PORT ANGELES — Olympic Climate Action is joining with Peninsula College and the Elwha Klallam Heritage Center to offer three free programs on climate change next week.
National Park Service geologist Jon Riedel will present “Vanishing Ice: What Happens to the Olympic Peninsula Water Supply as Glaciers Retreat?” in the Little Theater at Peninsula College, 1502 E. Lauridsen Blvd., at 12:35 p.m. Thursday (Oct. 10).
Riedel’s talk is part of Peninsula College’s Studium Generale series.
He will discuss the response of glaciers to modern climate change and the implications of that response for water resources. Riedel and his research team recently completed a research project on the status of glaciers in Olympic National Park.
Also Thursday (Oct. 10), the film “Chasing Ice,” followed by a panel discussion on “How Changing Climate Will Affect Us Locally: Finding Hope Among the Facts,” will be presented at the Elwha Klallam Heritage Center, 401 E. First St., at 6:30 p.m.
A former climate skeptic, James Balog changed his mind and conceived the boldest expedition of his life: the Extreme Ice Survey.
He deployed time-lapse cameras across the Arctic to capture a multiyear record of the world’s changing glaciers.
Local impacts
A panel discussion will follow covering local impacts of climate change, including on water resources, forests, fish, wildlife and the built environment.
The next day, at 7 p.m. Friday (Oct. 11), the film “The Age of Stupid” will be presented by the Peninsula College Magic of Cinema film series in Maier Performance Hall at Peninsula College.
The film provides a futuristic account of an old man living in a devastated world watching archive footage from today and asking: “Why didn’t they stop climate change when they had the chance?”
A panel discussion will follow.