SEEN FROM ELSEWHERE – They are called the “Indiana Jones of the climate”: they are Lonnie Thompson and Ellen Mosley-Thompson. Half-scientist, half-adventurer, this couple obtains information on global warming. Their work has now earned them the Frontiers of Knowledge prize from the BBVA Foundation.
Iker Sixfingers (El Pais)
The past and future of climate change are being stored at -34°C in a refrigerated pavilion at Ohio State University in the city of Columbus. For 40 years, paleoclimatologist Lonnie Thompson has been taking samples of ice from the four corners of the planet, which he stores in tubes one meter wide which, placed end to end, would be more than 7 kilometers long. In front of the worried mine of his visitor, who sees closing behind him the doors of the three corridors which lead to the heart of the “ ice cream archive “, the scientist explains that the system is designed so that it is impossible to find oneself locked up. “ Plus we’d have 20 minutes before we froze to death. “. Only 20 seconds have passed, and it’s frankly hard to believe.
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The look of the couple formed by Lonnie, 73, and his wife, Ellen Mosley-Thompson, 74, is also puzzling. Beneath their air of venerable grandparents of science, hides…
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