This is a video by Real Life Lore, sponsored by The Great Courses Plus.
Many of us probably think that humans are everywhere on this planet.
There are billions of us and it seems like everywhere you look, there are other people.
And there is no wild or wilderness left in the world,
With everything being already discovered.
But this is simply not the case.
The world is an enormous place.
And there are still places just as remote,
and far away as they were thousands of years ago.
So then,
how far away exactly can you possibly get from every other human on the planet?
For the maximum terrafactor,
Let's imagine that you have been suddenly teleported
to the following locations,
and then, imagine HOW or IF you would escape.
Perhaps you still want to be around a few people but far away from everybody else in the world.
In which case you would likely want to visit the island of Tristan Da Cunha
which is the most remote place in the world that is actually inhabited by people.
The tiny island has a tiny population of just 264 people
and while you're there the closest other population of humans will be located
2,000 kilometers away on the island of Saint Helena
which itself is quite remote.
The nearest continent to you would be Africa
which would be a staggering 2,400 kilometers away.
There is no airport on the island. So the only way to or from is by boat.
And boats only come from South Africa 8 or 9 times in an entire year.
If you really want off the island, then you better have your own boat.
And, even then the shortest journey to the nearest airport is on Ascension Island
and would take you 7 days to reach.
Now lets imagine that you are placed on the center of Devon island
which is a part of the Canadian archipelago.
This island is roughly the same size as Croatia
and yet it has absolutely ZERO people living on it.
NOBODY. its just you.
In complete solitude with nobody else as far as the land goes.
Walk in any direction and you will never find anybody else to help you.
The closest other humans to you will be here on the island next door
in the town of Resolute.
Population: 229, which is every single person who lives on the island.
But even still, the town is 80 km away from the island that you're on.
and you would need a boat to get there.
Maybe you think the South Pole would have to be one of the most remote and far away places in the world.
And while that used to be true, the South Pole today
is home to a permanent research station.
That always staffed by as many as 150 scientists.
The place in Antartica that is far more remote and difficult to get to or out of, would be this exact spot here.
Which is the furthest point on the continent away from the ocean.
It is located 878 km away from the research station at the South Pole.
Which would be the nearest other humans to your location
You may find some solace that
there is at least already shelter pre-built here
although most of it is buried under the snow.
The Soviets first reached this place in
1958 and builds a bust of Lenin facing
towards Moscow which is the only thing
that still stands today above the snow
gazing into the vast nothingness in
every direction. The last time that humans
ever visited this point was back in 2011
so unless you want to wait around for
years to be rescued then you should
probably get moving to that South Pole.
research station
however this isn't the most remote piece
of land on Earth that distinction has to
go to this island in the South Atlantic
called Bouvet Island. It is small frozen
with ice and completely uninhabited by
all of humanity
although Norway claims it for herself for some unknown reason...
The nearest other piece of land to you would be
Queen Maud land here off the coast of
Antarctica at 1,600 kilometers away but
that island is also uninhabited so
there's no use going there
the nearest other humans to you on bouvet
island would be 2260 kilometers away on
tristan da cunha which as we previously
discussed is also incredibly remote in
its own right. For reference that
distance would be about fifty four
percent of the distance from the west
coast of the United States to the east
coast with no other humans insight and
just to arrive at the most remote
inhabited place on earth that still has
no airport and that only has boats come
to it eight or nine times a year. So far
we've only been talking about being on
land but we haven't yet considered the
ocean if we forget about distance and
just think about the sheer obstacles
between you and every other person in
the bottom of the Marianas Trench nearly
11 kilometres below the ocean surface
would be a truly lonely place only three
people have ever been to the bottom in
all of human history and the last time
was in 2012. Strangely that
does mean that there have been four
times as many people that have been on
the surface of the moon than have been
to the bottom of the ocean but let's
take it back to distance for a moment
because the ocean is truly gargantuan
and far bigger than many of us realize
this point in the Arctic Ocean for
example is the furthest point in that
ocean away from any land. It is located
on a shifting pack of ice so a permanent
structure is impossible to build if you
were to ever reach here the closest
inhabited land would be Ellesmere
Island in Canada home to a population of
only 146 people the closest actual
settlement on that island price viewer
would be 1638 kilometers away from you
at this point further nobody has
actually ever reached this point yet in
all of history so if you want to become
an explorer and put your name down in
the history books alongside Magellan
then get out there and reach at first
and finally and most terrifying of all
the most remote point and farthest away
from the rest of humanity that you can
likely ever achieve is deep in the
Pacific Ocean which for reference on a
globe looks like this and almost takes
up half of everything you see this exact
point here is known as point Nemo and is
by far the most remote place on the
planet. The closest inhabited land to you
at this point would be Easter Island
which is a mind-boggling 2689 kilometers
away. To put that into perspective again
that is about sixty four percent of the
distance from the u.s. west coast to
east coast with not a single other
person and just vast empty ocean. If you
think that possibly some shipping routes
or cargo ships may pass by to help then
here is a map of what these trade routes
look like notice the dark points around
not only here but also the point that we
discussed earlier in the Arctic Ocean
and Bouvet Island over here the record
for the fastest time that anybody has
ever made it to point Nemo was on a boat
and it still took 15 days 10 hours and
37 minutes to reach plus all of that
time to make it back from where they
originated from. It's weird to think that
if you were at this point sitting in a
boat alone the closest other humans to
you would actually be the astronauts
onboard the International Space Station
as they occasionally orbit the earth
above you
the station orbits on a maximum
of 416 kilometers above the Earth's
surface which is far closer than the
2689 kilometers needed to reach Easter
Island in fact the space station would
be the closest humans to you at several
of these other locations as well but
here especially if you were stranded
then they would be too far away for help
the fastest anybody could possibly reach
you would take over 15 days the closest
help you could get yourself would be the
same as venturing nearly two-thirds of
the way across the united states and to
top everything off the lovecraftian city
of R'lyeh yet is located not too far
away from this point so you may have far
worse things than sheer isolation to
worry about at this point so with all of
that being said I must thank my
incredible sponsor the great courses
plus the great courses plus is a
subscription on-demand video learning
service where you can subscribe to and
watch unlimited top-notch courses that
are taught by brilliant professors from
Ivy League colleges. As well as experts
from National Geographic the Smithsonian
the Culinary Institute of America and
hundreds of other extremely qualified
individuals. They offer an unlimited
access to thousands of different
lectures over just about anything that
you could be interested in if you
enjoyed the video that you just watched
that i would highly recommend their
courses on cultural and human geography
as well as on polar exploration their
great subjects and incredibly
interesting to learn about and helped
tremendously with the production of this
video you can watch these or hundreds of
other courses completely for free when
you sign up for a 30-day free trial
using the link on your screen now
www.thegreatcoursesplus.com / real-lifelore
or you can click on the link in the
description of this video to go directly
there. I also recently started a patreon
which you can go to by clicking here
there are a lot of great rewards like
voting on future videos early access to
videos and best of all every single
dollar that you contribute goes directly
into bettering the content that you see
on this channel. If you enjoyed this
video and would like to stay updated
with more content just like this in the
future then please subscribe to my
channel by clicking here. Please leave
your comments about what you would do to
get to or get out of any of these
locations and don't forget to like the
video as well.
You can watch some of my older videos in
the meantime, over here and we'll see you
again next time!