As one of the world’s leading glaciologists, Professor Jemma Wadham has devoted her career to the glaciers that cover one-tenth of the Earth’s land surface. These ‘ice rivers’ are in peril. High up in the Alps, Andes and Himalaya, once-indomitable glaciers are retreating. In Antarctica, thinning ice sheets are releasing meltwater to sensitive marine food webs and may be unlocking vast quantities of methane. The potential consequences for humanity are almost unfathomable.
In Ice Rivers, Wadham recalls twenty-five years of expeditions around the globe, revealing why the glaciers mean so much to her – and what they should mean to us. As she guides us from the Alps to the Andes, the importance of the ice to crucial ecosystems and human livelihoods becomes clear – our lives are entwined with these coldest places on the planet. This is a memoir like no other: an eye-witness account by a top scientist at the frontline of the climate crisis, and an impassioned love letter to the glaciers that are her obsession.
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