Book
The ice at the end of the world : an epic journey into Greenland's buried past and our perilous future / by Jon Gertner.
"Greenland: remote, mysterious, ice-covered rock, population 56,000, in the middle of the North Atlantic. Why do we care so much about it? Because locked within the the vast and frozen "white desert"--the nickname early explorers gave it--that covers eighty percent of the land are some of the most profound secrets of our planet--clues about where we've been, and where we might be headed. And now, with the ice sheet melting at an unprecedented rate, we are able, for the first time, to understand the story that lies within it, and what it can tell us about our future. In The Ice at the End of the World, Jon Gertner reconstructs in vivid, thrilling detail the heroic efforts of the scientists and explorers who have visited Greenland over the past 150 years--first on skis, then on sleds, and now, with planes and satellites, utilizing every technological tool available to uncover the secrets in the ice before it's too late. Much as he did with his depiction of solid-state engineers and laser scientists in his bestselling book The Idea Factory, Gertner chronicles the amazing advances, almost unfathomable hardships, technological leaps, and scientific achievements of Arctic researchers with a rich, transporting, deeply intelligent style that melds the compelling stories of a small cast of brilliant and eccentric individuals, with a keen, analytical eye toward what this work means for the rest of us"-- Provided by publisher.
Record details
- ISBN: 9780812996623 (hardcover)
- Physical Description: xxiii, 418 pages : illustrations, map ; 24 cm
- Edition: First edition.
- Publisher: New York : Random House, [2019]
- Copyright: ©2019
Content descriptions
| Bibliography, etc. Note: | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| Formatted Contents Note: | Introduction: the view from above -- The scheme of a lunatic -- Hauling -- Simple and easy -- North by Northeast -- A pure primitive realm -- Thule -- TNT -- Digging -- Machine age -- The Americans -- Drilling -- Jesus ice -- Deeper -- Sensing -- A key -- Meltwater season -- Epilogue: the ice clock. |
Search for related items by subject
| Subject: | Greenland > Discovery and exploration. Greenland > Environmental conditions. Arctic regions > Research. |
Available copies
- 1 of 1 copy available at Tsuga Consortium.
Holds
- 0 current holds with 1 total copy.
Show Only Available Copies
| Location | Call Number / Copy Notes | Barcode | Shelving Location | Status | Due Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lakeshore Branch | 559.82 Ger | 31681010156354 | NONFIC | Available | - |
- Baker & Taylor
"Greenland: remote, mysterious, ice-covered rock, population 56,000, in the middle of the North Atlantic. Why do we care so much about it? Because locked within the the vast and frozen "white desert"--the nickname early explorers gave it--that covers eighty percent of the land are some of the most profound secrets of our planet--clues about where we've been, and where we might be headed. And now, with the ice sheet melting at an unprecedented rate, we are able, for the first time, to understand the storythat lies within it, and what it can tell us about our future. In The Ice at the End of the World, Jon Gertner reconstructs in vivid, thrilling detail the heroic efforts of the scientists and explorers who have visited Greenland over the past 150 years--first on skis, then on sleds, and now, with planes and satellites, utilizing every technological tool available to uncover the secrets in the ice before it's too late. Much as he did with his depiction of solid-state engineers and laser scientists in his bestselling book The Idea Factory, Gertner chronicles the amazing advances, almost unfathomable hardships, technological leaps, and scientific achievements of Arctic researchers with a rich, transporting, deeply intelligent style that melds the compellingstories of a small cast of brilliant and eccentric individuals, with a keen, analytical eye toward what this work means for the rest of us"-- - Baker & Taylor
The author of the best-selling The Idea Factory presents an urgent account of the explorers and scientists racing to understand the rapidly melting ice sheet in Greenland and what it reveals about climate change. - Random House, Inc.
A riveting, urgent account of the explorers and scientists racing to understand the rapidly melting ice sheet in Greenland, a dramatic harbinger of climate change
'Jon Gertner takes readers to spots few journalists or even explorers have visited. The result is a gripping and important book.''Elizabeth Kolbert, Pulitzer Prize'winning author of The Sixth Extinction
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The Washington Post ' The Christian Science Monitor ' Library Journal
Greenland: a remote, mysterious island five times the size of California but with a population of just 56,000. The ice sheet that covers it is 700 miles wide and 1,500 miles long, and is composed of nearly three quadrillion tons of ice. For the last 150 years, explorers and scientists have sought to understand Greenland'at first hoping that it would serve as a gateway to the North Pole, and later coming to realize that it contained essential information about our climate. Locked within this vast and frozen white desert are some of the most profound secrets about our planet and its future. Greenland's ice doesn't just tell us where we've been. More urgently, it tells us where we're headed.
In The Ice at the End of the World, Jon Gertner explains how Greenland has evolved from one of earth's last frontiers to its largest scientific laboratory. The history of Greenland's ice begins with the explorers who arrived here at the turn of the twentieth century'first on foot, then on skis, then on crude, motorized sleds'and embarked on grueling expeditions that took as long as a year and often ended in frostbitten tragedy. Their original goal was simple: to conquer Greenland's seemingly infinite interior. Yet their efforts eventually gave way to scientists who built lonely encampments out on the ice and began drilling'one mile, two miles down. Their aim was to pull up ice cores that could reveal the deepest mysteries of earth's past, going back hundreds of thousands of years.
Today, scientists from all over the world are deploying every technological tool available to uncover the secrets of this frozen island before it's too late. As Greenland's ice melts and runs off into the sea, it not only threatens to affect hundreds of millions of people who live in coastal areas. It will also have drastic effects on ocean currents, weather systems, economies, and migration patterns.
Gertner chronicles the unfathomable hardships, amazing discoveries, and scientific achievements of the Arctic's explorers and researchers with a transporting, deeply intelligent style'and a keen sense of what this work means for the rest of us. The melting ice sheet in Greenland is, in a way, an analog for time. It contains the past. It reflects the present. It can also tell us how much time we might have left.
