Product Description
By any account, the impenetrable barrier of sea ice that blocked the Brendan's Isle halfway up the Labrador Coast should not have been there in late July, in what was one of the hottest summers in memory a few hundred miles to the south. Frustrated and mystified at having to turn back so early in his 1991 northbound voyage, sailor Myron Arms became determined to explain the anomaly.

Three years later, having pursued this obsession from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution to Columbia's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory to NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Arms took his fifty-foot sailboat and a small crew back up the coast to test his ideas--this time making it past the Arctic Circle.

The days and nights at sea are an experience of both untold vastness and the closest of quarters, of calm seas one hour and pounding gales the next. And by the time the Brendan's Isle rides the great swells of Baffin Bay, north of everything but towering icebergs, the reader can be in no doubt that, together with the crew, he is holding a finger to the very pulse of our planet.

Weaving together the unfolding narrative of the voyage itself with a groundbreaking synthesis of the latest theories about Arctic ice production--and the troubling signals it may now be sending us--Riddle of the Ice is a taut and suspenseful science mystery told as captain's log. This is narrative nonfiction of the highest calibre, and it is certain to become a classic in the genre.Amazon.com Review
The work of Myron Arms represents the best qualities of literary science writing; his intelligent, curious mind spins lyrical accounts of natural phenomena and the world around us. During a 1991 sailing expedition off the coast of Labrador, the author is blocked by a surprising and frustrating mass of ice--an unusual event occurring out of season and during a particularly warm summer. Riddle of the Ice is the result of that trip, and although the riddle is never really answered, we are treated to a fun--and informative--shaggy-dog inquiry that probesnautical science, weather patterns, and deep shifts in our environment. All of this is told in an engaging voice capable of turning an implacable mass of ice into a richly textured character at the center of astrange mystery. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (11)

a magnificent book
A fascinating science book - I learned so much from this book about climatology and how ice in the arctic can affect my life on the beaches of Florida!I wonder what has been added to the theories the author presents since it was written, but this is a tremendous starting point for anyone interested in global climate change.I cannot give it enough stars!It needs ten, not five.I started to re-read it as soon as I finished it because I want to make sure I remember the important parts.
I mean like, before the ocean covers my home when the polar caps melt...

I'd have to agree with the skeptical reviewers.
There's just not that much here.As a travelogue, Arms does not have a whole lot to say, either about sailing or about the places he visits.It's not clear why he took the trip at all -- some sort of scientific investigation -- other than to see Greenland.If you want to read about a visit to the coast of Greenland and Labrador, I would recommend Rowing_To_Latitude, by a woman (whose name eludes me) about rowing these and other coasts.As for the science in Arms' book, there's not enough of that to satisfy, either.He's talked to some interesting people with interesting research, but there's about enough there to fill a long magazine article.He uses the device of jumping back and forth from the sailing trip to his discussions with scientists, but this feels forced, and eventually calls attention to the fact that his trip doesn't seem to advance the science at all.As another reviewer noted, his characterization of his fellow travelers makes them seem one-dimensional, at best, and if you read the afterword you'll see that there were two other people on board -- including his wife -- whom he omitted altogether.

Pretty Dry
Myron Arms' "Riddle of the Ice" includes a collection of the most current theories used to try to explain the creation, movement, and distribution of ice in the Arctic, and not much else. For those looking for an adventure story, look elsewhere. If you're interested in the personal lives of the crew and the skipper, what you'll find is Arms' reflections on his own caustic nature and a few references to his encounters with shipmate "Blue," which convieniently lend Arms an avenue, as most of the rest of his accounts of contact with the shipmates do,to show the reader how, while he's gruff and abrasive, his propensity for always being right usually is justified in the end. As for the science behind "Riddle of the Ice," Arms left it up to the real scientists, providing the reader with a decent book report at best.

Pretty Dry
Myron Arms' "Riddle of the Ice" includes a collection of the most current theories used to try to explain the creation, movement, and distribution of ice in the Arctic, and not much else. For those looking for an adventure story, look elsewhere. If you're interested in the personal lives of the crew and the skipper, what you'll find is Arms' reflections on his own caustic nature and a few references to his encounters with shipmate "Blue," which convieniently lend Arms an avenue, as most of the rest of his accounts of contact with the shipmates do,to show the reader how, while he's gruff and abrasive, his propensity for always being right usually is justified in the end. As for the science behind "Riddle of the Ice," Arms left it up to the real scientists, providing the reader with a decent book report at best.

A Lyrical Look at Earth's Thermostat
While researching for an environmental book, we had the great good fortune to come across Myron Arm's wonderful story of the mysteries of sea and ice. In lovely, leisurely prose, Arms takes the reader to the source of one ofnature's greatest happenings: the unending collision between the GreatOcean Conveyor Belt and the mad southerly migration of Arctic ice. Thisepic rumination makes it incontestably clear that much of Earth's climateis driven by the two frozen chunks of ice at the Northern and Southernpoles--both of which are melting at an astonishing rate. For me, theunstated question Arms leaves us with is, "So what happens when,within a hundred years or so, the ice sheets have melted so much that theycan no longer counterbalance our furiously warming Earth?" As aplanet, we better figure that out very soon. ... Read more

Product Description

This volume is a compilation of studies on interactions of land-cover/land-use change with climate in a region where the climate warming is most pronounced compared to other areas of the globe. The climate warming in the far North, and in the Arctic region of Northern Eurasia in particular, affects both the landscape and human activities, and hence human dimensions are an important aspect of the topic. Environmental pollution together with climate warming may produce irreversible damages to the current Arctic ecosystems. Regional land-atmosphere feedbacks may have large global importance. Remote sensing is a primary tool in studying vast northern territories where in situ observations are sporadic. State-of-the-art methods of satellite remote sensing combined with GIS and models are used to tackle science questions and provide an outlook of current land-cover changes and potential scenarios for the future.

Audience: The book is a truly international effort involving U.S. and European scientists. It is directed at the broad science community including graduate students, academics and other professionals in this field.

Product Description
This digital document is an article from The Geographical Review, published by American Geographical Society on April 1, 2002. The length of the article is 4103 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

From the author: Keywords: alpine, bighorn sheep, biogeochemistry shift, climate change, nitrogen, water acidification.

Citation Details
Title: Alpine areas in the Colorado Front Range as monitors of climate change and ecosystem response *.
Author: Mark W. Williams
Publication: The Geographical Review (Refereed)
Date: April 1, 2002
Publisher: American Geographical Society
Volume: 92Issue: 2Page: 180(12)

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more

Product Description
Climate changes can trigger events that lead to mass migration, hunger, and even famine. Rather than focus on the impacts that result from climatic fluctuations, the authors look at the underlying conditions that cause social vulnerability. Once we understand why individuals, households, nations, and regions are vulnerable, and how they have buffered themselves against climatic and environmental shifts, then present and future vulnerability can be redressed. By using case studies from across the globe, the authors explore past experiences with climate variability, and the likely effects of--and the possible policy responses to--the types of climatic events that global warming might bring. ... Read more

Product Description
Talk of the human-enhanced greenhouse effect and the ways in which it may affect our lives has made many people more aware of environmental change. We have come to realize that the environment is and has always bean in a state of continuous change, and that we and other organisms have had to adjust our lifestyles accordingly. This book focuses on the Pacific Basin, a vast region which can be considered a microcosm of the entire surface of the Earth and which has suffered from being marginalized in most accounts of Earth-surface processes and phenomena. In this book, the Pacific Basin includes the Pacific Ocean and Islands and also the Pacific Rim which is divided into the subregions of Antarctica, South America, Central America, North America, Beringia, East Asia and Australasia. Professor Nunn begins by outlining the distant origins of the modern Pacific Basin more than 1000 million years ago, then traces its development through the Palaeozoic and Mesozoic into the Cenozoic Era. For this time — the last 66 million years - the history of environmental change becomes progressively better known. For the last 1.8 million years (the Quaternary period), the Earths climate has oscillated between warm and cool, producing synchronous environmental changes throughout most of the Pacific Basin. The importance of volcanism and tectonics (land-level movements) — for which the Pacific Basin is well known — as causes of environmental change is explained in detail. The effects of human activities on most Pacific Basin environments began to be registered only during the Holocene — the last 12 000 years — culminating in the environmental crisis which currently afflicts many parts of this region. While the role of humans in altering Pacific Basin environments is discussed in detail, considerable attention is also given to the ways in which environmental change caused changes to human lifestyles which had far-reaching consequences. ... Read more

Product Description
Eine ernsthafte Diskussion über die Problematik des Klimawandels ist schwierig - vor allem wegen der wissenschaftlichen Unsicherheit über Ausmaß und Geschwindigkeit, aber ebenso wegen der Komplexität der Materie, die nur disziplinübergreifend erfolgversprechend bearbeitet werden kann. Dabei ist insbesondere der Küstenbereich von einem Klimawandel und seinen Folgen wie dem Meeresspiegelanstieg unmittelbar betroffen, während gleichzeitig die notwendigen Küstenschutzmaßnahmen lange Vorlaufzeiten erfordern. Das vorliegende Buch soll dazu beitragen, dass Öffentlichkeit und Gesellschaft in wichtigen Teilbereichen zu gesicherten Erkenntnissen über das tatsächliche Gefährdungspotenzial des Klimawandels kommen. Die interdisziplinäre Analyse von Gefährdung und Reaktionsmöglichkeiten ermöglicht diskussionsfähige Aussagen für die Zukunft. ... Read more

Product Description
This book provides the first comprehensive account of the dynamical behaviour and mechanisms of the global climate system and its components, together with a modern survey of synoptic-scale weather systems in the tropics and extratropics. ... Read more

Product Description

The two-way oceanic exchanges that connect the Arctic and Atlantic oceans through subarctic seas are of fundamental importance to climate. Change may certainly be imposed on the Arctic Ocean from subarctic seas, including a changing poleward ocean heat flux that is central to determining the present state and future fate of the perennial sea-ice. And the signal of Arctic change is expected to have its major climatic impact by reaching south through subarctic seas, either side of Greenland, to modulate the Atlantic thermohaline conveyor . Developing the predictive skills of climate models is seen to be the most direct way of extending the ability of society to mitigate for or adapt to 'global change' and is the main justification for continuing an intense observational effort in these waters. As records have lengthened, they have shown that important aspects of oceanic exchange through subarctic seas are currently at a long-term extreme state, providing further motivation for their study. As one important example, the longest records of all show that the temperature of the main oceanic inflow to the Norwegian Sea along the Scottish shelf and slope, and the temperature of the poleward extension of that flow through the Kola Section of the Barents Sea have never been greater in >100 years. However, we are only now beginning to understand the climatic impact of the remarkable events that are currently in train in subarctic waters, and models remain undecided on some of the most basic issues that link change in our northern seas to climate. Reviewing the achievements of an intense recent observing and modelling effort, this volume intends to assemble the body of evidence that climate models will need if they are one day to make that assessment, quantifying the ocean exchanges through subarctic seas, describing their importance to climate as we currently understand it, explaining their variability, setting out our current ideas on the forcing of these fluxes and our improved capability in modelling the fluxes themselves and the processes at work. Much of that evidence is assembled here for the first time.

Product Description
This book examines the complex and multifaceted interaction between the oceans and the atmosphere (and hence the climate), describing how physical, biological and chemical processes combine in the oceans to affect climatic change in the past, present and future. This comprehensive textbook introduces these multidisciplinary controls, and will prove an ideal coursebook for undergraduates studying earth and environmental sciences, oceanography, meteorology and climatology, and will also be useful for students and teachers of geography, physics, chemistry, and biology. ... Read more

Product Description
Describes the carefully made measurements in the pasture and rainforest at a series of sites across Amazonia. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

best i've read yet!
this was a realy great book, i hope all the people who look at this book really enjoy it! ... Read more

Product Description
Around 4000 years ago the advanced urban civilizations in Egypt, Mesopotamia and India suddenly collapsed. What happened? Did a prolonged drought cause the breakdown of social order? Recent discoveries from all over the world strongly support the suspected link of the collapse with climate. The volume presents the findings of more than 40 researchers and provides a review on the relevant information. It appears that a major shift of the precipitation pattern affected many parts of the world at approximately the same time, with disastrous effects on the nomadic populations of Asia, Africa and Eastern Europe. Can a similar climate shift with a serious adverse impact on society happen again? In a world facing global warming, there could be many lessons to be learned from the experiences of ancient societies. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

An interesting book on climate change in history
An impressive collection of papers by experts in archeology, cultural geography, history, geophysics, paleoclimatology, etc. on the possible roll of significant climate changes in the roughly simultaneous collapse of theAkkadian Empire, the Old Kingdom in Egypt, the Harappan civilization andvarious places inbetween. I am not an expert in any of the disciplineslisted, but I still found many of the papers interesting. The overallconclusion - that sudden climate change was the explanation for thecollapse of civilizations from Anatolia to the Indus - appears to be wellsupported. I have two reservations. First, if you don't know anything aboutBronze Age history, you will be lost starting at page 1. Second, most ofthe papers are written by experts for experts, and a reader without priorknowledge of rather arcane scientific specialties will have difficultyfollowing some of the papers. ... Read more

Product Description
This is the first volume in the series "Regional Climate Studies". It presents the analysis of climatological data from 500 years b.c. to the present day. It discusses climate variablity and its interaction with the biosphere in the Mediterranean area. Different approaches are applied to describe and interpret climate variability and to denote trends. Specific emphasis is given to variable water cycle which makes the book a prerequisite for all those concerned with the problem of desertification as well as the validation of climate models. The book adresses the role of remote sensing data to detect synergies throughout the Mediterranean basin and refers to recent marine research results. The second volume of the series will probably be published in February 2003. ... Read more

Product Description
Climate change is producing profound changes globally. Yet we still know little about how it affects real people in real places on a daily basis because most of our knowledge comes from scientific studies that try to estimate impacts and project future climate scenarios. This book is different, illustrating in vivid detail how people in the Andes have grappled with the effects of climate change and ensuing natural disasters for more than half a century. In Peru's Cordillera Blanca mountain range, global climate change has generated the world's most deadly glacial lake outburst floods and glacier avalanches, killing 25,000 people since 1941. As survivors grieved, they formed community organizations to learn about precarious glacial lakes while they sent priests to the mountains, hoping that God could calm the increasingly hostile landscape. Meanwhile, Peruvian engineers working with miniscule budgets invented innovative strategies to drain dozens of the most unstable lakes that continue forming in the twenty first century.

But adaptation to global climate change was never simply about engineering the Andes to eliminate environmental hazards. Local urban and rural populations, engineers, hydroelectric developers, irrigators, mountaineers, and policymakers all perceived and responded to glacier melting differently-based on their own view of an ideal Andean world. Disaster prevention projects involved debates about economic development, state authority, race relations, class divisions, cultural values, the evolution of science and technology, and shifting views of nature. Over time, the influx of new groups to manage the Andes helped transform glaciated mountains into commodities to consume. Locals lost power in the process and today comprise just one among many stakeholders in the high Andes-and perhaps the least powerful. Climate change transformed a region, triggering catastrophes while simultaneously jumpstarting modernization processes. This book's historical perspective illuminates these trends that would be ignored in any scientific projections about future climate scenarios. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

College-level collections strong in climate change and South American experiences need this
In the Shadow of Melting Glaciers: Climate Change and Andean Society provides a strong survey of the science and social impact of melting glaciers, using Andean social experience as the foundation for this survey. How glacier melt affects real people on a daily basis is presented in this focus on how the Andean people have witnessed, experienced, and handled the effects of climate change and natural disasters for more than a century. College-level collections strong in climate change and South American experiences need this.

In the Shadow of Melting Glaciers is Tremendous
This new book is simply fantastic.It puts a real, human face on the complex abstractions we associate with climate change.The writing is sharp, alive and makes plain the author's authentic and deep understanding of his subject.Carey manages to make technical and historical matters not only entirely accessible but extremely interesting.The book reads like a story yet teaches like a text.I've read so much about climate change and I think In the Shadow of Melting Glaciers is the most important addition to climate change work since An Inconvenient Truth.Can't recommend it enough. ... Read more