North House Folk School

Part of Winterers' Gathering and Arctic Film Festival 2025 at North House Folk School

In a surprising turn of events for many, Greenland has become ground-zero for climate change and expansionist desires to grow American influence in the north. But this is not new: in the 1950s and 1960s, the island was central to America’s Cold War strategy. Featured Speaker Dr. Paul Bierman examines Greenland through the lens of both natural and human history focusing on Camp Century, a nuclear-powered US military base inside the ice sheet. There, Army drillers completed the first deep ice core and from beneath the ice, recovered 12 feet of frozen soil filled with plant and insect fossils: evidence that Greenland’s ice had once vanished before. Unless we address climate change, that ice will melt again, raising global sea level as much as 25 feet and forcing half a billion people to migrate. Dr. Bierman shares vintage photographs, film, and video and includes short readings from his new book, When the Ice is Gone: What a Greenland Ice Core Reveals About Earth’s Tumultuous History and Perilous Future.

Professor Paul Bierman is a geoscientist, environmental historian, and writer at the University of Vermont. Both his research and teaching focus on the interaction of people and Earth’s dynamic surface. He is particularly interested in working at the interface between active research, education, and science literacy at all levels. Bierman currently has active research projects in both the tropics (Cuba, Puerto Rico) and the arctic (Greenland). When the Ice is Gone (WW Norton, 2024), his book about the history and future of the Greenland Ice Sheet, is a New Yorker Best Book selection and was featured in the New York Times and on Minnesota Public Radio.

paulbierman.net