The Whale and the Supercomputer: On the Northern Front of Climate Change
The 2004 Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Science and Technology went to Charles Wohlforth's The Whale and the Supercomputer, a nonfiction book about climate change in the Arctic.
Work Information
A science narrative about climate change at the Arctic frontier.
The Los Angeles Times honored the book in Science and Technology. It connects Arctic ecology, scientific research, and the lived experience of climate change.
Book Information
- Publisher
- North Point Pr
- Published
- 2004-04-01
- Pages
- 322 pages
- Language
- 英語
- Size
- 15.24 x 2.92 x 22.86 cm
- ISBN-13
- 9780865476592
- ISBN-10
- 0865476594
- Price
- 6684 JPY
- Category
- 洋書/Outdoors & Nature/Ecology/Rivers
Scientists and natives wrestle with our changing climate in the land where it has hit first --and hardest A traditional Eskimo whale-hunting party races to shore near Barrow, Alaska-their comrades trapped on a floe drifting out to sea-as ice that should be solid this time of year gives way. Elsewhere, a team of scientists transverses the tundra, sleeping in tents, surviving on frozen chocolate, and measuring the snow every ten kilometers in a quest to understand the effects of albedo, the snow's reflective ability to cool the earth beneath it. Climate change isn't an abstraction in the far North. It is a reality that has already dramatically altered daily life, especially that of the native peoples who still live largely off the land and sea. Because nature shows her footprints so plainly here, the region is also a lure for scientists intent on comprehending the complexities of climate change. In this gripping account, Charles Wohlforth follows the two groups as they navigate a radically shifting landscape. The scientists attempt to decipher its smallest elements and to derive from them a set of abstract laws and models. The natives draw on uncannily accurate traditional knowledge, borne of long experience living close to the land. Even as they see the same things-a Native elder watches weather coming through too fast to predict; a climatologist notes an increased frequency of cyclonic systems-the two cultures struggle to reconcile their vastly different ways of comprehending the environment. With grace, clarity, and a sense of adventure, Wohlforth--a lifelong Alaskan--illuminates both ways of seeing a world in flux, and in the process, helps us to navigate a way forward as climate change reaches us all. Scientists and natives wrestle with our changing climate in the land where it has hit first --and hardest A traditional Eskimo whale-hunting party races to shore near Barrow, Alaska-their comrades trapped on a floe drifting out to sea-as ice that should be solid this time of year gives way. Elsewhere, a team of scientists transverses the tundra, sleeping in tents, surviving on frozen chocolate, and measuring the snow every ten kilometers in a quest to understand the effects of albedo, the snow's reflective ability to cool the earth beneath it. Climate change isn't an abstraction in the far North. It is a reality that has already dramatically altered daily life, especially that of the native peoples who still live largely off the land and sea. Because nature shows her footprints so plainly here, the region is also a lure for scientists intent on comprehending the complexities of climate change. In this gripping account, Charles Wohlforth follows the two groups as they navigate a radically shifting landscape. The scientists attempt to decipher its smallest elements and to derive from them a set of abstract laws and models. The natives draw on uncannily accurate traditional knowledge, borne of long experience living close to the land. Even as they see the same things-a Native elder watches weather coming through too fast to predict; a climatologist notes an increased frequency of cyclonic systems-the two cultures struggle to reconcile their vastly different ways of comprehending the environment. With grace, clarity, and a sense of adventure, Wohlforth--a lifelong Alaskan--illuminates both ways of seeing a world in flux, and in the process, helps us to navigate a way forward as climate change reaches us all.
Charles Wohlforth , formerly a reporter for the Anchorage Daily News , is a freelance writer whose work has appeared in Outside and The New Republic . He is a life-long Alaskan.
Reviews
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who are 11 and 13. They wanted me to read the whole chapter about the snow-sampling expedition. They are thrilled and disturbed by the whale hunts and the vivid descriptions of the ice, and they are more interested in the science than I expected -- but as another reviewer noted, the author is a parent, too, and while the science isn't oversimplified, it is set out in plain language. My kids want to go to Alaska as soon as possible, "before it's all melted and gone forever" as my daughter says. And my son wanted to know -- "Mom, if I can figure out cold fusion, will you be proud of me?" All the accolades by other reviewers here are well deserved. This is a wonderful read; the science is woven into the story so seamlessly that you don't realize just how much you're learning. But I think the most important message of this story is that the earth has an intrinsic value and beauty that we do not have the right to destroy. So, get this book. Read it. Donate a copy to your local library. Maybe our children really can save the planet. This book could be the inspiration.
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In my twenty+ years of working with enviromental issues and the hundreds and hundreds of books I've read on those topics, none have been as good a read as The Whale and the Supercomputer! There is a clear need, no matter the science, of relating the science to the real world. This book does of great job of doing that on a topic that is so important to our world today and for our kids of tomorrow. Be entertained as you learn, understand a world so few are fortunate enough to explore. Read this book!
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Thought provoking and angering at the same time.