A million years on ice — what the past can tell us about the climate of the future with the World's Best Conversations

How do scientists know what kind of climate we are facing? Part of the answer is found deep beneath Antarctica, hidden in ice that was formed long before modern man existed.

On Wednesday 21 October we invite you to a conversation between journalist Anna Gudmann and Helle Astrid Kjær, Associate Professor at the Niels Bohr Institute.

In a basement of the institute, Helle Astrid Kjær has been in charge of melting and analysing a very special ice core from Antarctica. The ice is probably about 1.2 million years old and acts as a frozen time capsule. It stores traces of past temperatures and atmospheres, and can therefore make us more aware of everything from greenhouse gases and ice ages to the climate changes we are experiencing today.

What happens when you melt the world's oldest continuous ice core? What secrets can scientists extract from it? And how can knowledge of the climate of the past help us prepare our cities and communities for the rising temperatures and sea levels of the future?

We will also hear the story of the Danish researcher Willi Dansgaard, who in the 1950s began collecting rainwater in empty beer bottles. What sounded like a crazy idea at the time became the beginning of a field of research that today is crucial to our understanding of climate.

A conversation about scientific curiosity, our shared future and a singular archive that can only be read by melting it.