Don Voigt
On the Tuesday February 6th, 2018 edition of WITF’s Smart Talk:
Don Voigt doesn’t mind the cold at all. He has spent eighteen seasons over the last twenty-two years researching ice in Antarctica. Voigt is a senior research associate at Penn State; the navy veteran has a background in geology, but shifted gears in the 90’s and began to focus on researching ice flow and environmental trending based on ice core samples.
Antarctica is largely ignored by most; the continent stores 70% of the Earth’s fresh water, it boasts mountain ranges to rival the Rockies and is covered by ice more than a mile thick. The Vostok research station once recorded a temperature of -128⁰ F. 4,000 scientists work during the summer season, about a thousand stick around for the brutal winter months. The first human didn’t set foot on Antarctica until 1821.
On the Tuesday edition of Smart Talk, we speak with Voigt about spending three months of the year on a desolate continent where the temperature rarely exceeds -15⁰ F, the isolation from the world and the camaraderie of the research community and the warning signs he sees regarding the changing global climate.
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