Taking Earth's Temperature - Delving into Climate's Past
A Documentary Film
The film "Taking Earth’s Temperature: Delving into Climate’s Past" is a one-hour documentary that showcases scientific discoveries about climate change. It features scientists who are deciphering records of Earth’s past climate changes-information that can shed light on our planet’s climate future.
Like detectives, the scientists (e.g. Thomas Stocker, Martin Grosjean, Hubertus Fischer, Heinz Wanner, Thorsten Kiefer and much more) explore clues in lake sediments, coral reefs, deep caves, tree rings, and glaciers to understand the causes of past climate changes. Because the Earth’s climate fluctuates over vast time spans, they are looking for a long-term view that transcends our daily human experience.
Some of these scientists travel to remote areas to retrieve ancient records-often braving extreme weather conditions. Taking Earth’s Temperature shows the lengths to which scientists will go to pursue their passion for understanding Earth’s climate. It follows a field expedition into the Arctic, where researchers augur through lake ice during a blizzard to collect sediment cores from the lake bottom.
The film also takes us to research laboratories in Europe and the United States where these and other hard-won samples are analyzed, using the latest scientific techniques. The results are then integrated into a global network to clarify large-scale climate changes.
By understanding natural climate variations, scientists can place recent climate changes in perspective, and they can test and improve predictive climate models that help us understand what may be in store for us in years to come.
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