A World Without Ice

by Henry N. Pollack

A co-winner of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize offers a clear-eyed explanation of the planet’s imperiled ice.

Much has been written about global warming, but the crucial relationship between people and ice has received little focus—until now. As one of the world’s leading experts on climate change, Henry Pollack provides an accessible, comprehensive survey of ice as a force of nature, and the potential consequences as we face the possibility of a world without ice.

A World Without Ice traces the effect of mountain glaciers on supplies of drinking water and agricultural irrigation, as well as the current results of melting permafrost and shrinking Arctic sea ice—a situation that has degraded the habitat of numerous animals and sparked an international race for seabed oil and minerals. Catastrophic possibilities loom, including rising sea levels and subsequent flooding of lowlying regions worldwide, and the ultimate displacement of millions of coastal residents. A World Without Ice answers our most urgent questions about this pending crisis, laying out the necessary steps for managing the unavoidable and avoiding the unmanageable.

Genres: Science, Nonfiction, Environment, Ebooks, Geology, Climate Change, Ecology

304 pages, Hardcover

First published September 23, 2009

About the author

HENRY N. POLLACK, PhD
Professor of Geophysics, Emeritus
Department of Geological Sciences
The University of Michigan

Finalist, Royal Society Prize for best science book of 2010
Silver Medal, Living Now 2010 Book Awards

Reviews

[Jenny Karraker · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fascinating book about climate change that is very readable for the average lay person and very reasonable, avoiding the extremes of "There is no climate change; it's just liberal propaganda" and "Climate change has already negatively impacted the earth and life as we know it is over." The author recalls the history of early explorers including the British Captain Cook, sent on the Endeavor not only to study the transit of Venus but also to look for a southern continent, which he never did discover. He included bits about Robert Scott, Roald Amundsen, and Ernest Shackleton and their explorations. I loved the quote by Russ Manning (Royal Marine who commanded the British Antarctic Survey scientific station in the South Orkney Islands and quite an expert on Antarctic issues): "For scientific discovery give me Scott; for speed and efficiency of travel give me Amundsen; but when you are in a hopeless situation and are seeing no way out, get down on your knees and pray for Shackleton." The implication is that we need the strengths of all 3 of these explorers--the need to look at science, the need to act quickly, and the need to figure out solutions to seemingly impossible scenarios. Pollack lists interesting differences between the Poles in the Arctic and Antarctica. The North Pole sits on a 10-20 foot layer of ice, and the sea ice moves 3-4 miles per day. The South Pole sits above 10,000 feet of ice, and the sea ice moves 30-40 feet per year. The Arctic ice has been systematically studied and mapped out since the end of WWII with the advent of the Cold War as Russian and American submarines explored the Article Ocean, always on the lookout for possible enemy hiding places. With the end of the Cold War, these nations have shared their information and been able to accurately gauge real changes in the ice. Pollack lists interesting facts about climate change that seems to be natural. The tilt of the earth varies between 21-24 degrees, which causes changes every 41,000 years. The fact that the axis wobbles also affects climate, making a complete cycle of the seasons every 23,000 years. The elliptical orbit of the earth around the sun varies, often affected by the gravitation of the largest planet Jupiter. Depending on the tilt and where the earth is in relation to this elongated ellipse also determines climate changes, this on a cycle of every 100,000 years. Satellite images of the earth seem to confirm these natural cycles of cold and warm. Volcanoes, which send ash into the atmosphere and stays there for several years, doesn't allow the sun's rays to fully penetrate the atmosphere, and are always followed by seasons of much colder weather. It was very interesting to learn about ice, how glaciers move pulled down by gravity, how ice shelves and icebergs are formed, and how now the ice is definitely melting more rapidly than in previous eras. Pollack points out that with the population Increase and modern technology, the earth has exhibited much higher levels of warming than in previous ages. The atmosphere contains water vapor, carbon dioxide and methane gas which keep the warmer temperatures in, which is usually good bc it keeps at least 60 degrees of heat within the atmosphere that is absent higher up. However, higher temperatures melt the ice, which raises the sea levels and reduces the heat that can be reflected back into the atmosphere. As the ice melts, the seas become more acidic and more problems arise. Pollack encourages us to look at scientific models forecasting future realities but also warning us that no model is totally accurate bc of many unknown variables. I found it interesting that he compared the inevitable climate changes to come with the unexpected financial collapse of the banking systems in 1998 and in 2008. Their financial models underestimated the risks involved and sent the global economies into a tailspin that has not been experienced for decades. Rather than wait until an environmental collapse is unavoidable, the author encourages us to act now to make changes in energy use to help offset these changes.

[Konrad Joseph · Rating 3 out of 5]

Being over a decade old now, it was a bit like reading about the history of the automobile at the scene of a gnarly car accident.

I particularly loved the first few chapters, as Pollack's descriptions of the polar regions could be narrated by Attenborough, and the authors love of ice is endearing.

It eventually develops into arguments defending that climate change is real, which is a pretty irrelevant discussion today.

Recommended for readers who think glaciers, icebergs and sea ice are pretty damn cool.

[Michael Paktinat · Rating 3 out of 5]

Henry Pollack, geophysicist from the University of Michigan, is member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change whose members most famously shared the 2007 Nobel Peach prize with Al Gore. Pollack’s A World Without Ice opens with a forward written by Gore detailing why he feels Pollack’s work details the issues of global climate change and it’s associated human impact in a concise and simple terms without dumbing down the message. That message is; the world is getting warmer, the seas are getting more acidic. There are associated problems with these issues that are generally bad news for humanity as we know it. Gore’s forward outlines the current political climate surrounding climate change discussions and ends with a message of hope and inspiration surrounding our ability to deal with such a daunting worldwide problem. As Pollack’ book begins he quickly dispenses with any notion of our current political problems surrounding the issue and even avoids arguing climate change as an issue that needs to be addressed even though you might think the entirety of the book is about just that. He spends roughly the first half of the book detailing the history of the global climate and how we have come to know the information scientist work with today.
Pollack begins by taking the reader back to the mid 18th century when world exploration was just discovering the northern and southern most reaches of our planet. He gives in great detail accounts of the first explorer’s attempts to come to understand the planets great masses of ice back in a time when frozen water was treated as a commodity that was harvested. He then turns the readers interest to ice itself, showing it’s properties from shaping landscapes to it’s role in regulating global climate with it’s albedo. He details where ice is found, why it is important to life and why the earth’s unique balance of ice is so special and unique in our solar system.
Pollack further delves into what I found to be one of the more interesting parts of his story, where he uses the study of paleoclimatology to detail the climate of the earth as far back as scientist are able to determine. He describes the natural heating and cooling of the earth though it’s separate periods of natural climate change and it’s causes and effects. From celestial variances over hundreds of thousands of years to volcanic eruptions that have occurred relatively recently in the course of human history, Pollack leaves the reader feeling as if he has imparted to the reader the entirety of natural global climate change in only a few chapters.
Once the book has you feeling you understand the nature of the earth’s natural climate changes Pollack then introduces the component of the book we all new was coming, especially given the nature of Al Gore’s forward, the human component of climate change. Again Pollack uses a writing style that explains complex situations that both are easy to understand and not too simplified to loose the interest of more scientifically minded readers. He covers nearly all of the possible human contributions of climate change with such completeness that I think it would be hard for a climate change skeptic to walk away from this book without submitting that humans must have had a role to play in the acceleration of our climate’s change. Once he has the reader convinced that there is no possible way for humans to have not influenced this shift in global climate, he then goes into great detail regard the possible effects of a massive global climate shift. He discusses both the worst-case scenario of complete disappearance of global ice by 2030 and the much more conservative projections put for by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change; both of which paint a very grim picture for humanity in a short 17 years.
The last chapter of the book offers possible mitigation strategies that, when compared with the rest of the book, pale in comparison in their thoroughness and ability to convince the reader. Perhaps this chapter was an after thought or an addition pushed upon the author by the publisher, but I believe the more likely and much scarier reality is that the current state of global climate change is now beyond any mitigation humans could effect. Perhaps the only choice humanity has now is how many feet of water we whish the sea to rise and no longer possible that we could avoid it at all.
This book was a very interesting and fairly quick read if you are interested in the subject matter. Readers with liberal views on climate change and humans effect on it will still find Pollack’s history of global climate and his thoroughness of the mass of research data very interesting. I do think that this is the type of book that is best suited to be read by someone who is still on the fence about the issue or if you can manage to convince climate change deniers to give it a read it just might change their mind.

[Maša]

We are indeed fucked.

[Bill Woodward · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pollack does a good job reviewing the history of climate on Earth and our relationship to climate as a species. He also shows how human activities have impacted climate since the industrial revolution. The causes and possible solutions to anthropomorphic climate change are laid out in clear, easy to read detail. There is an optimistic tone and a call to get on with addressing the problems through mitigation. There is also a clear warning we are running out of time to do this and may soon be faced with little other option than to adapt to a world that continues to warm. The consequences of that are predicted to be even greater melting of arctic ice, sea level rise, ocean acidification, and warming atmospheric temperatures. These problems are huge in scope, but should be addressed before the negative impacts on human population and the natural world are even harder to cope with.

[Brendan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Felt like a book of two parts. First part was an interesting and insightful look at, er, ice (from a geophysical point of view). That I got a lot out of (but then i have loved all that sort of stuff about glaciation since intro geology at uni).

The second half was about possible impacts of climate change and the melting icecaps. This I didn't enjoy as much... with the first half so rich in detail, this component felt a bit lacking, a bit too defensive of the IPCC, and a lot more emotive (save the polar bears! think of the children! and my Florida beach house!). Which I guess is understandable seeing Henry has been on the receiving end of a lot of hostile and less-informed climate change skeptics, but I felt lowered the quality of an otherwise stellar non-fiction read.

Overall AWWI gets my tick of approval. I recommend. 3 stars.

[Jason · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very sobering treatise on climate change. Includes a point by point refutation of the "denier's" points.

The major point that sticks out in my mind is the comparison between the extensive peer-reviewing of the IPCC report versus the comparatively slap-dash process of the other side. It also explains to me why the IPCC report has been described as being on the conservative side of the projections and that things may actually become worse than the report says.

Highly recommended to all with an interest in the subject of climate change.

[Dave Mills · Rating 3 out of 5]

I met the author (whoopee for me) in an informal gathering in December 2015. What a pleasant, unassuming, humble, yet brilliant and erudite, fellow. If you believe that humans are largely responsible for climate change, then this book summarizes what we know and what we can do and will simply reinforce your beliefs. If you are a "climate change denier," (in Pollack's words, a "contra") then, first off, shame on you. You really need to read this book. I think it will change your perspective. Let's hope so.

[Sheryl Sato · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is by far one of the scariest books I've read. It discusses what will happen regardless of humans continuing to use the earth in the current way (coal burning, production etc.), as well as how the landscape of the earth will change if we are not mindful of our ecological footprint. I learned so much from this book and that knowledge will stay with me as this book was written in a matter-of-fact but meaningful way.

[Margie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very readable book on the impact of climate change, using ice as its focus. Much less dense than Six Degrees, so perhaps more accessible to the average citizen (because let's face it, our average citizen isn't very scientifically literate). Despite the rather gloomy situation we're in, the book ends on a slightly upbeat note.

[Rosanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really could have skipped the first part of the book, because the second part, the part about our current climate change and what we can do about it, was really what I was interested in learning about. But even the part about the background bits were sufficiently readable (and not scientific-boring), so I could easily get through it.

[Kirsten · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book, the professor does a good job of explaining some complex workings of the earth, and gives a quick overview of the history of glaciation in addition to the current crisis. The penguin drawings were a nice touch to highlight when he was talking about big changes and implications for wildlife and such. Am important book to read, especially if you live in the northern latitudes.

[Sven · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well worth a read if you are a climate change believer or skeptic. Written for the educated general reader, history of both mountain and polar ice and discoveries is included along with descriptions of what humanity is doing to the climate, why we believe that we are changing the world, and what the future of a much warmer planet may entail.

[Patty · Rating 3 out of 5]

A thoughtful look at our changing climate and its impact on our world, from reduced arable land and dwindling drinkable water, disappearing islands and species, to the thawing permafrost and open seas in the Arctic for the first time in thousands of years.

[Joan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent wideranging explanation of the many aspects that are contributing to climate change. The explanation was very clearly written. While the author is a professor and maintains a professorial detachment, you can tell how passionate he feels about the subject.

[Johanna C. · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must read for climate change deniers and believers alike. Discusses every contra to climate change and more. fascinating read and very engagingly written. I didn't feel like I was reading a "sciency" book at all.

[AllInStride · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very thorough run through about the impact of climate change on earth's remaining ice. Provides a good description and discussion of the issues, but does not get very detailed about how to mitigate the issues or address the problems.

[Dave · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an excellent summary of the state of climate science and global warming up to its publication in 2007. The science has advanced since then, but this book serves as either a good introduction to or a good review of anthropogenic global warming and the science that supports it.

[Wagner Crivelini · Rating 5 out of 5]

Uma leitura tão interessante quanto assustadora.
Fala de RISCOS de mudanças no planeta que eu pessoalmente não gostaria de correr, mas que a humanidade como um todo resolveu bancar.
Se perdermos esta aposta, nosso futuro pode ser mais terrível do que qualquer filme apocalíptico.

[Andi M. · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very good, straightforward book about climate change and environmental issues. Obviously highlights the importance of ice to planet Earth.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great read, very informative, yet not too preachy. Easy read, especially given the amount of physical background info provided.

[Keith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Important book to read - discusses the facts about climate change and how it is impacting the world.

[Stephany Wilkes]

"Ice asks no questions ... reads no newspapers, listens to no debates. It is not burdened by ideology."

[Madhavan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Anyone who loves this planet should read this book.

[нєνєℓ ¢ανα · Rating 5 out of 5]

A quite excellent book, very fascinanting and compelling!

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent read. The best thing I can say about this book is "I learnt stuff" . . . enjoyable, informative and alarming in parts. It has sent me off on many tangents . . .

[Allie]

This book is well done

[Lloyd Downey · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is basically a book about climate change but written from the perspective of the ice we have on earth. I’ve only read this in the Blinkist summary form, and I guess, that I’ve missed the detail that would be in the original. But I was surprised that there was nothing about glaciers. Maybe that is in the original. Otherwise, no surprises here. I did learn one new thing which I’d never really thought about before, And that is that the south pole ice moves at about 30-40 feet each year whilst the north polar ice moves at 1000 to 1350 miles per year. I’ve extracted a few snippets (below) that kind of summarised the story for me”

“Not quite twins: the Arctic and the Antarctic are rather different.
Given that Earth has masses of ice at the North and South Poles, the Greeks were right about the planet’s symmetry. Both poles are set in ice, but in varying ways. The South Pole lies below more than 10,000 feet of ice, while the North Pole floats on top of a relatively thin 10-to 20-foot sheet of frozen ocean water. The South Pole’s ice masses move at a pace of 30 to 40 feet each year. At the North Pole, by contrast, the ice averages a speed of three to four miles each day.......What really damages the poles is what we do at home.
There are two key players in our planet’s climate: ice and the greenhouse effect.
When most fluids solidify, they usually contract. But not water. When water forms ice, it expands in volume. Ice has a lower density than water as a result, which is what allows it to float without sinking! There you have the mechanics of the iceberg.....Ice has another important property: reflectivity....So, when Arctic sea ice melts, Earth becomes warmer because there’s less ice to reflect solar energy away.
The remaining 1 percent of....other gases such as carbon dioxide and methane play an extraordinarily vital role: preventing heat from escaping Earth’s atmosphere....This creates a natural greenhouse effect, and Earth would be very different without it. Picture an Earth-sized snowball that’s 60 ° F colder than Earth, without any sign of human life: That’s pretty much how much the trouble we’d be in without that 1 percent.....However, the anthropogenic greenhouse effect is what’s throwing Earth’s climate out of balance.
Our planet’s many ice ages over history have shaped our seas and landscapes.
As many as twenty ice ages have taken place over the past 3 million years.....Chemicals in the remaining ocean water become more concentrated.....These chemicals are used by smaller marine creatures to grow their shells. So, the chemical composition of such shells give us some idea of water levels and ice age conditions.
As well as breaking down rocks, ice can also sculpt mountains and carve valleys.
Some 20,000 years ago, the most recent ice age reached its end. The ice began to melt, Earth began to warm again and, over the next 10,000 to 12,000 years, it reached an average surface temperature a little hotter than today's.......There are several methods we can use to reconstruct historic climate patterns. ....Tree rings is one. ...Layers of ice in polar ice sheets is another.....We can tell that the average temperature now is about 1.8 ° F higher than 150 years ago.......Human activities have driven climate change for centuries.
Deforestation continues in many parts of the world and the massive growth of the human population to about 7 billion people intensifies the need for cleared forest lands....But the biggest driver of climate change today is human industrial activity.
Climate change has concrete impacts for human life today.
Rising sea levels will be the most dramatic consequence of a world losing its ice......About 100,000,000 people on Earth live on terrain no more than three feet above sea level.
Climate change is unavoidable, but we can learn to manage it.
Climate change is unavoidable. For one thing, the sheer amount of greenhouse gases that have already been pumped into the atmosphere will have lasting effects far into the future.
Even if no CO2 were to be emitted into the atmosphere starting today, Earth would still warm by about 1 ° F-enough to turn the American agricultural heartland around Nebraska into desert, for example.
Well, we can mitigate it. ......By slowing and then reversing the overloading of our atmosphere......Solar energy could be collected on an industrial scale to produce electrical energy.......Geothermal home heating and cooling systems are possible.
Final summary
Ice plays an instrumental role in our planet's climate, which is why global warming poses such a huge threat to our future. A range of scientific methods allows us to pinpoint the evidence not just of historic climate fluctuations, but also of the rapid rate at which our man-made climate change is advancing. While the consequences will be severe, there are opportunities for us to learn to manage climate change.....And deforestation continues in many parts of the world.
So what's my overall take on the book? Fine as far as it goes. But I didn't learn much that was new to me. Three stars from me.

[Fred Dameron · Rating 4 out of 5]

The main problem with reading books about climate change is how bad one feels afterward. The author usually tries to end with upbeat statements and chapters, nine years later and the U.S. is even worse off than when this book was published. It's depressing. Lower our carbon usage, not likely. The current administration is planning to delete the clean air act. If you remember how N.Y city, L.A. Chicago looked back in the early 70's under this administration they will look that way again. For those who weren't alive, think Beijing winter on a Red flag day or LA when the it's dead still. The GOP lead by Trump will poison our country to make a buck. The worst part is that four years of 1960 non-scrubbed pollutants along with years of extra carbon being released will cost us 30 to 50 years to clear.

Let me explain. Once carbon is released it lingers in the atmosphere for 30 t0 50 years before it precipitates out into the ocean. When we as humans burned what grew that year the in and out of carbon from trees to fire pits, and back to the oceans and plants was even. But as we release that stored carbon of coal, oil, and natural gas we release more than the earth can absorb. This leads to a lag in carbon up take. Simply the carbon that I released when I took my wife to have our first child 32 years ago is just now being taken back by the earth. Meaning that the carbon that was used to birth my grand daughter won't be reabsorbed by until 2050. The long term issue is that even if we stopped using carbon at the excessive rate of today it would take until 2048 to 2068 before what we released today is absorbed. And the results of this will have to be dealt with.

It is amazing that our current POTUS said after Hurricane Irene that "All these natural disasters were blowing up his planned budget for 2018." Now, no single natural event hurricane, flood, snow storms, excessive rain etc etc can be blamed on climate change. But each of these events is made worse. The heavy flooding of Harvey and Irene was made worse because the atmosphere is warmer and therefore holds more moisture. During storms this moisture falls as rain which causes flooding. Add in higher sea levels, eight inches, because the ocean is warmer than at any time in sixty five million years and Houston has record flooding. The late snowstorms this year across the NE and Upper Mid West also made worse by a warmer planet. Warm moist air has pushed north in huge oscillations into the cold air. Bigger worse snow storms that started later in the year. First snows across the Mid West to NE were Christmass - New Years week. About three to six weeks late. And April snowstorms across the northern tier also not unusual as winter drags on. I've been to Church on Easter Sunday in Upper New York St. and had to leave for N.J. right after so we could get home before two to three foot fell, mid 70's and Easter was the second Sunday in April. Over all the models have been correct short sharp winters long hot summers.

The bottom line: every day that we don't try to slow our carbon usage in this country is another day longer it will take for the CO2 to leave our atmosphere and get sequestered in the ground. The longer the heat will stay on and the worse these natural disaster will become. It's almost humorous that Trump Tower N.Y. will be a gondola stop as Manhattan Island goes under water.

[Signy · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book gives an explanation of the history and geological role of both sea ice and land ice (such as glaciers and continental ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica). Some of this will not be news to those who are already familiar with geologic ices and the polar regions, but it's a good read anyway. If you don't know much about the important role of polar ices in the planet’s ecosystems, definitely read it.

The author then goes on to explain what will happen as these ices melt. It's not good, but it's already happening and getting worse as the climate continues to warm. Near the end, the book discusses a number of approaches to mitigate climate change and hopefully prevent some of the worst consequences.

One point of irritation in the book though is how the author mostly assumes that all humans have an equal share of energy consumption. Obviously some parts of the world use vastly more energy than others, but even within the US the disparity is great. A rich person in a big suburban house with 2-3 cars uses up far more energy than a working person who lives in a small city apartment and takes public transit everywhere. Not to mention the massive energy consumption of corporate office buildings that leave many lights and computer monitors on all night and the reluctance (or even refusal) of big business to move away from fossil fuels. Clean energy production and strategies to reverse environmental damage are critical, but they aren't going to happen without also building a better economic system that is no longer beholden to a tiny number of very wealthy people.