Images Cinema Williamstown, MA
Dr. Phoebe A. Cohen
Associate Professor of Geosciences, Williams College
andDr. David Bond
Associate Director, Center for the Advancement of Public Action, Bennington College
Deep Impact— Eco-disaster: Making a splash
Program Description
Drs. Cohen and Bond will discuss the real life disasters of comets and other astronomical bodies have had on earth's geologic history, and how such an event might have geopolitical implications in the 21st century.
This January's theme is “Eco-Disaster: How We Imagine Humankind Will Navigate Global Catastrophe.” Each talk will be unique to each film and the academic focuses of each speaker, all will delve into both the actual scientific probability of such disaster occurring — and if it will occur as depicted in the film — and the veracity of the human responses to directly avoid said catastrophe and/or the psychological/sociological effects of the catastrophe coming to pass.
Presented At
Images Cinema Williamstown, MA
Film Synopsis
A comet is discovered to be on a collision course with Earth. As doomsday nears, the human race prepares for the worst.
A comet is hurtling toward Earth and could mean the end of all human life. The U.S. government keeps the crisis under wraps, but crack reporter Jenny Lerner (Tea Leoni) uncovers the truth — forcing U.S. President Beck (Morgan Freeman) to announce his plan. Grizzled astronaut Spurgeon "Fish" Tanner (Robert Duvall) and his team will land on the comet and lay explosives, hopefully deterring the object from its doomsday course. If not, humanity will have to prepare for the worst.
Photo credit: Paramount Pictures
About the Speaker
Phoebe Cohen is a paleontologist, geobiologist, teacher, and science communicator. Her research focuses on understanding the interactions between life and the earth system in deep time by integrating micropaleontological, geological, and biological lines of evidence. Phoebe is an Associate Professor at Williams College, where her research has been funded by the National Science Foundation and NASA. She is also the co-host of the forthcoming podcast Jax and Phoebe Make a Planet, and an advocate for inclusion and equity in the earth sciences and beyond.
David Bond is a cultural anthropologist whose ethnographic research and public engagements aim to dismantle the imperial, epistemic, and altogether catastrophic reign of petro-capitalism. In historical excavations of the environmental racism that exempts oil refineries from pollution controls by dint of their colonial location in the American Caribbean, in fieldwork on how environmental protections often encase fossil fuel infrastructure in impenetrable ethics, and in collaborative campaigns with frontline communities to publicize corporate maleficence and prosecute polluters, Bond’s work strives to hold the empire of oil accountable for its profitable destruction of our planet while making room for radical alternatives inside the classroom and impacted communities.