The Future of Ice

Gretel Ehrlich loves winter: remote, cold places, and the way a hard season sharpens the mind and sets the body moving. She also fears that a culture built on constant gratification has altered the climate beyond repair. This non-fiction book follows from both feelings.

Over the course of one year, Ehrlich goes out to meet cold in its many forms. Her travels run from Tierra del Fuego in the south to Spitsbergen, east of Greenland, near the top of the world.

Along the way she lays out the histories of wind, water, snow and ice, and of ocean currents and weather cycles. The book combines firsthand travel with natural history, and she argues that human consciousness is shaped by the old rhythms and sudden swings of weather.

The reader shares the pleasures of cold with her, and also her uncertainty. It is unclear what becomes of people if the seasons lose their edges and we are "deseasoned". The book turns on whether we can survive the end of winter.