Clare Gaffey — Arctic scientist

Clare Gaffey is pictured in October in the Arctic on board the Norseman II, a converted king crab boat, holding a bottle with a water sample that would eventually be analyzed as part of a project studying the effects of global warming. Sometimes she worked 24 hours with no sleep but the camaraderie with other scientists on board the ship was sustaining, she said. Gaffey is now back at Clark University in Massachusetts in her third year of a Ph.D. program in geography. The Distributed Biological Observatory project has for years been documenting the thinning of sea ice, the rising seawater temperatures, and the resulting biological changes. Gaffey also works with satellite imagery to see chlorophyll across the ocean surface. In this week’s podcast, Gaffey describes “a great childhood,” growing up in Guilderland where she was fascinated with nature and felt a duty to protect nature. She hiked with her family in the Adirondacks and attended the Heldeberg Workshop in the summertime. At Guilderland High School, she studied chemistry, biology, and physics as separate disciplines. It wasn’t until she got to the University at Albany, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in environmental science and a master’s degree in geography, that she understood how those fields were interconnected, how, for example, climate affects biology. During her high school years, what Gaffey learned from sports — she played field hockey, cross-country skied, and ran track — is what shaped her character, she said. “It built my confidence and also humbled me,” she said. She learned the value of persistence and now thinks of herself as a scientist. She advises that permafrost, when it melts, releases organic matter that will become methane and also that sea ice and glaciers reflect the sun but, once melted, they are replaced with dark ocean that absorbs radiation, increasing global warming. Individuals can make a difference by “voting with your dollars,” says Gaffey. For example, “If you eat meat, get it locally … Be mindful of how you live.”

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