By Michael Hambrey and Jürg Alean
I am privileged to have received a copy of “Our Frozen Planet” by Mike Hambrey and Jürg Allean to review.
This book is a moving love letter to the world’s icy places. It is a large, hard-backed book filled with beautifully printed full-page photographs. It celebrates the life-long love of glaciers and ice sheets held by the authors, over their full careers researching and investigating their processes, dynamics and vulnerabilities.
The book also has an air of grief; the authors refer to the climate ‘emergency’ in their preface, and note their sadness of the impacts of human-driven global heating on ice and snow.
The authors are well known not only for their skill as researchers, but also as photographers; many readers of AntarcticGlaciers.org will be familiar with their own website, GlaciersOnline. Readers will not be disappointed by the images and the production quality.
Photograph of pages from Our Frozen Planet.
Audience
The book is written for the lay reader, who has an interest in beautiful, snowy landscapes. But I think it would also be of interest to the specialist, who also has a love of these special places. I have enjoyed browsing the book and viewing the beautifully presented photographs within.
The book would make a beautiful gift to anyone interested in the natural environment and its protection and survival, anyone with an interest in climate change, or perhaps for a relative of one of the readers of AntarcticGlaciers, who doesn’t understand the fascination with icy places.
The book is well written, filled with two careers’ worth of accumulated expertise and photography. It is wide ranging and thorough, but remains accessible with a minimum of jargon or overly scientific style writing. It would be accessible to school sixth formers and Geography or Environmental Science undergraduates, through to more experienced readers. The exceptional photographs mean that this is no mere textbook; it is lovingly crafted and designed.
Structure
The book is structured over 14 chapters, introducing the concept of a world of snow and ice, before moving methodically between snow, ice from the atmosphere, river and lake ice, sea ice, glacier ice, and ice sheets. Chapter 7 covers disappearing glaciers and shrinking ice sheets, complete with repeat photographs evidencing the recession. The book also covers key processes, such as debris entrainment and movement, calving, and glacier melt.
A farewell to snow and ice
Our Frozen Planet finishes with a ‘farewell to snow and ice’, which examines the human impact on climate, and how politicians make governance decisions. The authors do not hold back, noting how world leaders in recent years have denied the reality of climate change and have failed to act. This chapter than starkly lays out the facts; the loss of sea, lake, river and glacier ice to date, and the projected loss over the coming decades. I would not describe it as hopeful, but the closing paragraphs include a heartfelt call to action and a plea to protect our cryosphere.
Overall, this is a beautiful and moving book. It is one of several published by the authors, but more accessible than many. For this reason it is unusual; there are few books for the lay audience available that are written specifically on glaciers, snow and ice; and one of very few that are so beautifully illustrated. This means that it will also appeal to more knowledgeable or expert readers. A welcome addition to my book case.
Buy it here:
See also: The Continent of Antarctica