Glaciers

This book breaks new ground - or should I say ice - in bringing the vulnerability of glaciers to the general reading public. The author has been involved as a 'cryoactivist', based at the Centre for Human Rights and Environment in Argentina where his partner was for some time the Environment Secretary while the parliament was trying to pass the first protective legislation for glaciers. So the book weaves together in alternate chapters science, geography and politics of ice. The reader soon realises how important glaciers are in our ecosystem, especially as water towers that are both cyclic and renewable as the ice accumulates and disperses on a seasonal basis. Three quarters of our freshwater originates in the high mountains, which makes the erosion of glaciers a serious issue. For instance, in Montana, the number is reduced from 150 in 1850 to 25 now.

The politics of implementing the first glacier legislation were complex. The parliament passed legislation unanimously, but a call to the president from the president of Garrick Gold ensure that she vetoed the legislation at the last minute, and blamed the environment secretary for not realising how much resistance the legislation would create in the mining industry, thus highlighting the tension between jobs and economic growth on the one hand and environmental protection on the other. The last straw was being asked to contribute to a legal position justifying veto of the glacier law, which she herself had formulated. The political shenanigans were pretty disgraceful in this case, but a revised law was eventually passed. Given the importance of glaciers and their susceptibility to climate change, they deserve to be well up the agenda, and this highly readable book can provide an authoritative reference point for this process.