Burbank Library Hosts Climate Conversation With Renowned Paleontologist And JPL Scientist

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The Burbank Public Library hosts a climate conversation featuring esteemed paleontologist and author Neil Shubin and Jet Propulsion Laboratory scientist Alex Gardner on Wednesday, February 5. (Image Courtesy Burbank Public Library)

The Burbank Public Library hosts a climate conversation featuring esteemed paleontologist and author Neil Shubin and Jet Propulsion Laboratory scientist Alex Gardner on Wednesday, February 5.

Shubin, author of Ends of the Earth: Journeys to the Polar Regions, and Gardner, a glaciology expert, will discuss the history of the Earth’s polar regions with an emphasis on rising concerns about their future.

Neil Shubin with fossil. (Image Courtesy Burbank Public Library)

Known for his discovery of Tiktaalik, a 375-million-year-old fossil that bridges the gap between fish and humans, Shubin explores the vital role ice sheets and glaciers perform in the climatology of the planet, drawing on information he learned from his own polar expeditions, in Ends of the Earth.

“The polar regions amplify and dramatize the climate changes happening across the globe,” Shubin says in his book. “What happens at
the poles does not stay at the poles.”

“The science of earth’s polar regions changes the way we see our world.  We will discuss the extraordinary way science is done in these remote and forbidding landscapes and the ways it holds keys to our future,” he comments. “These areas are heating up in more ways than one…” 

“The Earth’s polar regions are experiencing profound changes as our climate warms,” explains Gardner. “These changes may feel distant and abstract to those living far away in major populated areas like Los Angeles, but the consequences of polar change are global.”

“Past ice ages have sculpted continents and revealed land bridges across which humans found their way to North America and now, as our planet’s ice melts, sea levels are rising, and coastal infrastructure is increasingly at risk.”

“Nearly 70% of the Earth’s fresh water is trapped in the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, both of which are vulnerable to climate tipping points that, if triggered, will result in millennial scale demise of Greenland and the West Antarctic Ice Sheets, accelerating rates of sea level rise and altering global ocean circulation.”

“Using satellites and field observations, scientists are racing to build better understanding of ice sheet physics needed to determine how close humanity is to triggering irreversible and long-lasting change,” he adds.

Alex Gardner, JPL Glaciology Expert. (Image Courtesy Burbank Public Library)

Gardner heads the Sea Level and Ice Group at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where he studies the cryosphere and the relationship between ice and climate. His cutting-edge work on multiple NASA missions has contributed to a greater understanding of Earth’s changing polar regions and the subsequent impact on the globe.

“As our home planet warms, its ice is rapidly changing… and the polar regions with it,” Gardner says. “Ends of the Earth explores these changes through the eyes of an inquisitive and adventurous soul, shedding light on the origins of Earth’s cryopshere (frozen Earth), the mysteries it holds, and its potential fate.”

“Ends of the Earth is an account of the rapid and dramatic changes that are happening at the earth’s polar regions. Shubin has spent much of his career as a paleontologist working at the poles,” comments Burbank Librarian Hubert Kozak. “He is able to tell a particularly compelling story because he has been an eye-witness to these changes.”

“This event is about the impact of global warming and the dynamics of how those changes are unfolding,” Kozak adds. “It’s a chance to learn about what those changes portend, not only for the future of life in the polar regions, but for all life on earth.”

The event is free and open to the public. Registration is recommended at https://burbank.libnet.info/event/12475347. Copies of Ends of the Earth will be available for purchase and an author signing will follow the program.

“Ends of the Earth: Journeys to the Polar Regions” will be held on Wednesday, February 5, from 7:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at the Buena Vista Branch of the Burbank Public Library located at 300 N. Buena Vista Street in Burbank. Plenty of free parking is available on site.