THE LECTURE
Cold War Science and Engineering Today Reveals Greenland’s Fragility in an Overheating Climate

 

 

QGS hosted Paul at 4 PM on January 11, 2025

Paul’s lecture focused on how Greenland, a remote arctic island, holds in its ice enough water to raise sea level over six meters (20 feet). That is enough to flood every major coastal city and displace up to half a billion people. As he discussed, until recently we knew very little about the past comings and goings of this massive ice sheet. Through the lens of climate science, environmental history, and the stories of people who studied Greenland over the past century, Paul used the past to look into a warming future. He filled the talk with photographs, movies, and recordings from the 1930s onward, reviewed the science done by the international team that he led, and told stories from his book, When the Ice is Gone. A key finding of Paul and his fellow researchers is that the Greenland ice sheet appears to have melted away completely during a previous interglacial warm climate, which suggests it could do so again if today’s warmer climate continues. The talk was popular with those with an interest in science and history.

An additional resource to Paul’s lecture may be found on Youtube – CLICK HERE. You can find the featured book by Paul at this link: https://www.paulbierman.net/books/.

Paul’s lecture was ZOOM-only at 4 PM on January 11, 2025.

BIO

Paul Bierman, environmental science professor at the University of Vermont, develops methods to date ice and rocks. He has published in Science and Nature, with the findings covered by CNN, USA Today, and the Weather Channel. Paul is a 1993 graduate of the University of Washington (Seattle) where he earned his MS and doctorate in Geoscience after a BA at Williams College.

Paul lives in Burlington, Vermont and his passions include telling stories and solving the mysteries of our planet. He is equally at home in a dusty archive and a cleanroom without a speck of dust. A history and geoscience researcher by training and a teacher for over four decades, Paul looks at our planet with wonder and curiosity. His career has taken him to searing deserts and frigid ice sheets. Throughout, he has focused his energies on understanding the link between our Earth and human societies – what today we call sustainability. He enjoys education at all levels and is the author of three textbooks and a book for the general public, When the Ice is Gone.