This is an important but profoundly disturbing work written by a west coast mountaineer, activist and award-winning journalist. Set against the backdrop of a rescue patrol on the upper levels of Alaska’s Mount Denali, the eight chapters focus on different aspects of the climate crisis that is upon us, using a range of contexts and environments around the world. The book’s conclusion is the most perplexing, being a mix of hope and fatalism, drawing on ideas of palliation, teachings of Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hahn, and indigenous cultures’ ideas of obligations versus rights. The book closes with advice to “educate yourself and then you decide,” and that is my advice to prospective readers of this book.
*****
The End of Ice: Bearing Witness and Finding Meaning in the Path of Climate Disruption by Dahr Jamail; The New Press: New York, NY, 2019; ISBN 9781620972342, hardcover, 272 pages; $25.99
