A Farewell to Ice

A Farewell to Ice: A Report from the Arctic
Peter Wadhams
Oxford University Press
New York City, New York
First published in Great Britain by Allen Lane
ISBN: 978-0-19-069115-8
2017
$ 15.95
206 pages

How would you explain climate change to someone who does not believe it is a reality?  How could you prove to anyone of the rising temperatures of the ocean or the melting of the Arctic?
Would they believe someone who has been a polar researcher for forty-seven years and is considered an expert scientist?
Peter Wadhams, who wrote this readable scientific data-driven report for the non-scientist, A Farewell to Ice, is one person no one could disagree with the disappearance of the polar ice.
Wadhams is one of the few people who truly understands the changes since 1970, he has documented the tremendous changes of the Arctic region as a polar researcher.  His descriptions, evidence, pictures, and graphs tell a story of their own that is and should be frightening to every creature on this planet.
Even though everyone needs to see this information, the reader needs a basic understanding of chemistry to fully absorb the concepts.
To take non-fictional scientific reader and turn it into a thriller is a task of a genius.   The book is difficult to leave once you start it.   The author’s knowledge, experiences, and love of this area of the world is exhibited on every page.   Unfortunately, the tale has a grim prognosis for future generations.
Most of us are aware of the melting of the glaciers, Arctic ice, and the tremendous sections of glacier ice that has broken off and floating in the ocean as it melts and raises sea levels.  Additionally, Wadhams explains and documents additional problems such as the release of additional methane into the atmosphere and the effect on each of us.   Also discussed in depth is the importance of radiation from the sun reflecting off the ice and how this has changed in the past half-of-century.
Cambridge University has the distinction of employing Peter Wadhams as Head of the Polar Ocean Physics Group in the Department Of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics as well as Professor of Ocean Physics.
A Farewell to Ice is a foretelling of the future by tables, graphs, photographs, and writing that completely engages the knowledge of the ocean.