WVII (Channel 7) interviewed Andrei Kurbatov, an associate professor in the Climate Change Institute at the University of Maine, about research on 2 million-year-old ice cores from Antarctica. The research, led by Princeton University, involved expeditions of students and other researchers to Allan Hills in Antarctica to drill for the ice cores. On campus, students study the ice and the gas bubbles it contains to look at “snapshots” of prehistoric conditions and temperatures, according to Kurbatov. He said the research will help scientists better understand the secrets of Earth’s past climate, what role human carbon emissions have on the current climate and what the climate will be in the future. “The climate is the only thing that will really impact Maine in the future from a natural, kind of hazard perspective and it’s really relevant to any citizen of Maine,” said Kurbatov.
To learn more, visit Ancient Ice.org