Dr. Jason Box: The Bill Maher Interview

Dark Snow Project Chief Scientist Dr. Jason Box was the guest on last week’s RealTime with Bill Maher.

It’s difficult to keep up with, much less steer, an interview with someone as mercurial as Bill Maher, but Dr. Box does a decent job.
He gives a good description of the “dark snow” albedo problem with Greenland ice, the basis of the first Dark Snow expedition, and there’s some nice video from the new drone now in operation on the ice.

Our science partners from the Universities of Colorado, Brighton, Derby, and Aberystwyth in Wale are all taking their turns on and gathering data on the ice.

I’ll be heading to Greenland with Dr. Box in late July, where we’ll man the Dark Snow camp for the final two weeks of this summer’s session, and then pack it up for the season.

We are still raising funds for last minute additions to our science and communication “kit”. If you can help out, there is yet time to jump in.

Perhaps the most surprising statement in the interview, for some viewers,  might be the “70 feet of sea level” estimate that Maher brings up.  Although no one is predicting that much sea level rise any time soon, Dr. Box correctly notes that, the current 400 parts per million level of Co2 corresponds, in the paleo record, to 20+ meters of rise.  It is the rate of rise that is all-important, and that is the driver behind this work.

The videos below discuss what the world’s leading ice experts are telling us about CO2, climate, and sea level.