Water is essential for life – that we know. But the honeycomb lattice that forms when you chill it to zero degrees Celsius is also inexorably intertwined with life.
Ice is more than a repository for water that would otherwise raise sea levels. It’s part of Earth’s cooling system … a barrier preventing decaying organic matter from releasing methane gas … and a vault entombing ancient bacteria and other microbes.
From the Arctic to the Antarctic, global ice is disappearing. Find out what’s at stake as atmospheric CO2 threatens frozen H2O.
Guests:
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Peter Wadhams – Emeritus Professor of Ocean Physics at Cambridge University in the U.K. and the author of A Farewell to Ice: A Report from the Arctic
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Eric Rignot – Earth systems scientist, University of California, Irvine, senior research scientist, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
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Åsmund Asdal – Biologist, Nordic Genetic Resource Center, coordinator for operations and management of the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, Svalbard, Norway
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John Priscu – Polar biologist, Montana State University
Segments:
Part 1: Peter Wadhams / Sea Ice
Part 2: Eric Rignot / Larsen C
Part 3: Peter Wadhams / Permafrost
Part 4: Åsmund Asdal / Doomsday Vault
Part 5: John Priscu / Microbes Unleashed
originally aired August 14, 2017
