often
far from city centres,

in estates where up to 90% of

residents are now from immigrant
backgrounds.

So this is Rinkeby...
- Yes.
- ..and Tensta?

- Yes.

- Two areas of suburban Stockholm.

Locals long complained these estates
are cut-off, hemmed-in by motorways.

They have high unemployment

and they've been engulfed in gang
warfare.

- Let's go, Simon.

I grew up in this area.

I used to go to school.
- Right.

- That's over there.

And especially this place.

We always come here to smoke
cigarettes.

- What would you say are the main
problems that your generation

faced growing up here?

- Poverty.

And our way to becoming a rich person
is through crimes.

For us, that way was the only way.

So I think most of us don't want to do
these crimes,

but we want to have the money.
- Yeah.

- Most of them, if you ask them, why
are you killing?

They will tell you it's for the money
they, cos...

It's only for the money, to...

- And when you say killing, you really
mean that?

- Yeah, I really mean it.

It's a part of life.

It's actually a daily routine.

Like, I know murderers and I know the
victims.

- This is the important place.

- Yes.

- SHE LAUGHS

It's like she's been waiting for you.

- Hey!

- Faysa took me to meet her friend
Lotta.

- I come here and I have a lot of
stress and Lotta here,

she's like a therapist, you know?

So I speak to her about things.

And so it's not just a salon, you
know?

- Total...

- You release your feelings as well.

- ..heart of the community.
- Yes.

- It's quite difficult to comprehend
what's been happening

here in Stockholm, but in Sweden...

..over the last ten, just under ten
years, really, isn't it,

there's been a huge increase in the
number of children who have

been joining gangs, who've been sucked
into gang life?

Can you give us a sense of what's
happened?

- When I was 15 years old, I lost my
best friend at this gang war

that has been happening for ten years,
for a decade.

And when Sweden didn't see it as a
problem.

I see it as a crisis, you know, I see
it as a very big crisis.

Like, they were so young.

Two people died.
- That is absolutely a crisis.

That's terrible situation.

- These two people that died, the
young people that died,

were two black people from the
suburbs.

- So, Sweden, as a country, didn't
recognise...
- No.

- ..there was a crisis?
- Maybe it was -

"Yeah, but this is not really a
Swedish issue."

- Right.

- "So, it will not come to our
places."

- "To our homes. We're safe."

- "So that's why we can wait on it."

And that has been like - it feels like
a betrayal for us because...

- We've been living like this for
years.

- Because you are Sweden.
- Yeah.

- You are born in Sweden, right?
- Yes.

- I'm born in Sweden.
- I lost all my friends.

Like, I lost all my neighbours, you
know?

But for them, it's like just the
statistics of numbers.

- It has affected everybody.
- Mm.

- Everybody is affected.

You know why? Because it's not a
racial thing.

It's a human problem.

- Yeah, but the first,

but the first thing is they need to
see us as humans.

- Yeah.

- Start with that.

- Start with that. Give me a hug.

Mwah.
- Mwah.

- Thank you.
- Yeah, thank you, too.

- Not everyone who feels excluded or
ignored joins a gang.

Most migrants here live blameless
lives, contributing to the

country that took them in.

There's debate here about why crime
has exploded, but there's no

disputing huge numbers of migrant
children have been

caught up in the drug wars - Faysa's
lost friends and close family.

Is this an area you would come to when
you were younger?

- Yes.

But I haven't been here

since 2018,

because my brother was found dead
here.

- Do you feel able to tell us what
happened?

- When I saw him that day laying in
some white.

What is it called when you bury...?

- In a body bag?

- Yes, in a body bag.

In a body bag.

So I haven't been here since this.

Erm...

- You haven't been back?

- No, I haven't.

We're so many of us.

Like, I don't understand why he was
the one.

Now he has four kids asking where
there dad is,

and they cannot understand how their
father, that is a taxi driver

studying to become a doctor...

You know, like I have done some things
in my life...

Like, I wish they could take me, like,
they didn't need to take him.

- I'm so sorry, Faysa.

SHE MOUTHS

Faysa's brother was one of many
victims of drug violence.

Another of her brothers, a gang
leader, is in prison.

Swedish police say there are more than
60,000 active or

connected gang members.

Many argue poverty's the main driver
of crime in violence hot spots.

And the unemployment rate here for
people born abroad is certainly

shocking - four times higher than for
people born in Sweden,

the worst gap in the developed world.

But politicians from the right,

and even many liberal Swedes,

now place blame for the crimewave
squarely on

mass immigration from what they've

called "culturally distant countries".

Faysa wanted me to meet her mother,
Nasteho,

who was given asylum in Sweden more
than 30 years ago.

Thank you so much, Mum.

Can you remember a point, Mum,

a time when you realised things were
starting to go sour?

So do you remember going to the
authorities in some way?

- It's so hard being a mum in this
environment, cos you feel so much,

and it's so draining.

I am born in Sweden.

I've never been to Somalia in my life.

She's putting the blame on us,

like, "You guys should know better,
like,

"you're not in your own country."

- Hundreds of thousands of migrants,
asylum seekers,

and refugees have come to Sweden and
to Scandinavia.

And I think there's been something of
a sense here

and across the region that almost

just by being here people would become
Scandinavian

and would enjoy the benefits of life
as a Scandinavian.

But that is clearly not the case.

Now, we can debate whether there's
been a failure to integrate,

but there has definitely been a
failure of integration.

And the consequences are now being
felt.

I left Sweden and headed south, across
the Baltic Sea...

I'm just coming up to the bridge now,
which takes me from Sweden

into Denmark, the last country on my
journey around Scandinavia.

For full transparency, I should tell
you my wife is half Danish,

and I've been to Denmark many times to
see the family there.

It's a country that I feel I know
pretty well

and one that I really love.

The Oresund road and rail crossing is
something of an engineering

marvel - it's still the longest

cable-stayed, combined road and rail
bridge - in the world,

for any bridge-spotters watching.

Built on time and to budget.

And it's crucial - because it helps
link Sweden and the

Scandinavian Peninsula to Denmark, and
the rest of Western Europe.

Denmark's the smallest country in
Scandinavia -

but punches above its weight.

Danish companies control 15% of the
world's shipping containers -

they're huge exporters of
industrially-farmed bacon;

and the Danish firm that makes the
weight-loss drug Ozempic is

now one of the biggest pharmaceutical

companies on Earth.

The Danes are a straightforward bunch.

Practical. Unshockable.

Oh, my goodness, look at that.

Pretty raunchy!

That's the thing about the Scandis.

They can have this super neat,
perfectly formed little community,

and a couple copulating in the main
square!

They'd be like, "Stop making a fuss,
Simon.

"It's just a lovely statue showing the
beautiful act of love."

I've reached the west coast of
Denmark, next to the sea.

And the wind blows strong here.

A lot of wind turbines.

Denmark is a global leader in wind
energy.

It generates around 60% of their
electricity,

and they export the technology around
the world.

Many of Britain's offshore wind farms
are built

and operated by Danish companies.

Let's go and take a closer look.

The company that built this huge wind
turbine allowed me to go up it

while it was stopped for maintenance.

This at the moment,

holds the title for being the most
powerful wind turbine in the world.

And that means it's also one the
biggest and tallest.

From the ground to the top tip of a
blade,

this wind turbine is almost as tall as
the Eiffel Tower.

Oh, my good Lord.

Not ideal for those with vertigo!

Oh, my!

Oh, my good... I really can't.

Oh, I must...!

Oh, my...!

This is utterly epic.

To give you a sense of how big this
turbine is,

look at these ones over here.

These turbines, they are not baby
turbines,

those are normal wind turbines and
we're looking down on them.

This single wind turbine powers around
20,000 homes.

20,000!

There was, apparently,

not a single planning objection from
locals to this massive turbine.

Yes, of course I'm pleased to be on
the ground!

Contrast that with the UK, where we
can't erect a shed without

complaints escalating to the Supreme
Court.

Because here locals were involved -
Danes pioneered community

groups that OWN many turbines and wind
farms.

Danish universities, governments,

and firms have worked together to
develop wind tech.

People trust scientists and
politicians,

so there's fewer objections and
delays.

Right, we're here.

And right now,

the Danes are at the cutting edge,
taking wind power up a notch more.

Knock, knock.

I went to see a Danish inventor -

one of the original wind turbine
designers.

His name's Henrik Stiesdal.

Henrik?
- Hi, there. Yes.

- We're meeting you in your secret
lab?

- Yes.

You need to close your eyes when we
speak here.

- Oh, do you? You've got the glasses
on.

- You need the glasses.
- I need glasses as well?

- Yes.
- OK, I'll get them on.

- Yes.
- Is that because things go boom here?

HE CHUCKLES

- That's the price of being, having
fun in the lab.

Yes. Yes. Yes.

And we need to...

- We're with somebody really special
here.

Just recently, he jointly won an award
that is often

described as being the equivalent of a
Nobel Prize for engineering.

Henrik is obsessed with clean energy.

In his lab he's searching for one of
the holy grails - how to use

electricity from wind to make hydrogen
- a clean fuel with

enough oomph to power planes, ships
and lorries.

But he's also still inventing wind
turbines - new, and bigger.

So, this is just one section for a
mast.

- For a small wind turbine.

- A small one?
- A small one.

- Henrik jokes his only real
qualification is as a

ski instructor - he didn't finish
university.

But in the 1970s, Henrik designed

one of the first modern wind turbines.

His inventions have since led to about
a thousand patents.

He was in charge of setting up the
world's very first offshore

wind farm.

- These are for offshore turbines

and they are much bigger than onshore
turbines.

These are some of the largest sections
that are built here.

- Out at sea, the wind blows stronger
and more consistently.

With current technology, offshore wind
farms need to

be in shallow water.

That limits where we can put them, and
how much power we can generate.

It's a problem Henrik's trying to
solve.

- In very large parts of the world,
you can't do offshore wind

because the water gets to be too deep.

Too deep means more than 60m.

We want to become really global, we
need to have structures that

can float so that you can go to much
deeper waters.

And that's what we are working on here
in this company.

- Floating wind turbines?
- Yes.

We can produce ten times the power
needs of the world with

a floating offshore wind.

Even if we had no solar,

no land-based wind, no nuclear, no
nothing.

The resource is just huge.

- Henrik, ten times?

Ten times?
- Yes.

So, these are parts that make up a
floating offshore

wind tower foundation.

What we have here is this centre
column.

- This is the floating structure...
- Yes.

- ..on which a wind turbine would sit?
- Yes.

I don't think we'll put them all on,
but here goes one,

for instance, that will fit there.

- So, this - you've just swiftly
created using your LEGO, as it

were, appropriately.

So, what of that, is this?

- So the upper part here from that
little line there,

the LEGO brick is this one here.

- But look at the size of this.

This piece here in this structure is
just this?!

- Yes.
- Henrik, you think big?

- But our problem is big.

It needs a scale.

- How confident are you this will
work?

- Oh, we are very confident.

It would be the biggest factory-made
pieces of equipment

in the world, I think.

- There must be lots of competition to
create this.

- Yeah, but in actual fact, the goal
of our company is not money-making.

The goal of our company is impact on
the fight against climate change.

We hope that can be an inspiration for
the world,

so to speak.

- Wind power has limitations, and
critics, but around the world

it's already revolutionised the way we
generate electricity.

The Danes have profited by innovating,
and working together.

They're leading the way.

I need to get a ferry.

I'm heading towards the end of my
journey through Scandinavia

and I'm struck by the feeling, more
than ever,

how much of our news, our media, and
our culture

focuses, in the UK, on what's going on
in the United States.

We have much more in common, in so
many ways,

with this part of the world, than the
USA.

I don't think we know enough about the
Scandis and Scandinavia,

but things are going on here that
really matter.

My last stop was the Danish capital -
Copenhagen.

Even by the standards of Scandinavia,
Denmark stands out.

Danes top global surveys of happiness
and life satisfaction.

They pay high taxes but get generous
welfare, free health care,

subsidised childcare, free education,

including free university.

They're wealthy, one of the most equal
societies on Earth.

What's the secret?

As I walked the pleasant streets of
Copenhagen, I came across a clue.

Sh, come on...

Look, that is a little toddler

having a sleep outside, in a pram,

in a public area with lots of flats
around.

Hiya.
- Hello.
- Have you just left your child out to
have a little nap?

- Yeah.

- It's a bit unusual, what you've just
done, from our perspective.

- Yeah, well I live right in there, so
I leave her there to sleep,

and then I can hear her, we have a
little monitor,

so when she wakes up, I just go out.

- I think a Danish mother in New York,
was leaving her child outside,

she was arrested, wasn't she?
- She was arrested.

- That suggests - only do that in
Denmark.

- Probably a good idea, yeah.

- You're a more-trusting people,
aren't you?

- I think if you give people trust,
they will also show you that they

are worthy of trust, right, in a way?

Have a good day.
- All right, thank you.
- No worries.

- Public trust is still so high here,

a toddler can be left napping in fresh
air.

Nearly 90% of Danes have a high level
of trust in others.

Trust isn't just nice.

It's critical.

Trust equals less corruption and
crime, more investment,

collaboration, productivity.

Academics have put a value on trust
- some think trust

accounts for 25% of Danish wealth!

I do think trust is the secret sauce,

the glue that hold Scandinavia, and
Scandinavians together,

and makes this one of the most
successful parts of the planet ever.

So, how do you build trust?

Well, in Denmark one way's through
joining a club.

For football, volunteering, activism,
art, anything.

Many are helped and subsidised by the
government.

90% of Danes are members of clubs.

On average, they join nearly three
each.

CHORUS ENDS

Choirs are hugely popular.

Phie Ambo helped found this one.

So, you are not a church choir?

- We're not at all a church choir.

We are actually a choir that works
against the fossil fuel industry.

- Through song?
- Through song.

- Through your voices.
- Through our voices.

- And through gathering together?
- Yeah, yeah.

- Danes are brilliant at joining and
starting clubs and associations.

- That's why it's so important to
gather

and make communities that can work
together.

- SPEAKS DANISH

This is key.

Danes belong to more groups,

clubs and unions than any other
nationality.

That helps build trust, happiness, and
social cohesion.

WHISPERS: I've got the words on my
phone.

THEY HUM

LAUGHTER AND CHEERING

But it would be wrong to think there
are no problems in Denmark.

All this social cohesion means
outsiders can sometimes feel

unwelcome - if you don't conform here,
it can feel uncomfortable.

Just like in Sweden, here in Denmark,

there have been issues, I think it's
fair to say,

and controversy surrounding migration
and immigration.

But the government here has been
tackling it very differently.

I met up with Mohammed Aslam, cab
driver and campaigner.

Mohammed?
- Hello. I'm Simon

Hello, Simon.
- Very nice to see you.

- Same here.

- Mohammed speaks English but prefers
Danish.

You must be a very proud father.

- I am. I am!

But still we are not accepted as an
equal in the country.

- Partly in response to the crimewave
in Sweden and terrorism here,

Denmark's taken a really tough line on
integration.

Not just encouraging it, but pushing
it.

Islamic full-face coverings are
banned.

The Government even

introduced what was called a "ghetto
law" -

aimed at preventing neighbourhoods
being dominated by so-called

"non-Western" immigrants, along with
high crime and unemployment.

Let's get out.
- Yes.
- Go and have a look.

One designated ghetto was the
multicultural neighbourhood

Mjolnerparken, where Mohammed raised
his family.

What's particularly extraordinary,
unusual, extreme

perhaps about this law is the
identification of non-Western.

It's basically saying that

if you're not from Western Europe or
some of the English-speaking

countries - Australia, New Zealand,
Canada etc,

then you can be classed as
non-Western,

and the state as a result treats you
differently.

This was classed as a ghetto

because more than 50% of people came
from non-Western backgrounds.

To reduce that number, some families
were actually forced to relocate.

Mohammed's was one of them.

- Yeah.
- Are you OK?

- Mm. I'm OK.

- You'd rather not look at it?
- Yeah.

- What reasons did they give you for
the evictions?

And in many ways, non-Western means
brown or black.

Brown, black, or Muslim.

That's my reading and interpretation
of the law.

Is that yours?

- Exactly the same.

- The people were forced out of their
homes.

The apartments, houses, homes they
lived in, were sold off.

Many were refurbished.

New families have moved in.

It's been described as the social
experiment of the century.

It's also been described as social
policy with a bulldozer.

No-one's ended up homeless, but
Mohammed's family,

and thousands more from other ghetto
areas have been or will be

rehoused in predominantly white
areas...

..with the stated aim they'll become
more integrated into Danish

society, with access to better jobs
and education.

And people, including those from very
different cultures,

will absorb Danish liberal values.

Reports identified early language
skills as key to integration,

so non-Western parents in ghetto areas
are now required to

send their one-year-olds to preschools
to ensure they learn

Danish, and "traditions and values"

- or they lose government welfare
benefits.

Ghettos have since been renamed
"parallel societies".

Did your children play here?
- Yeah.

We played together with the kids here.

- The Danish government, of course,
will say that they were worried.

They are worried about integration.

They now talk about parallel
societies, don't they?

Do you see that concern, that issue?

Some say these polices are racist.

Mohammed is part of a group mounting a
legal challenge.

Others say that they're an attempt to
eradicate

pockets of deprivation, integrate
newcomers into super-successful

Denmark and prevent the kind of
violence happening in Sweden.

The laws have support across much of
the political spectrum here.

I really want to understand what's
happening here.

I'm being allowed into the Danish
Parliament.

MP and housing spokesman Thomas
Monberg is

part of the governing coalition led by
his Social Democratic Party

and including parties called the
Liberals and the Moderates.

We've got football tops here.

- Yes, football over there...

- Is this your... This is your party?
- Yes, it is.

- Look at - this is very nuclear
family,

very traditional old poster here.

- Yes, it is.
- Family values.

- Family values but the children have
to be safe

and nicely home from school.

- It's interesting you have this in
your office,

because your party is unusual from our
perspective.

You're quite left-wing economically on
many issues,

workers' rights etc.

- Yes.

- But traditional cultural values,
family values as well.

- Yeah.

- So, Thomas, can you explain this
ghetto law to me?

- We started to see some areas where
there were

a lot of foreign people living, and
the state of education was

lower and more and more children
didn't go to school.

And that was something we had to do
something about.

- But why focus on this phrase
"non-Western"?

Why? Why that?

Because it sounds like it's targeted
at -

it sounds like it's targeted mainly at
Muslims, in truth.

- But it's not.

That's because of the culture we have
in Denmark.

And that's about equality of gender.

That's equality of education, welfare,
and all that.

- Are you saying that non-Western
people, people outside that

definition, have less awareness or
understanding of those core values?

- We can't accept that a girl growing
up in society

in Denmark doesn't have the same
rights as every other girl.

- So, you're saying this is an attempt
to enforce

and impose fundamental Danish values?

- Yes, because we want everybody that
lives here to have a good life.

- But what you're talking about is, is
painful for some people.

You are literally requiring people to
move out of their homes.

You are creating a lot of trauma for
some people.

- I don't think you always can say
trauma

because not many are getting evicted.

We have...
- I've met somebody...
- Yes, yes, yes.
- ..who's crying.

- Yes, yes, yes. I know, I know.

If you have to have a society as ours,
you have to be aware of

what's keep us together, than what's
taking us apart.

And the things that could take us
apart is

if people were living parallel to each
other in restricted

areas where there only were people of
non-Western.

You couldn't get any integration

because who should integrate those
people in the Danish society?

You have to have Danes to integrate
these people into society to,

to give them our values and the
feelings of our values,

because they're universal for us,
these values.

- THEY SPEAK DANISH

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

- Yes, it is.

- My wife is half Danish.

- Oh, yeah.
- So...yeah,

the open sandwich...

- Is number one.
- Is number one.
- Yeah.

- I know from personal experience
Danes can be brutally honest.

They don't shy from tough
conversations or facts.

Oh, my goodness.
- Yes.

- Unlike other European states, the
government here publishes

controversial and worrying crime
statistics.

They revealed men from some
non-Western backgrounds are as much

as six times more likely to commit
violent crime than white Danes.

The facts horrified voters.

You release crime statistics showing
the nation of origin of people

convicted of violent offences.

Why have you been doing that?

- That's because a lot of people were
feeling this.

And if we want to solve ordinary
people's problems,

then we have to know which problems
there are in society.

And there were problem in society.

And these high amounts of crime rates
reduces the trust or

breaks the trust between people living
in our country.

And that's very, very important for
us.

- The coalition here says by listening
to the concerns of all

voters on immigration, they maintain
trust.

Immigration's been reduced,
integration is required.

Asylum's now seen as temporary rather
than a route to

permanent settlement.

I think sometimes in the UK there's
been this feeling that

people want something difficult.

They want less immigration into the
country, for example.

And a lot of our politicians haven't
really liked that view

and often they've kind of ignored what
people want.

We've tended to believe, as a country,
more in multiculturalism.

I sense in Denmark you don't really
follow that path.

You believe more in, in a Danish way,
in Danish values,

in monoculturalism almost.

- It depends on how you look at it,
because

if you look on it in a culture where
you can practise your own beliefs,

that's allowed in Denmark.

But you have to agree it's in here
that the laws in Denmark

are made and it's the democracy that
stands over everything else.

- In Denmark and Sweden, attitudes to
immigration have shifted,

fundamentally.

Leaders here now talk about the
financial and social costs.

Sweden's reduced overall net
immigration to zero.

Denmark has the same target.

Fewer people are being granted asylum.

In fact they'll offer up to £26,000
for immigrants to return home.

For liberal Scandis, it's a paradigm
shift.

I'd reached the end of my journey
clear that for most people

the Scandi countries provide a
magnificent standard of living...

To be born Norwegian, that's winning a
lottery really, isn't it?

- It feels like it.

- But remember, in Norway wealth is
largely built on the fossil fuels

that threaten to permanently damage
our climate.

And even in liberal Sweden, I met
indigenous people who feel

forgotten and excluded.

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

- Scandinavia has enjoyed decades of
peace,

but across the region there's a
genuine fear war may

be around the corner.

But despite threats and problems,
Scandinavian

societies still seem to work better
than anywhere else I've been.

You love it, don't you?! I can tell!

At the root of it all, people kept
talking to me about trust -

people trust their neighbours, the
state, teachers -

they even seem to trust politicians to
take sensible decisions.

Look at this. I saw shops left open -
where people are trusted to

pay for what they take away.

This for me, I think, is something
that is central to the success of

modern Scandinavia, and that is trust.

This journey has opened my eyes to a
part of the world we often overlook.

Perhaps the most successful human
societies that have ever existed.

Definitely worth knowing a bit more
about.

I've loved every second.