The Greatest Polar Expedition Of All Time: The Arctic Mission To The Epicenter Of Climate Change

A captain's tell-all about the biggest-ever Arctic expedition--an account filled with adventure, suspense, and new groundbreaking research on the climate crisis. In this gripping book, atmospheric scientist Markus Rex recounts the monumental Arctic expedition he captained for one year. The MOSAiC expedition--spearheaded by the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research--sought crucial data on how the climate crisis is impacting and changing Arctic environments. Beginning in 2019, hundreds of scientists from over 80 institutes around the world set out to live and work in the North Pole year round--a feat that had never been done before due to dangerous, near-unlivable conditions on the ice. Rex begins with life aboard the Polarstern, a powerful icebreaker ship that is frozen into the ice and carried across the Arctic by the Transpolar Drift. Away from the rest of the world, the team must live under brutal conditions on the ice, setting up "cities" and "towns" to perform their research on the Arctic ecosystem, its atmosphere, ocean, sea ice, and more. The team must work through terrifying storms, cracking ice floes, frost-bite, and even quarantines as Covid-19 sweeps the globe. But Markus Rex captures heartwarming moments, too, like Christmas parties on the ice and polar bears playing with scientific equipment like puppies. He muses on expeditions past, such as the ill-fated Franklin Expedition, and Fridtjof Nansen's Fram expedition, which he follows as a guide. And he explores answers to the pressing questions facing the Arctic today: How will climate change impact this precious ecosystem--and the rest of the world? What is the best way to protect the Arctic from invaders? Interweaving history, science, and memoir, The Greatest Polar Expedition of All Time is a page-turner about the teamwork it takes to complete a risky goal, all in the name of understanding--and responding to--the climate crisis.

• | Author: Markus Rex
• | Publisher: Greystone Books
• | Publication Date: May 17, 2022
• | Number of Pages: 296 pages
• | Language: English
• | Binding: Hardcover/Nature
• | ISBN-10: 1771649488
• | ISBN-13: 9781771649483