"Into the Thaw: Witnessing Wonder Amid the Arctic Climate Crisis" with Jon Waterman
Event Details
- When
- Nov 11, 2024 from 07:00 PM to 08:00 PM
- Where
- Third Place Books, Lake Forest Park
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A Nature of Writing speaker series event, presented in partnership with Third Place Books
Forty years ago, when park ranger Jon Waterman took his first journey into the Alaskan Arctic, he was astonished by the abundant wildlife, the strange landscape, and its otherworldly light. After a 30-year absence, Waterman returned with his son in 2021 and was shocked and heartbroken by the changes. The following year, in 2022, he took one final journey "into the thaw" to document — for this lushly illustrated and scholarly book — the environmental and cultural changes wrought by the climate crisis.
Waterman's narrative alternates between adventure and wilderness memoir and plainly stated natural history of the area. Chased by bears, sometimes alone for weeks on end amid hordes of mosquitoes, he notes the extraordinary changes from 1983 until the present day: brush grown over the tundra in a phenomenon called Greening of the Arctic, tear-drop-shaped landslide thaw slumps caused by thawing permafrost, and an increasing loss of sea ice as he travels along the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas. The author also spends time with the welcoming Inuit or Inupiat most affected by the Arctic crisis, who share how their age-old culture has attempted to cope with "the thaw." Through his quest for wonder, Waterman shows how the Arctic can confer grace on those who pass through. Despite the unfolding crisis, as a narrative of hope, at the book's end he suggests actions we can all take to slow the thaw and preserve what is left of this remarkable, vast frontier.