John Mitani

Polar exploration history should easily capture a wide range of imaginations, and ‘climate change’ together with the anthropogenic component of its causes and consequences is a topic that is now discussed by ordinary people across the world. However, it is a large, multifaceted and highly complex concept to come to grips with, where the devil is often in the detail. Thus, it is no mean task to tell this story to an intentionally wide audience, but the authors have clearly tried hard to engage the reader — from those who might pick it up on a coffee table to the expert. I suspect that some with it on their coffee tables might end up occasionally having to ask borrowers for it back! Each time the text delves necessarily into complexity the casual reader is saved by down-to-earth explanations, and breaking chapters into very manageable chunks to allow thought. A nice touch is the simple but elegant line drawings that somehow seem to be as strong an image as a striking photograph, but are stylized enough to set the mind conjuring up what we can’t see of the scene. Neverthless, the amount of detailed knowledge is considerable and casual readers will need to put the book down and go for a walk to clear their heads, especially in the middle chapters. Again, rescue is at hand as the reader heads into an intricate dissection of human influences, future climate and a genuinely riveting chapter on the forecasting of multiple consequences. The figures are staggering and would have been hard to imagine just a few decades ago, but then the human population of our planet has doubled in my lifetime, whole valleys have appeared where there used to be glaciers, arctic sea ice has halved and global sea level has risen by 10 cm. It is often hard for people to take in consequences of processes and actions because of their scales in time and space, but here, it is easy for any reader to put a ruler up to graphs of actual data to see how the planet has changed in their lifetime. I remember learning at primary school that 0.033% of air was this gas called CO2 — now my children are learning for their exams that it is about 0.040%. The graphs presented by the book allow the reader to look back in time at how much change in global temperature resulted from such ‘small’ changes in CO2. Of course, a level as high as 4 ppm can’t be found on any of the graphs of actual data; we are breaking new ground. There is a very French flavor to this amazing story. This stems from not just the nationality of the authors, who each individually have been significant players in the story, but of many of the pioneers. Mer de Glace, one of the best measured glaciers (and is in the French Alps), has a key role, as do French polar research stations such as Durmont d’Urville on the East Antarctic coastline. However, this French flavor is stamped on what is clearly a truly international detective story from the pioneers to today’s research community, and of course a global impact. This hint of French perspective only makes the book more interesting to the reader, especially (I suspect) if you are not French, because we are more familiar with the examples of research and consequence from the countries in which we have lived and worked. Just 250 years ago our state of exploring our “fragile ball turning in the immensity of the universe” led the polar pioneer James Cook to declare that “no continent [referring to Antarctica] exists, unless it is...out of reach.” From the discovery of the polar regions, The White Planet takes the reader on a breathtaking journey through what we have learnt from the vast archive of Earth’s history that the ice spy has stored, and what this means for our future. As has concluded the UN, the authors make the case that “the destiny of polar regions is crucial for the planet,” but I wonder how many readers of the “what we must do” and conclusions really think that action will even approach levels necessary. The authors admit doubt that, despite much data, models and political discussion, current action taken will be enough to prevent a global rise in temperature reaching or exceeding 2°C. I think most readers would guess that the authors are trying to keep an upbeat message while probably being fairly convinced that other priorities will occupy more of our policy-makers’ time and effort. It is great to live in an era when we have pushed the boundaries of knowledge so far and when we understand so much about cause and effect, but our childrens’ era will be one of learning how effective we can be at using that knowledge.