Earth Week, 2026
Plan C for Civilization | Film Screening & Panel
Wednesday, April 22
6:00-9:00 pm ET
*Registration closes on Tuesday, April 21 at 5:00 pm, or when tickets sell out.
Columbia Business School
David Geffen Hall, Cooperman Commons
645 W 130th Street, New York, NY 10027
Columbia Business School’s Tamer Institute for Social Enterprise and Climate Change and Columbia Climate School are co-hosting a very special screening of Plan C for Civilization followed by a panel discussion on Earth Day, April 22.
This thought-provoking documentary explores one of the most controversial ideas in climate science: the potential of solar geoengineering. The film follows renowned researcher David Keith and the start-up Make Sunsets as they spark a global debate about whether intentionally altering Earth’s atmosphere could help cool the planet. From Bangladesh to Nevada, award-winning director Ben Kalina examines the promises, risks, and ethical dilemmas of climate intervention technologies.
Plan C for Civilization is a thrilling wake-up call that invites its audience to confront a difficult question: in a planetary emergency, is any idea too risky to explore? The documentary opens space for dialogue on climate innovation, governance, and the future of our planet.
The panel will feature director Ben Kalina, and professors V. Faye McNeill and Gernot Wagner, in conversation with the Climate School’s MS in Climate Finance student Vincent Sandow-Straesser.
About the Speaker(s):
Ben Kalina is an award-winning documentary producer and director whose work explores the colliding forces of human nature and environmental change. His first feature documentary, Shored Up, explored sea level rise and the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy as it ran headlong into unchecked coastal development. Shored Up won the 2014 Sundance Institute’s Lightstay Sustainability Award and was broadcast on DirecTV. He produced and directed the 2020 NOVA film Can We Cool the Planet?, which journeyed around the world to reveal technologies and nature-based solutions with the potential to counteract climate change. His in-progress feature doc Plan C for Civilization follows the scientist at the center of the controversial field of solar geoengineering, a technology designed to quickly cool a warming world. His other work-in-progress, The Refugees of Eastwick, tells the story of climate adaptation and environmental justice in Philadelphia, where generations of residents have struggled to chart their own destiny in the neighborhoods, parks and communities across the city.
Other projects include: Home: A Rockumentary, following a year in the life of a public middle school rock band in South Philadelphia, A River Reborn, chronicling the revival of a river in the mountains of Central Pennsylvania poisoned by chemicals from abandoned coal mines, and COP27 was a Rehearsal from the 2022 UN climate conference in Egypt.
In addition to his independent documentaries Ben produces a range of short films and videos through his company Mangrove Media, based in Philadelphia. Mangrove partners with organizations including The Nature Conservancy, PennEnvironment, and the National Wildlife Federation.
Professor V. Faye McNeill, Professor and Vice Chair, Department of Chemical Engineering, Professor, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, and Professor of Climate, Columbia University. Prof. McNeill’s research is focused on the chemistry and physics of atmospheric aerosol particles and ice in the environment, and their roles in atmospheric chemistry, air quality, and climate. McNeill received her B.S. in chemical engineering from Caltech in 1999 and her PhD in chemical engineering from MIT in 2005, where she was a NASA Earth System Science Fellow.
The McNeill group performs laboratory, theoretical, and modeling studies with a focus on multiphase processes involving atmospheric aerosols and ice in the environment. Special interest areas include the chemical sources of atmospheric particulate matter and its evolution in the atmosphere, and the influence of atmospheric aerosol chemistry on climate. Prof. McNeill is particularly interested in using modeling to bridge the scales between the large amount of detailed, molecular-level data researchers gather in the laboratory and the coarse-grained information required by large-scale models. Besides improving our basic understanding of the Earth system, she and her research group are using the results of their work to improve large-scale models of atmospheric chemistry and climate, thereby enhancing their prognostic ability, providing insight into the effects of human activity on the environment, and setting the stage for smart policy decisions.
Professor Gernot Wagner is a climate economist at Columbia Business School and faculty director of its Climate Knowledge Initiative. He has written six books, including Climate Shock and, most recently, Geoengineering: the Gamble. Gernot’s research, writing, and teaching focus on climate risks, technologies, and policy. He is a research fellow at CEPR, faculty fellow at CESifo, board member of CarbonPlan, Project Syndicate columnist, and a frequent contributor to the New York Times and Financial Times, among others. Prior to Columbia, Gernot taught at NYU and Harvard, where he was the founding co-director of Harvard’s Solar Geoengineering Research Program. Gernot holds a Ph.D. and M.A. in Political Economy and Government from Harvard, an M.A. in Economics from Stanford.