Antarctica

by David Petersen

An overview of the history, geography, climate, and wildlife of Antarctica

48 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1998

About the author

There is more than one author with this name.

Reviews

[Manybooks · Rating 3 out of 5]

When I checked through the table of contents of David Peterson’s 1998 non fiction picture book Antarctica I was originally very much impressed. For yes, it does seem from the former, it does appear from the table of contents, that Petersen’s text for Antarctica would be touching on pretty much everything that a young reader would probably need to know to get a sufficient and general introduction to Antarctica, simply but sufficiently thoroughly penned, from the weather to the fact that there is much scientific research being performed on site and by many different countries (and that thankfully, Antarctica also includes a bibliography, not extensive by any stretch of the imagination, but David Petersen does provide a good starting off point for further research, as long as readers also remember that because Antarctica was published in 1998, there will of course and naturally not be any post 1998 books to be encountered in Petersen’s list, the nature of the academic beast to be sure, but also something definitely worth mentioning).

But after now having perused Antarctica in its entirely, I do have to admit that I am definitely not nearly as textually impressed with and by David Petersen’s printed words as I was expecting to be from the above mentioned table of contents. For albeit that Petersen certainly provides a basic and yet always sufficiently enlightening introduction to everything Antarctica, that his, that David Petersen’s featured text never once is even remotely critical of the increasing human presence in and around Antarctica (both from scientists and in particular from tourists) and that the threats posed to both Antarctic wildlife and Antarctic geography (and in particular the “permanent” ice sheets) by global warming are equally being so totally ignored that David Petersen does not even mention this with even one single word, well, I personally totally consider this a major oversight and as such a huge academic issue for Antarctica.

And yes, I say this even with the full knowledge that when Antarctica was published in 1998, global warming and increased Antarctica based tourism (and how this can negatively affect seals, penguins, whales and other Antarctic wildlife) were at that time not yet such a hot and difficult topic as now, as in 2022. But well, even in 1998, global warming was being pointed out as a dangerous potential threat to Antarctica and that increasing tourism was also not something all that positive and to be celebrated (and that none of this is even textually being acknowledged by David Petersen is in my opinion pretty horrible and shows that while with Antarctica Petersen shows an appreciation, he obviously does not really want to consider the human caused threats the continent of Antarctica is facing).

And thus, while I do think that David Petersen has done a decent enough job describing Antarctica, my issues with his lack of criticism and his refusal to admit that Antarctica is facing increasing threats caused by us, caused by humans, this has definitely negatively affected my reading experience and has made me lower my rating for Antarctica from my original four to but a low and rather grudging three stars.

[Shannon · Rating 4 out of 5]

We like this simple little series.