Episode #186: Dr. Paul Bierman

In Episode #186, geologist Dr. Paul Bierman joins Osi to discuss his groundbreaking research on Greenland's ice sheet, featured in his new book, When the Ice Is Gone: What a Greenland Ice Core Reveals about Earth's Tumultuous History and Perilous Future. They explore the historical significance of Greenland’s ice sheet melting naturally in the distant past, challenging long-held beliefs about its stability. They dive into new revelations about the ice sheet's vulnerability, even without the influence of modern human activity, and examine how scientists use ice cores to uncover and interpret key events in Earth's history. Paul Bierman has been a geologist and professor at the University of Vermont since 1993. His research and teaching expertise focus on the interaction of people, climate, and Earth’s dynamic surface. Public science communication, including books, essays, images, and talks is his passion. Bierman’s research has taken him around the globe. He has studied erosion in Australia, South America, and several countries in Africa and the Middle East. In Greenland, Bierman and his graduate students are tracing the history of the Greenland Ice sheet over the last several million years, an adventure that repeatedly takes them helicoptering over the ice as well as dissecting ice cores, some collected more than half a century ago. In Vermont, New Hampshire, and New York, Bierman and his students created the first record of storminess and erosion that extended back over the last 10,000 years.