The Scientist

With M. Sanjayan

Why this story needs to be told

The challenge for me has been that when I go out and talk about climate change, I’ve always felt like I’m telling someone else’s story. It feels like it’s happening out there somewhere else. Often far away. I wanted to change that.

M. Sanjayan
Play
Christmas Island
April 29, 2014

Conservationist M. Sanjayan travels to Christmas Island to interview some of the world’s top climate scientists as they collect key data unlocking the future of our planet’s changing climate.

Conservationist M. Sanjayan travels to Christmas Island to interview some of the world’s top climate scientists as they collect key data unlocking the future of our planet’s changing climate.

Introduction

Even when you’ve been the lead scientist of two of the country’s most well respected environmental organizations – groups addressing climate change – you may need to see the proof.

In The Scientist, M. Sanjayan travels to the ends of the earth to question some of the top climate scientists in their field as they collect key data unlocking the past and future of our planet’s changing climate.

SHOOT LOCATIONS:

Tupungatito, Chile; Christmas Island, Kiribati; Hawaii; Maine; Las Vegas, NV

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Meet The Characters

We can do a hundred different measurements on a single little slab of ice and from that we can tell all sorts of things; Temperature, precipitation, storm patterns, where the storm came from, industrial pollutants, forest fires, volcanoes, on and on and on.

Paul Andrew Mayewski Director & Distinguished Maine Professor, Climate Change Institute; School of Earth & Climate Sciences.

The corals – they grow very fast and very reliably and as they grow they are recording environmental information into their skeleton and they create this wonderful year by year by year archive.

Kim Cobb Associate Professor of Climate Change at Georgia Institute of Technology.

Correspondent M. Sanjayan behind the scenes for The Scientist.

Correspondent Sanjayan interviews Georgia Tech Climatologist Kim Cobb on Christmas Island in the South Pacific.

Georgia Tech Climatologist Kim Cobb behind the scenes for The Scientist.

Correspondent Sanjayan and Paul Mayewski (Professor and Director of the Climate Change Institute at the University of Maine) during an interview in Chile.

Correspondent Sanjayan interviews Georgia Tech Climatologist Kim Cobb on a boat on Christmas Island in the South Pacific.

M. Sanjayan in Mauna Loa for The Scientist.

M. Sanjayan and Solly Granatstein behind the scenes in Mauna Loa for The Scientist.

The Science Behind The Story

Much like trees, coral adds a layer to its carbonate shell each year. These layers hold information about the climate such as temperature and rainfall.

Source Learn more about Paleoclimate

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