Marco Tedesco
NEWS and HIGHLIGHTS
Comment on GRIST about lithium
My presentation at BRAINBAR 2023
Comment on GRIST about lithium
Columbia Climate School Video
My presentation at BRAINBAR 2023
Comment on GRIST about lithium
My presentation at BRAINBAR 2023
My presentation at BRAINBAR 2023
My presentation at BRAINBAR 2023
A National Geographic UK Best Travel Book of 2020 -Washington Post Best 2020 Travel books
For most of us, the Arctic is a vast, alien landscape. For Marco Tedesco, it is his laboratory, his life’s work—and the most beautiful, most endangered place on Earth.
In The Hidden Life of Ice, Marco invites us to Greenland, where he and his fellow scientists are doggedly researching the dramatic changes afoot. Following the arc of his typical day in the field, he unearths the surprising secrets just beneath the icy surface—from evidence of long-extinct “polar camels” to the fantastically weird microorganisms that live in freezing cryoconite holes—as well as critical clues about the future of our planet.
Not just a student of its secrets, Marco is an acolyte of the Arctic’s beauty—its “magnificence and fragility,” as Elizabeth Kolbert writes in her foreword. Alongside the sobering facts on climate change, Marco shares stunning photographs of this surreal landscape— as well as captivating legends of Greenland’s earliest local populations, epic deeds of long-ago Arctic explorers, and his own moving reflections.
"I’m not sure I will have the chance to visit the Greenland ice sheet again. This makes me sad to think about, as it is perhaps my favorite place on earth. But flying off to see the ice sheet only helps hasten its demise. Tedesco and Alberto Flores d’Arcais have done a wonderful job evoking the ice sheet’s magnificence and fragility. I think in the future I may be better off staying home with a good book, like this one."
—from the foreword by Elizabeth Kolbert
short bio
Marco is a Lamont Research Professor at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University and Adjunct Scientist at the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS). He is also a member of the Columbia Data Science Institute (affiliated) , Affiliate professor at Sant’Anna School of Economics in Pisa, Italy, a member of the Columbia Senate, NASA Adjunct Scientist, a member of the Columbia Climate School Coastal Resiliency Network and a member of the New York City Panel of Climate Change, Equity Working Group. He is also a fellow of the Explorers' Club in NYC. He is also a writer and photographer. He writes regularly for the Italian newspaper La Repubblica and has contributed to several newspapers and magazines, among which Scientific American and National Geographic. Marco's academic research focuses on polar regions using fieldwork, remote sensing, modeling and artificial intelligence. He also works on microplastics, dendrochronology, global climate change and its implications on the economy, finance and real estate with a strong emphasis on climate justice. Marco led more than 12 expeditions to Greenland and to Antarctica, beside fieldwork in other places, including Iceland, Northern US, Canada, Italian Alps and more. He is the author of the book “The hidden life of ice” originally published in 2018, which has been translated in 7 languages and was selected by the Washington Post and by the National Geographic Traveler as among the best 10 books of the year. Marco lives between NYC, Amsterdam and the ice sheet.
FULL CV HERE
Academic Research
Academic Research
Academic Research
Find out more about Marco's academic research
Selected Writings
Academic Research
Academic Research
Excerpts from essays, articles and unpublished work
Photography
Academic Research
Photography
Find out more about Marco's photographs