A new clip from National Geographic's Continent 7 follows a bunch of environmental scientists as they set up a "waste tent" in the middle of their Antarctic base. Temperatures in that area can reach as low as -100 degrees Fahrenheit, the video's caption explains, making this the world's coldest porta-potty.
"It's like at home, everyone would like to have a clean bathroom. So why not keep it clean here?" scientist Wolfgoing Rack explains of setting up the waste tent near everyone's individual tents. "It's not that bad."
Fellow scientist Marcus Arnold disagrees ("especially after the morning rush"), saying even though everyone's pee and poo (we're all adults here, stop it) most freezes pretty quickly, it's still a smelly task to eventually empty the portable toilet into a designated igloo not far away — and to replace the toilet in the tent, as seen below.
The tent protecting the toilet is nailed into the ice with extra precision, because "if you're sitting on a toilet in a storm, you don't want to have it flying away," Rack says.
He and Arnold also note it's much easier for men to use the bathroom in Antarctica, as they can much more easily pee into the pee bottles everyone is given from their sleeping bags. Good to know.
