The Greatest Polar Expedition of All Time: The Arctic Mission to the Epicenter of Climate Change

by Markus Rex, Sarah Pybus (Translator)

Overview

​​For readers of Madhouse at the End of the Earth, Endurance, and other seafaring adventure stories comes a thrilling account of a 21st-century Arctic mission.

“ A contemporary classic!”—Ken McGoogan, author of Fatal Passage

“Show-stopping.”­—Publisher’s Weekly STARRED Review

The Greatest Polar Expedition of All Time vividly describes one year aboard the Polarstern, a powerful ice-breaker ship that journeyed deep into the Arctic in 2019, carrying over 100 scientists and crew known as the MOSAiC Expedition. Hailing from across the world, they would become the largest expedition to ever survive a polar winter. Their purpose? To understand—and predict—the impacts of climate change on the Arctic.

Written by the expedition’s leader, the renowned atmospheric scientist Markus Rex, this page-turner reads like a captain’s log of daily life aboard the Polarstern. Living in one of the most remote, dangerous, and electrifying places on earth, Rex describes incredible sights: polar bears playing with scientific equipment, Christmas parties in the bitter cold, frostbitten scientists, and hair-raising storms that threaten to break the Polarstern’s cables and send it flying across the ice. He also reveals breathtaking science from deep inside the sea ice.

Filled with sobering, heart-warming, and bone-chilling moments, The Greatest Polar Expedition of All Time is a testament to Rex’s extraordinary drive to save a precious ecosystem. It’s also an ode to a place that has beguiled sailors and explorers for centuries.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781771649483
Publisher:	Greystone Books
Publication date:	05/17/2022
Series:	David Suzuki Institute
Pages:	296
Sales rank:	502,846
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Markus Rex is the head of atmospheric research at the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research, and a professor of atmospheric physics at the University of Potsdam. He has taken part in numerous expeditions to the Arctic, Antarctica, and other remote regions of the world to research the complex processes that can lead to dramatic changes in the climate. He heads the MOSAiC project, a unique research collaboration by ninety institutions from twenty countries.

Table of Contents

Map: Arctic Pack Ice and the Route of the Polarstern vi

Prologue ix

Part I Fall

Chapter 1 It Begins 1

Chapter 2 On Thin Ice 17

Chapter 3 A New Home 42

Part II Winter

Chapter 4 Alone at the End of the World 76

Chapter 5 Storm in the Polar Night 102

Chapter 6 Christmas in the Ice 128

Part III On Land

Chapter 7 On a Knife Edge 150

Part IV Spring

Chapter 8 Return to the Ice 168

Chapter 9 The Great Thaw 184

Part V Summer

Chapter 10 High Summer on the Ice 200

Chapter 11 The North Pole-and a New Ice Floe 226

Chapter 12 Going Home 243

Epilogue 254

Acknowledgments 261

Notes 265

Image Credits 266

Index 267

Editorial Reviews

★ 02/28/2022

Rex, the head of atmospheric research at the Alfred Wegener Institute, vividly captures 2019’s MOSAiC polar expedition in this show-stopping account. In September of that year, the icebreaker Polarstern set sail from Tromsø, Norway, to spend a year monitoring and measuring conditions in the Arctic Ocean; the mission involved hundreds of scientists, technicians, and crew members. Rex, the director of the project, recounts it in diary format, describing the logistics of finding a suitable ice floe thick enough to support the weight of their equipment, polar bear encounters, and ever-shifting conditions. Research successes large and small come along the way, as when one team had an “amazing” ice coring day, and Rex has a knack for vivid and startling imagery. (On the myriad ice formations, “One looks like a huge mushroom, another like the teeth of a mighty Arctic monster frozen in the ice.”) His conclusion that immediate action is needed to preserve the Arctic ice won’t be a surprise, but his point that any changes to that effect will need to be relevant and have broad support is well made. This is required reading for anyone interested in seeing science in action. (May)

Publishers Weekly

With Arctic ice in steep decline and the dangers inherent in our rapidly changing climate, there is no scientific research more crucial or urgent than the explorations launched by MOSAiC in 2019. In this compelling account, lead scientist Markus Rex shares the personal moments and the planetary stakes of the largest polar expedition in history.”
—Andrea Pitzer, author of Icebound: Shipwrecked at the Edge of the World

“An illuminating portrait of a part of the planet that almost no one ever sees and of an undertaking whose scientific findings will be informing global decision making for years to come.”
—James Raffan, author of Ice Walker and Emperor of the North

“This marvelous book brings us aboard a unique 21st-century Arctic expedition—science-driven, multi-national, unprecedented—as it sails into the epicenter of the worsening climate crisis. For anyone concerned about global warming—and that should be all of us —this book is essential reading. A contemporary classic!”
—Ken McGoogan, author of Fatal Passage: The Story of John Rae, The Arctic Hero Time Forgot and Dead Reckoning: The Untold Story of the Northwest Passage

From the Publisher

04/01/2022

Rex (atmospheric research, Univ. of Potsdam) writes a fascinating account of MOSAiC, the world's largest Arctic expedition—the culmination of a decades-long international collaboration to put scientists in the Arctic for a full year and collect data during polar winter for the first time ever. The idea was to deliberately trap a ship within an ice floe to float with the Arctic ice and gather year-round measurements about the impact of climate change at the poles. Led by Rex, MOSAiC's Polarstern icebreaker set sail in mid-2019 with high hopes, but potential disaster loomed on the horizon. Rex's expedition diary catalogues the day-by-day events of the entire undertaking. Between diary entries there are diversionary essays on all aspects of the Arctic (polar bears; types of ice; how an icebreaker works) to help readers understand this environment. The format mirrors memorable 19th-century expedition diaries (e.g., Fridtjof Nansen's account of an attempt to reach the North Pole; or the survey of the Pacific Ocean by the United States Exploring Expedition)—first-person accounts combining science with sentiment. VERDICT For those who like reading about the North Pole or oceanic expeditions in general, this is a title that should not be missed.—Laura Hiatt

Library Journal

Markus Rex is a serious scientist who is on a unique mission to gather data and experience conditions in the Arctic Ocean by spending an entire year there, including purposely trapping his ship in the ice. Paul Boehmer’s sonorous voice and deliberate pace match the scientist’s seriousness of purpose. His delivery sounds a bit ponderous at the beginning, but Boehmer soon relaxes into the diary entry format with a more conversational style and varied pacing. Rex recounts polar bear encounters, crew efforts to present scientific findings in song and dance, and the difficulty of finding an ice floe thick enough to remain stable. The overarching sense of urgency for governments all over the world to take quick and significant action on climate change is loud and clear. A.B. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine

SEPTEMBER 2022 - AudioFile