Last Days of the Arctic

Last Days of the Arctic
Author: Ragnar Axelsson
Publisher: Crymogea
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2010
Genre: Arctic regions
ISBN: 9780955525520

The world turns its gaze toward the Arctic. Nowhere are the signs of climate change more visible; here global warming already affects the day-to-day lives of the local people. Still the circumpolar Arctic is one of the most disputed territories on Earth, with many nations laying claim to the mining and oil rights of the area as the sea ice retreats. For thousands of years the Inuit have built their communities based upon a sensitive understanding of the land and the frozen ocean, but rapid social and environmental change threatens their traditional way of life. The hunters of the North are a dying breed. This is the twilight of their society. Ragnar Axelsson has been travelling to the Arctic for almost three decades, drawn by a deep respect for the hunting communities of northern Greenland and Canada. His images have won him recognition as one of the most accomplished documentary photographers of our time. This remarkable body of work is finally brought together to present a unique record of the daily life and culture of some of the most remote communities in the world.

Arctic Dreams

Arctic Dreams
Author: Barry Lopez
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 300
Release: 2024-07-23
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 1668080028

Winner of the National Book Award This bestselling, groundbreaking exploration of the Far North is a classic of natural history, anthropology, and travel writing. The Arctic is a perilous place. Only a few species of wild animals can survive its harsh climate. In this modern classic, Barry Lopez explores the many-faceted wonders of the Far North: its strangely stunted forests, its mesmerizing aurora borealis, its frozen seas. Musk oxen, polar bears, narwhal, and other exotic beasts of the region come alive through Lopez’s passionate and nuanced observations. And, as he examines the history and culture of its indigenous communities, along with parallel narratives of intrepid, often underprepared and subsequently doomed polar explorers, Lopez drives to the heart of why the austere and formidable Arctic is also a constant source of breathtaking beauty, mystery, and wonder. Written in prose as pure as the land it describes, Arctic Dreams is a timeless mediation on the ability of the landscape to shape our dreams and to haunt our imaginations.

The Arctic Fury

The Arctic Fury
Author: Greer Macallister
Publisher: Sourcebooks, Inc.
Total Pages: 505
Release: 2020-12-01
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1728215706

A dozen women join a secret 1850s Arctic expedition—and a sensational murder trial unfolds when some of them don't come back. Eccentric Lady Jane Franklin makes an outlandish offer to adventurer Virginia Reeve: take a dozen women, trek into the Arctic, and find her husband's lost expedition. Four parties have failed to find him, and Lady Franklin wants a radical new approach: put the women in charge. A year later, Virginia stands trial for murder. Survivors of the expedition willing to publicly support her sit in the front row. There are only five. What happened out there on the ice? Set against the unforgiving backdrop of one of the world's most inhospitable locations, USA Today bestselling author Greer Macallister uses the true story of Lady Jane Franklin's tireless attempts to find her husband's lost expedition as a jumping-off point to spin a tale of bravery, intrigue, perseverance and hope.

A Farewell to Ice

A Farewell to Ice
Author: P. Wadhams
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 273
Release: 2017
Genre: History
ISBN: 0190691158

A sobering but important and enlightening book, A Farewell to Ice moves smoothly through explanations ice's role on our planet, its history, and the current global crisis that is climate change, finally offering tangible efforts readers can make as citizens, which are particularly relevant in the face of reluctant government powers.

The Future History of the Arctic

The Future History of the Arctic
Author: Charles Emmerson
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Total Pages: 442
Release: 2010-03-02
Genre: History
ISBN: 0786746246

Long at the margins of global affairs and at the edge of our mental map of the world, the Arctic has found its way to the center of the issues which will challenge and define our world in the twenty-first century: energy security and the struggle for natural resources, climate change and its uncertain speed and consequences, the return of great power competition, the remaking of global trade patterns In The Future History of the Arctic, geopolitics expert Charles Emmerson weaves together the history of the region with reportage and reflection, revealing a vast and complex area of the globe, loaded with opportunity and rich in challenges. He defines the forces which have shaped the Arctic's history and introduces the players in politics, business, science and society who are struggling to mold its future. The Arctic is coming of age. This engrossing book tells the story of how that is happening and how it might happen -- through the stories of those who live there, those who study it, and those who will determine its destiny.

Silent Snow

Silent Snow
Author: Marla Cone
Publisher: Open Road + Grove/Atlantic
Total Pages: 270
Release: 2007-12-01
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 1555847692

“A slender but punch-packing overview of the environmental destruction of the Far North” from the award-winning environmental reporter (Kirkus Reviews). Traditionally thought of as the last great unspoiled territory on Earth, the Arctic is in reality home to some of the most severe contamination on the planet. Awarded a major grant by the Pew Charitable Trusts to study the Arctic’s deteriorating environment, Los Angeles Times environmental reporter Marla Cone traveled across the Far North, from Greenland to the Aleutian Islands, to find out why the Arctic has become so toxic. Silent Snow is not only a scientific journey, but a personal one with experiences that range from tracking endangered polar bears in Norway to hunting giant bowhead whales with native Alaskans struggling to protect their livelihood. Through it all, Cone reports with heartbreaking immediacy on the dangers of pollution to native peoples and ecosystems, how Arctic cultures are adapting to this pollution, and what solutions will prevent the crisis from getting worse.

A Naturalist's Guide to the Arctic

A Naturalist's Guide to the Arctic
Author: E.C. Pielou
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 344
Release: 2012-07-31
Genre: Travel
ISBN: 022614867X

This book is a practical, portable guide to all of the Arctic's natural history—sky, atmosphere, terrain, ice, the sea, plants, birds, mammals, fish, and insects—for those who will experience the Arctic firsthand and for armchair travelers who would just as soon read about its splendors and surprises. It is packed with answers to naturalists' questions and with questions—some of them answered—that naturalists may not even have thought of.

Unfreezing the Arctic

Unfreezing the Arctic
Author: Andrew Stuhl
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 241
Release: 2016-11-03
Genre: History
ISBN: 022641664X

This rich portrait of Arctic science, informed by ethnographic fieldwork and Inuit perspective, speaks to the interplay of science and international politics. It looks at episodes of exploration, colonial control, exchanges with indigenous populations, and the process of knowledge gathering on the Arctic s natural and living resources. Andrew Stuhl s compelling narrative weaves together distinct episodes into a backstory for what some have wrongly called the unprecedented transformations in the circumpolar basin today. "Unfreezing the Arctic" is among the first books to undertake a sustained examination of scientific activity in the Arctic across the long twentieth century, and it will be warmly welcomed by anyone interested in the commingled political, economic, and social histories of transboundary regions the world over."

On Thin Ice

On Thin Ice
Author: Eric Larsen
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 287
Release: 2016-10-01
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1493022970

In March 2014, Eric Larsen and Ryan Waters set out to traverse nearly 500 miles across the melting Arctic Ocean, unsupported, from Northern Ellesmere Island to the geographic North Pole. Despite being one of the most cold and hostile environments on the planet, the Arctic Ocean has seen a steady and significant reduction of sea ice over the past seven years due to climate change. Because of this, Larsen’s and Waters’ trip—dubbed the “Last North Expedition”—is expected to be the last human-powered trek to the North Pole, ever. Filled with stunning, full-color photos and GPS maps plotting his progress, On Thin Ice is Larsen’s first-person account of this historic two-man expedition. Traveling across the retreating sea ice on skis, snowshoes, and even swimming through semi-frozen arctic slush, Larsen and Waters each pulled over 320 pounds of gear behind them on sleds through temperatures that plummeted to nearly 70 degrees below zero. At times, they covered little over a mile a day. They were stalked by polar bears and ran out of food. It was, in Larsen’s words, “easily one of the most difficult expeditions in the world.” More than just a heart-stopping adventure narrative, however, On Thin Ice offers an intimate and haunting look at the rapidly changing face of the Arctic due to global climate change.

Faces of the North

Faces of the North
Author:
Publisher:
Total Pages: 412
Release: 2015-10-27
Genre: Photography
ISBN: 9789935420404

"Faces of the North established Ragnar 'RAX' Axelsson as one of the leading documentary photographers of our time. This long-awaited second edition--the result of more than 30 years of documenting the lives of hunters, fishermen, and farmers in the North--doubles the original selection with previously unpublished photographs from RAX's collection, alongside personal accounts of the journeys which led to their creation. The result is a rare testament to cultures across Iceland, the Faroes, and Greenland; to worlds and ways of life that, if not for the photographs, have all but vanished. Raised on an isolated farm in southern Iceland, Ragnar Axelsson (born 1958) became captivated early on by the brutal beauty of the North Atlantic and the delicate interactions between its inhabitants and their environment. Born of that fascination, Faces of the North, first published in 2004, established Axelsson as one of the leading documentary photographers of our time. Long out of print, Faces of the North is now republished in an edition that echoes the format of Axelsson's latest publications, Last Days of the Arctic and Behind the Mountains. In the 2004 edition of Faces of the North, Axelsson collected the images of farmers, hunters and fishermen in the Arctic and the Atlantic that he became best known for; in the 2016 edition, his oeuvre comes full circle, as he looks back upon the foundation of his photographic passion and career."--Publisher's website.