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What a Greenland Ice Core Reveals About Earth's Tumultuous History and Perilous Future
by Paul Bierman
Paul Bierman's realization that Greenland's ice sheet melted when Earth was no warmer than today sounds an alarm for our planet.
In 2018, lumps of frozen soil, collected from the bottom of the world's first deep ice core and lost for decades, reappeared in Denmark. When geologist Paul Bierman and his team first melted a piece of this unique material, they were shocked to find perfectly preserved leaves, twigs, and moss. That observation led them to a startling discovery: Greenland's ice sheet had melted naturally before, about 400,000 years ago. The remote island's ice was far more fragile than scientists had realized―unstable even without human interference.
In When the Ice Is Gone, Bierman traces the story of this extraordinary finding, revealing how it radically changes our understanding of the Earth and its climate. A longtime researcher in Greenland, he begins with a brief history of the island, both human and geological, explaining how over the last century scientists have learned to read the historical record in ice, deciphering when volcanoes exploded and humans started driving cars fueled by leaded gasoline.
For the origins of ice coring, Bierman brings us to Camp Century, a U.S. military base built inside Greenland's ice sheet, where engineers first drilled through mile-thick ice and into the frozen soil beneath. Decades later, a few feet of that long-frozen earth would reveal its secrets―ancient warmth and melted ice.
Changes in Greenland reverberate around the world, with ice melting high in the arctic affecting people everywhere. Bierman explores how losing Greenland's ice will catalyze devastating events if we don't change course and address climate change now.
"A potent examination of how melting glaciers and rising ocean levels are already at crisis levels…Bierman has written not another global warming polemic but rather a compelling introduction to Greenland, glaciers, and how scientists drill down through ice to reveal the past…Frightening yet excellent popular science." ―Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"Bierman presents an accessible discussion of the scientific methods used to date samples (to determine 'the ages of boulders left behind by melting glacial ice... measure the concentration of isotopes in a sample and divide by the production rate of each isotope'). Unfortunately, extensive background on the logistical difficulties of maintaining the tunnel and heating systems at Camp Century, the northern Greenland U.S. Army outpost where the cores were collected, distracts from the book's focus on climate change. The result is an intermittently stimulating glimpse into the workings of climate science." ―Publishers Weekly
"Paul Bierman paints a vivid portrait not only of the human characters involved with exploration of the Greenland ice cap but also of the personality of the ice itself. Both the humans and the ice are more idiosyncratic―and more sensitive―than one might expect. When the Ice Is Gone is a cautionary story about hubris in the Anthropocene." ―Marcia Bjornerud, author of Timefulness
"In his gripping new book, When the Ice Is Gone, paleoclimate expert Paul Bierman provides a firsthand account―through the lens of science and history, of how human-caused warming is rapidly melting the massive Greenland ice sheet and the dire consequences this poses for us and our planet. Read this book to be informed about the problem and inspired to make a difference." ―Michael E. Mann, author of Our Fragile Moment
"When the Ice is Gone tells the story of the scientists who pieced together the history of the Greenland ice sheet and, as a result, can now peer into its future. Paul Bierman, is himself one of these scientists, and he brings to his subject a deep affection and a wealth of experience. The result is at once fascinating, sobering, and eye-opening." ―Elizabeth Kolbert, author of The Sixth Extinction
This information about When the Ice Is Gone was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Paul Bierman is professor of environmental science at the University of Vermont, where he develops methods to understand ice and date rocks. He has published in Science and Nature, and his findings have been covered by CNN, New York Times, Washington Post, and the Weather Channel, among others. He lives in Burlington, Vermont.
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