The Age of Melt: What Glaciers, Ice Mummies, and Ancient Artifacts Teach Us about Climate, Culture, and a Future Without Ice - Hardcover

by Lisa Baril (Author)

A thought-provoking scientific narrative investigating ice patch archaeology and the role of glaciers in the development of human culture.

Glaciers figure prominently in both ancient and contemporary narratives around the world. They inspire art and literature. They spark both fear and awe. And they give and take life. In The Age of Melt, environmental journalist Lisa Baril explores the deep-rooted cultural connection between humans and ice through time.

Thousands of organic artifacts are emerging from patches of melting ice in mountain ranges around the world. Archaeologists are in a race against time to find them before they disappear forever. In entertaining and enlightening prose, Baril travels from the Alps to the Andes, investigating what these artifacts teach us about climate and culture. But this is not a chronicle of loss. The Age of Melt explores what these artifacts reveal about culture, wilderness, and what we gain when we rethink our relationship to the world and its most precious and ephemeral substance--ice.

Author Biography

Lisa Baril is a science writer who has written about natural resources and science for national parks across the southwestern United States. She holds a master's degree from Montana State University and is a member of the National Association of Science Writers, Society of Environmental Journalists, and the Outdoor Writers Association of America. She lives with her husband and water-loving English lab in northwestern Wyoming.