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2017

The Loft Cinema Tucson, AZ

with

Joseph Blankinship

Assistant Professor of Soil, Water and Environmental Science, University of Arizona College of Agriculture and Life Sciences

and

Moira Hough

PhD candidate, University of Arizona Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology

and

Craig Rasmussen

Professor of Soil Science, University of Arizona College of Agriculture and Life Sciences

Between Earth and Sky: Climate Change on the Last Frontier— Why permafrost matters

A panel of environmental and soil scientists discusses the issue of thawing permafrost and what it means for Alaskans and the rest of the world.

The Loft Cinema Tucson, AZ

Film Synopsis

A documentary exploring climate change in Alaska, the state hardest hit by global warming to date, and how what is happening there will soon affect us all.

Alaska has been the source of myth and legend in the imagination of Americans for centuries, and what was once the last frontier of American expansion, has become the first frontier in climate change. Between Earth and Sky examines climate change through the lens of impacts to native Alaskans, receding glaciers, and arctic soil.

Mixing interviews with some of the world’s leading scientists in climate change and arctic soils with the day-to-day struggle of native Alaskans living on the front lines of global warming, Between Earth and Sky shows the calamity of climate change that has started in Alaska but will soon engulf the globe.

About the Speaker

Dr. Joseph Blankinship is a soil biogeochemist and a new assistant professor in the Department of Soil, Water and Environmental Science. He is the fellow for the USGS Powell Center Working Group on Soil Carbon Stabilization, an action group leader for the International Soil Carbon Network, and is building a research program focused on developing strategies for enhancing soil carbon storage and soil health in degraded arid ecosystems.

Moira Hough is a PhD candidate in the Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, studying arctic ecosystems. Her research focuses on understanding how changes in plant and microbial activity impact carbon storage and greenhouse gas release after permafrost thaw. She spent the last three summers working at a field station in northern Sweden and has previously studied sites in northern Siberia and southeastern Alaska.

Dr. Craig Rasmussen is a professor of soil science in the Department of Soil, Water and Environmental Science with over 20 years of experience working in ecosystems ranging from Southwestern deserts to alpine and subalpine forest and grasslands. He has performed extensive research on soil formation, soil organic carbon cycling and sequestration, mineral weathering, and predictive soil mapping.