by Jon Gernter
First published 2020
Greenland transforms from Earth's final frontier into its most important scientific laboratory. This frozen island holds 56,000 residents and climate secrets that will determine our planet's future. Journalist Jon Gertner chronicles 150 years of scientific expeditions across this white desert, from early explorers on skis and sleds to modern researchers using planes and satellites. Scientists battle harsh conditions to extract data from Greenland's ice before accelerating melt rates erase the evidence forever. The island evolves into an economic and climate hub as Arctic temperatures rise and ice disappears at unprecedented speeds. Gertner reconstructs the heroic efforts of explorers and researchers who risk everything to understand what Greenland's changing ice means for the world. This colorful cast of scientists works against time, knowing that climate change threatens to destroy the very ice that holds answers to our future survival.
Genres: science, adventure, environment, non-fiction, 21st-century, climate-change
Vibes: emotional, fast-paced, thought-provoking
Tropes: against-the-clock, race-against-time
Setting: Greenland
Period: 21st-century
448 pages · Paperback · Icon Books Ltd