Ice has been around for billions of years but it has taken less than three centuries for human growth and industry to bring it to the point of extinction. Henry Pollack, professor of geophysics at the University of Michigan for more than forty years and one of the world’s leading experts on the temperature of the Earth, argues that ice is natures best thermometer and perhaps its most sensitive and unambiguous indicator of climate change.

When ice gets sufficiently warm, it melts. Ice asks no questions, presents no arguments, reads no newspapers, and listens to no debates. It is not burdened by ideology and carries no political agendas. It just melts.

Without taking significant measures, agriculture and drinking water are at risk, as are millions who live on the coast and are in danger of becoming climate refugees. A World Without Ice is the first book of its kind that tackles the idea of climate change from the ice standpoint including how we got to the melting of the ice caps, what it means, ramifications and what we can do about it. The topic is fascinating and the evidence of a meltdown stunning.

Originally published in 2007, the year he shared the Nobel Peace Prize with fellow members of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and former vice president Al Gore.

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Aflevering 01: Jacques Vriens