INFO
If the ice sheet covering Greenland melts, global sea levels would rise 21 feet, profoundly impacting our planet. How, why, and when could this happen? Scientists have recently found lost sediment from a forgotten secret sub-ice Cold War base in the Arctic that holds clues about a time when the Greenland Ice Sheet had fully receded. What does the discovery that the Greenland Ice Sheet has completely melted before mean for our future?
The event will include a screening of the award-winning 60-minute documentary, The Memory of Darkness, Light, and Ice (2024), followed by a panel discussion with climate scientist Joerg Schaefer (featured in the documentary and recently profiled in the Washington Post, https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/interactive/2023/gre…), national Emmy award-winning film director Kathy Kasic, and political scientist Rebecca Marwege. The panel will focus on the implications of groundbreaking scientific discoveries for modern democracies and the need to combine scientific knowledge of the past with urgent climate action in the present and future.
PANELISTS
Kathy Kasic
Kathy Kasic is a National Emmy Award-Winning director, producer, and cinematographer of Metamorph Films (http://metamorphfilms.com/)/ the non-profit arm Metamorph Films, Inc (http://metamorphfilms.org/) and an Associate Professor of Film at California State University Sacramento. Twenty years ago she traded researching evolutionary biology in the Ecuadorian Amazon for filmmaking. Since then, her artistic vision and craving for adventure have brought her to film off the bow of a ship, underwater in wild mountain rivers, and on the ice fields of Greenland and Antarctica.
Joerg Schaefer
Joerg Schaefer is the Director of Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory’s Cosmogenic Nuclide Group, a faculty member of the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, and a senior fellow of the Center of Climate and Life at Columbia University. His key interests include how glaciers and ice-sheets respond to past and modern warming, how changing ice and related hazards, such as tsunamis and glacial lake outburst floods, impact environment and society and how science can assist in developing solution strategies for these climate-related challenges.
Rebecca Marwege
Rebecca Marwege is Assistant Professor of Environmental Politics in the department of History and Politics. Her research focuses on the political influence of environmental movements at a time of climate crisis. Prior to joining AUP, she received her Ph.D. from Columbia University and served as the Junior Director of the Columbia Climate School Earth Network on Decarbonization, Climate Resilience and Climate Justice. Together with Nikhar Gaikwad and Joerg Schaefer, she edited the interdisciplinary volume Climate Justice Now, published by Columbia University Press in March 2026.
Allison Thompson
Allison Thompson is a senior at AUP studying International and Comparative Politics with a minor in History. She's also proud to serve as the President of AUP's environmental club, AUP Green.
REGISTRATION
