For readers of Madhouse at the End of the Earth, Endurance, and other seafaring adventure stories comes a thrilling account of a 21st-century Arctic mission.
? A contemporary classic!??Ken McGoogan, author of Fatal Passage
?Show-stopping.??Publisher's Weekly STARRED Review
The Greatest Polar Expedition of All Time vividly describes one year aboard the Polarstern, a powerful ice-breaker ship that journeyed deep into the Arctic in 2019, carrying over 100 scientists and crew known as the MOSAiC Expedition. Hailing from across the world, they would become the largest expedition to ever survive a polar winter. Their purpose? To understand?and predict?the impacts of climate change on the Arctic.
Written by the expedition's leader, the renowned atmospheric scientist Markus Rex, this page-turner reads like a captain's log of daily life aboard the Polarstern. Living in one of the most remote, dangerous, and electrifying places on earth, Rex describes incredible sights: polar bears playing with scientific equipment, Christmas parties in the bitter cold, frostbitten scientists, and hair-raising storms that threaten to break the Polarstern's cables and send it flying across the ice. He also reveals breathtaking science from deep inside the sea ice.
Filled with sobering, heart-warming, and bone-chilling moments, The Greatest Polar Expedition of All Time is a testament to Rex's extraordinary drive to save a precious ecosystem. It's also an ode to a place that has beguiled sailors and explorers for centuries.
Autorentext
Markus Rex is the head of atmospheric research at the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research, and a professor of atmospheric physics at the University of Potsdam. He has taken part in numerous expeditions to the Arctic, Antarctica, and other remote regions of the world to research the complex processes that can lead to dramatic changes in the climate. He heads the MOSAiC project, a unique research collaboration by ninety institutions from twenty countries.
Klappentext
"Show-stopping … This is required reading for anyone interested in seeing science in action."-Publisher's Weekly STARRED Review • "An illuminating portrait of a part of the planet that almost no one ever sees."-James Raffan, author of Ice Walker
"With Arctic ice in steep decline … there is no scientific research more crucial or urgent than the explorations launched by MOSAiC in 2019. In this compelling account, lead scientist Markus Rex shares the personal moments and the planetary stakes of the largest polar expedition in history."-Andrea Pitzer, author of Icebound
The Arctic is the epicenter of climate change, warming twice as quickly as the rest of the planet and driving increasing weather extremes across the northern hemisphere. But because the region is so remote, scientists have had a limited understanding of its processes. In 2019, the MOSAiC expedition set off on an unprecedented journey across the Arctic to take our knowledge about climate change to a new level. Aboard the icebreaker Polarstern, researchers would spend a full year locked in the ice, collecting crucial data during polar winter for the first time ever.
TheGreatest Polar Expedition of All Time is the thrilling inside account of this mission, a massive undertaking that involved twenty countries and hundreds of researchers. With resourcefulness and a scientist's passion for discovery, expedition leader Markus Rex details the crew's logistical challenges-including curious polar bears, sudden ice cracks, months of darkness in the polar night, and a pandemic. Through it all, Rex reminds us of the urgency of MOSAiC's research, describing an Arctic that is vastly altered by warming but that still has a chance to be saved.
An eye-opening journey to the end of the Earth, The Greatest Polar Expedition of All Time reveals the teamwork it takes to complete a risky goal, all in the name of understanding-and combating-the climate crisis.