When the Ice Is Gone: What a Greenland Ice Core Reveals About Earth's Tumultuous History and Perilous Future

Bierman, Paul. When the Ice Is Gone: What a Greenland Ice Core Reveals About Earth's Tumultuous History and Perilous Future. 2024. 304p. ISBN 9781324020677.

When the Ice Is Gone recounts author Paul Bierman's groundbreaking discovery that Greenland's massive ice sheet melted naturally 400,000 years ago, a time when Earth's temperature was comparable to present-day levels. This revelation came from analyzing long-lost frozen soil samples retrieved from the world's first deep ice core, drilled decades ago at Camp Century, a Cold War military base buried within the Greenland ice sheet. Bierman's findings challenge previous assumptions about ice sheet stability and suggest that the ice is inherently vulnerable, even without the influence of human-caused climate change.

When the Ice Is Gone explores the scientific journey behind this pivotal discovery, tracing the history of polar science and how researchers learned to interpret the information contained within ice and snow. Bierman delves into the technical aspects of the Camp Century ice core project and explains the significance of his team's analysis. He also emphasizes the alarming implications of his findings for the future, warning of potentially catastrophic consequences if climate change continues unabated. When the Ice Is Gone serves as a call to action, urging readers to recognize Greenland's crucial role in global climate and to heed the warning signs from the melting ice.