The Big Thaw - My Adventures Filming with Atmospheric Scientists at the Top of the USA

SEARCHING FOR AN ENVIRONMENTAL TIME BOMB

Climate change has long since become a household word. Widely available scientific data clearly indicate how greenhouse gases, primarily human-generated CO2 emissions, are leading to rising air and water temperatures all around the planet. But what if a much larger danger lurks just beneath the earth’s surface in the permafrost covering 20% of the exposed land surface in the northern hemisphere?

In the documentary work-in-progress THE BIG THAW, filmmaker Rick Minnich follows top atmospheric research scientists Jessie Creamean (35) and Thomas Hill (62) as they test their hypothesis by collecting and analyzing hundreds of samples of permafrost (soil frozen solid for at least two years) and lake, river and costal ocean water, as well as air samples along the North Slope of Alaska.

Jessie and Thomas are the only scientists in the world currently known to be researching the effects thawing permafrost is having on cloud formation and what this could mean for our planet. Their initial research suggests that microbes from thawing permafrost could very well be the decisive element driving climate change toward the tipping point. These microbes appear to be increasingly freezing clouds, causing them to quickly release precipitation and dissipate, leading to a rise in flooding and a reduction in the overall cloud cover essential for reflecting sunlight back into the atmosphere and slowing global warming.  

Documentary filmmaker Rick Minnich spent five weeks with Jessie, Thomas and their team from the #ARCSPIN expedition and their local, largely indigenous support crews at the northernmost point of the USA, capturing them at work and play. In this event, Rick will show clips from his work-in-progress THE BIG THAW and discuss his visual strategies for bringing the field work of the #ARCSPIN team to life and how he overcame numerous challenges, including giant mud holes, snowstorms, and polar bears to capture many compelling and humorous moments. Rick’s ultimate goal is to make invisible processes visible, and to transform complex scientific research into a language suitable for general audiences to understand and appreciate. 
 

FINDING COMMON GROUND

THE BIG THAW seeks to find common ground between established scientific practice, pioneering research, and ancient indigenous knowledge to illustrate how radical changes in the Arctic are impacting the weather on a global scale. The scientific consensus is that temperatures are rising 3-4 times faster in the Arctic than elsewhere on the planet. Melting glaciers, vast methane sink holes, and rising ocean levels are clear evidence of this. But little is known about what is emerging from thawing permafrost. While most public policies focus on combating global warming through reducing CO2 emissions, little attention is being paid to another potential environmental time bomb – the microscopic particles that are emerging from the thawing soil and possibly altering weather patterns in unprecedented ways. 

THE BIG THAW aspires to enlighten and entertain general audiences by getting up close and personal with the scientists who are doing vital climate research, and making their research comprehensible to non-scientists. The film will show how what is happening in the Arctic impacts the entire planet, and how the only way to master the challenges climate change is posing to humanity is to take a global, science-based approach.