Did you guys watch the BBC series Planet Earth? If you didn’t, you totally should. It was amazing. My favorite episode was the one about the Arctic, although I positively sobbed at the part where they showed a hungry polar bear swimming in open water, miles from shore, in search of ice (where food – seals – would be). The narrator (I think it was Sigourney Weaver) explained that, due to global warming, the Arctic ice has been melting earlier and in larger quantities, which is making it more and more difficult for the polar bears to keep themselves fed.
Hearing this, it should come as no surprise that I have been intrigued by Alun Anderson’s new book After the Ice: Life, Death, and Geopolitics in the New Arctic. (If you click on the link, you’ll understand even better why that is. Check out the sad polar bear on the cover. It breaks my heart.) When my pals at HarperCollins included this book in the list of potential ones that I could review, I jumped at the chance.
Truth be told, I was worried that this would be a bit dry. After all, I don’t read a lot of non-fiction books, and usually when I do, they are biographies or memoirs. Instead, I couldn’t put it down, although that could be in large part because I find the effects of global warming terrifying. It is well-written, fascinating, and informative.
Anderson has compiled a virtual ton of information, yet somehow manages to make it easy for non-scientifically-minded folks like myself to process and understand. This book makes me want to go up to every single person who thinks global warming is not a threat and thump them on the head. It also makes me want to fight harder against my husband’s latest desire for an SUV.
My one complaint is that I wish Anderson had devoted a chapter to what individuals can or should do to help the situation, because it feels pretty bleak right now.
I worry about polar bears too. Thanks for sharing.
Your thumping idea sounds very satisfying. I loved Planet Earth and when I got the series on DVD a couple years ago I was rather disappointed Sigourney Weaver was not the narrator on my series. I think BBC edition was different, though I am not entirely certain why it would be different on TV vs. DVD. I don’t watch the arctic one very often as it is both depressing (I seriously tear up at the polar bears) and the picture is too bright showing all that white in a dark room when I like to watch them while relaxing in bed (talk about first world problems…)
I was reading somewhere that some polar bears have resorted to canabalism to survive. It’s usually the bigger stronger males who attack the cubs of smaller females. It’s heartbreaking.
Don’t get me started about the polar bears. I have sat SOBBING in front of the tv because of them! I definitely want to check out that book!
I want to cry just reading you write about that guy writing about the poor polar bear. Omg.