Review by Booklist Review
*Starred Review* Some say the world will end in fire, / Some say in ice, Robert Frost famously observed. But what if the world's ice itself ends? Ice, especially in the form of the great Arctic and Antarctic glaciers and snow masses, is distant from most everyday lives. Yet the world's weather is predominantly reliant upon the reflective and cooling actions of the great polar snows, which are yearly shrinking and putting the planetary climate at dire risk. Pollack, a geophysicist with the admirable ability to communicate in a language other than math, presents the stark facts of today's situation and offers careful descriptions of the likelihood of a frightening future, should earth's climate continue to change. No climate-change denier, Pollack is nevertheless a scientist unwilling to speculate beyond where the facts lead, nor does he imagine that humans haven't been altering the environment ever since our forebears first descended from the trees. So resolutely scientific a temperament makes his depiction of the possible future truly scary, with rising seas causing human displacement and migration, the loss of vulnerable species (polar bear, seal, many fish on which humans depend), and weather-related famines. But he also offers some realistic hope that catastrophes may be mitigated, if not avoided. A sober and sobering book.--Monaghan, Patricia Copyright 2009 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
A member of the Nobel Peace Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change, Univ. of Mich. geophysicist Pollack (Uncertain Science) shares the warning call of Al Gore (his co-recipient), that "humanity has arrived at an historic moment of decision." According to science, Pollack explains, humanity may soon lose the polar ice caps altogether, with dire consequences. Pollack explains how glacial ice is "a major player" in the climate: snow and ice "account for much of the sunshine reflected from the surface" and their disappearance will only accelerate the rate of global warming. Using geological evidence (800 bore-holes drilled on the earth's continental crust), Pollack and his colleagues have established that the past 500 years have seen a 2-degree increase in the Earth's average temperature, and that "fully half of the warming occurred in the 20th century." While taking account of countervailing forces (like periodic variations in the earth's orbit, explosive volcanism, and changes in solar radiation) Pollack shows that no single natural force can reverse the present trend, which if unchecked will render the Earth uninhabitable. This important wake up call joins a rapidly growing selection; this volume distinguishes itself with a Nobel pedigree and a sound, straightforward approach. (Oct.) Copyright 2009 Reed Business Information.
Review by Library Journal Review
In this outstanding book, Pollack, who shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with his colleagues on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and former vice president Al Gore, explains the role that ice, especially polar ice, plays in the world's climate systems and describes the effects of a warming climate on the polar and high-altitude ice storehouses. Then he discusses how the environment is dramatically impacted as the rate of melting accelerates. Pollack also highlights how three centuries of human activity and industrialization have upset this delicate balance between ice and climate. He includes possible methods by which we can slow global warming or mitigate its effects on humanity and other animals. Verdict Seldom has a scientist written so well and so clearly for the lay reader. Pollack's explanations of how researchers can tell that the climate is warming faster than normal are free of the usual scientific jargon and understandable. All readers concerned about global warming and students writing papers on the topic will want this excellent and important volume.-Betty Galbraith, Washington State Univ. Lib., Pullman (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
An entertaining pop-science examination of yet another part of the world we take for granted. Pollack (Geophysics/Univ. of Michigan; Uncertain ScienceUncertain World, 2003), who shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with Al Gore, delivers a lucid review of ice's unique qualities, its role in geological and human history and why it's disappearing from Earth's glaciers and polar regions. Ice forms the planet's second largest reservoir of water. The ocean contains 96 percent, while ice contains a little more than three percent. This may sound trivial, but if all of today's ice melted, the oceans would rise 250 feet. Unfortunately, writes Pollack, this is already happening at an alarming rate. Although the media rightly blame the greenhouse effect, the implication that it's a new phenomenon is incorrect. In fact, life would never have arisen without it99 percent of atmospheric gases (nitrogen and oxygen) allow sunlight to pass in and out. If no other gas existed, the earth would be 70 degrees colder and frozen solid. Luckily, for billions of years, tiny amounts of "greenhouse gases"today mostly carbon dioxideabsorb some reflected sunlight and warm the planet. Natural processes such as volcano eruptions, erosion and photosynthesis have varied the concentration of greenhouse gases and thus the earth's climate. Pollack asserts that human activityburning fossil fuels, clearing forests, agribusinessbecame the principle source of greenhouse gases 50 years ago, pushing levels to the highest in recorded history, with no end in sight. Without drastic action, he says, the consequences, even beyond the threat of drastically rising sea levels, will be dire: "more severe droughts, increasingly violent storms, the spread of disease, the loss of crops, disappearing wildlife and politically destabilizing tides of climate refugees." A clear, engaging review of a disturbing environmental pattern. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Review by Booklist Review
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
