Grade 9 Academic Geography
Chasing Ice
Chasing Ice is a 2012 award winning movie (2012 Best Cinematography Sundance Film Festival; 2014
News and Documentary Emmy for
Outstanding Nature Programming) about the
impact of Global Warming on the world’s
ice…and our lives.
In the spring of 2005, environmental
photographer James Balog traveled to the
Arctic to tell the story of the Earth’s changing
climate in photographs. Balog was climate
change skeptic. This trip opened his eyes.
Chasing Ice is the story of one man’s mission
to influence the future by gathering undeniable evidence of our impacts of our changing climate. His
story is The Extreme Ice Survey. It uses revolutionary time-lapse cameras across the Arctic to capture a
multi-year record of the world’s changing glaciers. The movie presents hauntingly beautiful videos
compressing years into seconds and capture ancient mountains of ice in motion as they disappear at a
breathtaking rate. Chasing Ice depicts a photographer trying to deliver evidence and hope to our
carbon-powered planet.
Task
Watch the video and answer the following questions.
1. List some SPECIFIC impacts of climate change. Give details (e.g., What is the change? How does
the change come about?)
2. What information do ice cores provide about CO2 and temperature change?
3. List possible jobs for people with an interest in geography, climate change, ice and adventure?
4. Why does watching glaciers matter?
5. What questions do you have?
6. What did you learn? What surprised you?
Chasing Ice – Possible Answers
1. List the SPECIFIC impacts of climate change.
 Affects lifestyles of Arctic peoples (food supply)
 Water levels are estimated to rise 2-3 meters which will flood coastal cities, resulting in lots
of refugees
 Melted ice will open up shipping lanes
 Food chain will be affected – those depending on food near ice may die, disrupting whole
ecosystem
 Plants and animal ranges have shifted (robins now in arctic)
 More frequent and more extreme natural disasters (hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, droughts,
heat waves)
 Melting permafrost causing damage to houses, highways, pipelines)
 With less sea ice in north, Canada’s border is more vulnerable
 Increased disputes over sovereignty (who owns ocean floor) because of more accessible oil
and gas resources
 Creates different rivers and lakes as ice melts
 Farmers and cities who depend on glacier meltwater need other water sources
 When a glacier melts, CO2 held in the ice is released….increasing CO2 levels in the
atmosphere even more
2. What information do ice cores provide about CO2 and temperature change?
 Ice cores tell you about past temperatures; air bubbles trapped inside indicate past CO2
levels; ice cores indicate how old and how thick the ice is
3. List the jobs that people with an interest in geography, climate change, ice and adventure could
do.
 Photographer, glaciologist, environmentalist, geomorphologist, geologist, tour guides,
filmmaker, cartographer, helicopter pilot, electrical engineer, zoologist, ice-driller
technician, snow hydrologist
4. Why does watching glaciers matter?
 Humans will have to adapt or face extinction??
 Seeing change more effective than just hearing about it (e.g., see extent of change)
 See reality – proves not just a myth
 Have more of a connection if you see it – more personal
 Seeing it changes your perspective – understand the scale of the issue
 Easier to remember if you have visualized
5. Outline questions you have.
 Is there a faster way to stop glacier melting?
 Is there any good in glaciers melting?
 Why does understanding global warming matter?
 What can we do to stop glaciers melting?
 What are others doing to stop glacier melt?
 What are the points of view of the critics?