An absorbing insight into the mysteries of glaciers and what their imminent disappearance means for our future. By taking those first steps on the ice, a bond is forged. No matter how many glaciers a glaciologist may have trodden, the sensation is always palpable: the crunch as the fragile surface crust crumbles underfoot, the mesmerising feeling of walking on a moving block of ice. The sense of mystery and danger never wanes.
Yet polar ice caps and glaciers, which cover about one-tenth of the earth's surface, are at severe risk. In the Alps, the Andes, the Himalayas, once indomitable glaciers are now receding, even disappearing. In Antarctica, their melting could release vast quantities of methane stored for millions of years deep within the earth's crust, with far-reaching consequences for humanity as a whole.
Against this alarming backdrop, world-renowned glaciologist Jemma Wadham gives us a first-hand account of the crisis that is affecting the world's ice, a crisis we shall all have to come to terms with imminently. Taking us on an unforgettable and unprecedented journey through Europe and Asia, via Antarctica and South America, Wadham introduces us to the world's most majestic glaciers, introducing us to them as individuals, true friends, each with their own character.
By challenging the initial, misleading impression that would have us regard them as inanimate, silent and passive, we learn that glaciers are as dynamic as a forest or soil, teeming with microbial life and intimately connected to almost everything we know.
An incredibly painstaking essay resulting from twenty-five years of field research that is also an intimate and touching memoir. An extreme adventure, constantly at the cutting edge of science, which led Wadham, the only woman in a male domain, to witness the consequences of climate change first-hand. Amidst chamois and polar bears, abseiling through crevasses, braving every weather condition, and ultimately managing to survive every time, Jemma Wadham wrote a passionate love letter to the wild lands and glaciers of the world that are unfortunately - as we all know by now - disappearing.
Jemma Wadham teaches Glaciology at the Arctic University of Norway/Norwegian Polar Institute and the University of Bristol. She has led more than twenty-five expeditions to glaciers around the world (in Greenland, Antarctica, Svalbard, Patagonia, the Andes, the Himalayas) and has won numerous awards, including the prestigious Philip Leverhulme Prize and the Royal Society Wolfson Award. She has written numerous scientific articles, which have appeared in 'Nature' and 'Science'. She is known for her research on glacier-hosted life forms and for studying the impact of glaciers on the global carbon cycle. Il mondo dove è bianco is her first popular book, selected as a finalist for the 2021 Wainwright Prize.
An absorbing insight into the mysteries of glaciers and what their imminent disappearance means for our future. By taking those first steps on the ice, a bond is forged. No matter how many glaciers a glaciologist may have trodden, the sensation is always palpable: the crunch as the fragile surface crust crumbles underfoot, the mesmerising feeling of walking on a moving block of ice. The sense of mystery and danger never wanes.
Yet polar ice caps and glaciers, which cover about one-tenth of the earth's surface, are at severe risk. In the Alps, the Andes, the Himalayas, once indomitable glaciers are now receding, even disappearing. In Antarctica, their melting could release vast quantities of methane stored for millions of years deep within the earth's crust, with far-reaching consequences for humanity as a whole.
Against this alarming backdrop, world-renowned glaciologist Jemma Wadham gives us a first-hand account of the crisis that is affecting the world's ice, a crisis we shall all have to come to terms with imminently. Taking us on an unforgettable and unprecedented journey through Europe and Asia, via Antarctica and South America, Wadham introduces us to the world's most majestic glaciers, introducing us to them as individuals, true friends, each with their own character.
By challenging the initial, misleading impression that would have us regard them as inanimate, silent and passive, we learn that glaciers are as dynamic as a forest or soil, teeming with microbial life and intimately connected to almost everything we know.
An incredibly painstaking essay resulting from twenty-five years of field research that is also an intimate and touching memoir. An extreme adventure, constantly at the cutting edge of science, which led Wadham, the only woman in a male domain, to witness the consequences of climate change first-hand. Amidst chamois and polar bears, abseiling through crevasses, braving every weather condition, and ultimately managing to survive every time, Jemma Wadham wrote a passionate love letter to the wild lands and glaciers of the world that are unfortunately - as we all know by now - disappearing.
Jemma Wadham teaches Glaciology at the Arctic University of Norway/Norwegian Polar Institute and the University of Bristol. She has led more than twenty-five expeditions to glaciers around the world (in Greenland, Antarctica, Svalbard, Patagonia, the Andes, the Himalayas) and has won numerous awards, including the prestigious Philip Leverhulme Prize and the Royal Society Wolfson Award. She has written numerous scientific articles, which have appeared in 'Nature' and 'Science'. She is known for her research on glacier-hosted life forms and for studying the impact of glaciers on the global carbon cycle. Il mondo dove è bianco is her first popular book, selected as a finalist for the 2021 Wainwright Prize.
