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[NIKITA KAUSHAL appears on screen, speaking to the camera. She is outside with grass, rocks and cactuses in the background.]
NIKITA KAUSHAL (Postdoctoral scholar, Division of Physical Sciences): Hi everyone, I’m Nikita Kaushal and I’m a postdoctoral researcher at the American Museum of Natural History.
[A pond with two people dressing up in caving gear on the banks.]
KAUSHAL: We are here in Angola,
[Scientists in caving gear walk through rocks and dry grass.]
KAUSHAL: –an hour away from Lubango city in in the south of Angola,
[Scientists in caving gear stoop below rock in a cave.]
KAUSHAL: –outside Tchivinguiro Caves. We are looking at–
[A scientist holds up a large stalagmite which has broken off on the floor of the cave.]
KAUSHAL: –stalagmites in the caves. They’re a little bit like tree rings.
[KAUSHAL holds up stalagmites, looking at the base, where concentric circles are visible.]
KAUSHAL: So they’re really good recorders of past rainfall in this region.
[KAUSHAL returns to screen speaking to the camera.]
KAUSHAL: So we’re trying to see how much rainfall varied here in the past and how it fits with the larger climate pattern. Thank you so much for your support and for supporting the Museum.
[KAUSHAL inside a cave talking to another scientist, looking at field notes with headlamps.]
KAUSHAL: It allows us to travel to places like this–
[KAUSHAL stands in a cave in front of several large stalactite formations, pointing at them.]
KAUSHAL: and to study things in caves like this,
[KAUSHAL stoops down to take a water sample from a clear pool of water in the cave, where stalagmites and stalactites are all around.]
KAUSHAL: –which gives us a much better understanding–
[A closeup of small stalactites hanging from the roof of the cave, with drops of water hanging from each of them.]
KAUSHAL: –of how climate might have varied in the past,
[KAUSHAL returns to screen speaking to the camera.]
KAUSHAL: which allows us to then, um, understand future climate projections much better. Thank you!
[Video fades to black.]