“Between Earth and Sky” Screening

The Office of Interdisciplinary Studies is sponsoring a screening of the new documentary, “Between Earth and Sky,” about the effect of global climate change on Alaska at 6 p.m. April 19 at Take Root Café.

Synopsis: Alaska has been the source of myth and legend in the imagination of Americans for centuries, and what was once the last frontier of American expansion, has become the first frontier in climate change. “Between Earth and Sky” examines climate change through the lens of impacts to native Alaskans, receding glaciers and arctic soil. The island of Shishmaref has been home to the Inupiaq people for thousands of years. As sea ice retreats and coastal storms increase the people of Shishmaref are faced with a disappearing island and a $200 million price tag to move their people with an untold cost on their culture and history.

Permafrost (permanently frozen ground) in northern upland landscapes sequesters 40 percent of the Earth’s carbon. Alaska has experienced the largest regional warming of any state in the U.S. increasing 3.4 degrees F since 1949. This warming has created a feedback loop of carbon to the atmosphere and the thawing of permafrost impacting the daily life of Alaskans.

Mixing interviews with some of the world’s leading scientists in climate change and arctic soils, with the day-to-day struggle of native Alaskans living on the front lines of global warming, “Between Earth and Sky” shows the calamity of climate change that started in Alaska but is already engulfing the globe.