What Impact Will 'Chasing Ice' Have on Public Perception of Climate Change?

[Greg Bernhardt]

I was fortunate to spend a few weeks recently with the director of Chasing Ice, Jeff Orlowski.

http://blogs.crikey.com.au/cinetology/files/2013/04/jefforlowski.jpg

I'm going to plug Chasing Ice because it's an amazing film. Jeff along with EIS (http://extremeicesurvey.org/) filmed glaciers for a few years. The images and film captured of the glaciers receding and calving is remarkable. I encourage everyone to go out and see it. It's won tons of film festival awards.

 

[Astronuc]

I see knee replacement in his future - as well as a lot of pain.

Interesting endeavor. Sure beats an office job.

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

Was just promoted on Obama's website!
http://www.barackobama.com/news/chasing-ice-climate-change/

 

[turbo]

I see knee replacement in his future - as well as a lot of pain.

yep. If you can't walk without pain,life kind of sucks. No knee replacement for me.
I have met too many unhappy patients. Some have had to to undergo several surgeries.

 

[mheslep]

I was fortunate to spend a few weeks recently with the director of Chasing Ice, Jeff Orlowski.

...

I'm going to plug Chasing Ice ...

Any footage of Antarctica?

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

Any footage of Antarctica?

Not in the Film, but he did take an enormous amount while we were in Antarctica. Not sure what his plans are for the footage. He asked me not to tell anyone about his new project, but I'll suffice to say it has to do with scuba diving and something off the coast off north east Australia.

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

Just left the Franz Josef glacier in NZ. In 5 years it won't be a tourist attraction. It's nearly vanished from the side of the mountain. Only way to see it soon will be by helicopter.

 

[davenn]

hope you are enjoying your NZ trip Greg.

yeah unfortunately the glaciers Fox and Franz Josef are both retreating
I took my wife there in 2007 for her first glacier visits

Franz Josefcheers
Dave

 

[Borek]

https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=743728

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

Chasing Ice won an Emmy!
http://www.chasingice.com/chasing-ice-2014-emmy-award-winners/

 

[enorbet]

Thank you for this, Greg. This looks captivating and wonderful not to mention important observational Science. Perhaps something this concrete and visceral (and Emmy Award winning!) will get through to the powers that be to dedicate more funding to such research. We can hope.

An aside that you can delete or ask me to and I will be happy to comply but I'd like to ask if the reason the obvious point of the film is disallowed here is because it is just so contentious (and attractive to the ill-informed) that it draws in too many non-scientific comments and is just very unwieldy to manage? If so, and perhaps in light of this amazing effort on film, maybe Staff could revisit that decision and apply some means of managing an important area of discussion without "throwing out the baby with the bath water"?

Edit: Oops I see that you did that in June. Kudos!

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

but I'd like to ask if the reason the obvious point of the film is disallowed here is because it is just so contentious

Ah, I should remove that point from my first post. That was before we changed our climate change policy :)

 

[Astronuc]

https://www.yahoo.com/travel/melting-away-endangered-polar-regions-c1417705586093.html

Even Glacier National Park in the US is experiencing retreating/diminishing glaciers.

 

[mheslep]

And has been experiencing retreat for a couple of centuries. That is, in 1794 there was no bay at Glacier Bay, just glacier. Eight-five years later there was bay.

Glacier Bay was first surveyed in detail in 1794 by a team from the H.M.S. Discovery, captained by George Vancouver. At the time the survey produced showed a mere indentation in the shoreline. That massive glacier was more than 4,000 feet thick in places, up to 20 miles wide, and extended more than 100 miles to the St. Elias mountain range.

By 1879, however, naturalist John Muir discovered that the ice had retreated more than 30 miles forming an actual bay. By 1916, the Grand Pacific Glacier – the main glacier credited with carving the bay – had melted back 60 miles to the head of what is now Tarr Inlet.

http://www.glacierbay.org/geography.html

Interesting USGS map

 

[enorbet]

Recently while driving and scanning for music on the radio, I stopped at a good Classic Rock tune and locked it in. The station is a Clear Channel type and this one is rather heavily "Good Ol' Boy", or at least one might get that impression by the thick southern accents and the name of the show, "John Boy and Billy Big's Big Show". They have a renowned commentator named Robert D. Raford and I was rather surprised to hear one on Climate Change at all, let alone one referencing the recent IPCC event in Lima. Raford stated flatly that human caused climate change is not a hoax and that, in fact, we are at a crossroads where even if we begin mitigation it is going to get unpleasant, and if we don't, uninhabitable (since a rise of 3.6C is entirely possible by 2100).

Knowing the rather conservative (or rather what passes for Conservatism these days) stance of Clear Channel (now "iHeartRadio") I couldn't help but wonder if this was wildly overstating the case in order to discredit IPCC. So I went to IPCC web page and found this excellent pdf -

http://www.ipcc.ch/news_and_events/docs/COP20/Field IPCC special event 10 min 12-1-14.pdf

and it turns out it looks like he wasn't overstating at all.

While it is probably doubtful that "Average Joes" will bother to read the voluminous data from IPCC, the fact that it is even being seriously reported on such radio channels as Texas-based "iHeartRadio" "Good Ol' Boy" channels is hopefully a good sign. I sincerely hope that "Chasing Ice" is capable of far more penetration into the public psyche.

Thank you again for this thread. It seems very serious and important.