In this episode, Rohatyn Center director Mark Williams talks with climate scientist Allison Jacobel about how researchers reconstruct the Earth’s climate history without a “time machine,” why the oceans and seafloor hold richer continuous climate records than land, and what understanding the past can tell us about contemporary climate change and our climate future.

Listen as Professor Jacobel describes life on an international research team, and the high-stakes reality of oceanographic fieldwork — weeks or months at sea, working 12-hour shifts and navigating storms — while collecting water, plankton, and sediment samples to uncover chemical clues to Earth’s past. Jacobel also reflects on her recent 30-day North Atlantic research, describing shipboard life, collaboration with fellow scientists (including her Middlebury student research assistant), and how the data collected supports student learning back on campus. 

Dr. Allison W. Jacobel is Assistant Professor of Earth and Climate Sciences at Middlebury College and a faculty fellow at the Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs.  Her work focuses on understanding the climate system through the application of geochemical, sedimentological, and micropaleontological techniques. Specifically, she is interested in the reconstruction of abrupt and orbital-scale climate change and the carbon storage mechanisms that amplify insolation forcing.

New Frontiers (from the Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs at Middlebury College) is a higher education podcast series bringing scholarly research and expertise to bear on national, international, and global affairs.

Produced and edited by Margaret DeFoor and Mark Williams, director of the Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs. Intro by Charlotte Tate, associate director of the Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs. Edits by RCGA intern Mehr Sohal.

Music Credits
Forte by Kestra - Summer with Sound Album
Soul Zone by Kestra - Light Rising Album
Transitions by Mark Williams