The new book from scientists Philip Conkling, Richard Alley, Wallace Broecker and George Denton attempt to unravel some of the mysteries of past climate change in order to better understand the current crisis. The work is packed with wonderful photographs of Greenland’s panoramic landscapes and starkly beautiful glaciers, although it’s not just decoration – the images are partially intended to be seen as a visual aid to understanding what frequently amounts to very technical scientific data.

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Using data from ice core samples, as well as geological data from around the world, Conkling and his co-authors try to explain the causes of past climate shifts on Earth. Most of the book focuses on individual scientific efforts to uncover bits of geological information that illustrate these patterns, often in exhaustive detail. The hope, it seems, is to show that we can learn something about what future climate change might look like from studying the past. Each chapter focuses a different factor and how scientists have come to know and understand it, which makes using it for reference very easy indeed. That said, there’s a jigsaw puzzle feeling to the work, with each piece being put in place slowly, one by one. While it gives a grounding in the subject matter, it doesn’t exactly gallop along, although thrilling copy isn’t really the point. It’s all about the data.

Certainly not a casual beach read; the subject matter and writing style conspire to make close reading essential. Don’t be fooled by the admittedly gorgeous photography: the scientific terminology is heavy and the descriptions of the processes by which the scientists go about collecting and examining data are complex. The explanation of the conclusions each scientist draws from both their individual and collaborative experiments is pretty intricate in many cases. In short, the more you know about geology and the kinds of scientific procedures described in the book, the more you’ll appreciate it, and despite the authors’ hopes, the average reader is unlikely to have enough background knowledge to get much out of it. More likely, readers will spend just as much time wrestling with the scientific procedures as they will the conclusions themselves.   

Nonetheless, there’s still plenty that can be learned from these men and their efforts. To give the authors their due, it’s clear that they are trying to articulate an incredibly complicated scientific process. The quest to understand and effectively map the various global forces and events that contribute or cause climate shifts is extremely multifaceted. Even if you don’t understand the details, the big conclusions the authors draw are accessible. The authors cleverly demonstrate the scope and intricacy of climate change by using their complex scientific data to highlight the connections between seemingly unrelated geological events.  For example, the findings reveal that the recession of glaciers in several areas of the world has occurred in near synchronisation with the massive droughts or monsoons in China and India. You don’t have to be a geologist to understand the bigger picture the authors are trying to paint about the connections between all of Earth’s weather systems and their interlinked behaviour. But despite the often unnerving conclusions that Conkling and co draw, they aren’t panicking, saying it’s a useless pursuit since according to the data, great environmental catastrophe isn’t likely. However, they also point out that business as usual is unsustainable and that certain decisions have to be made about the amount of carbon we consume and how we might try to offset it. The Fate of Greenland might not interest everyone but that doesn’t mean that anyone can’t get something out of it. It’s more a question of how deep you want to delve into the cold, hard, and still developing, science of climate change.      

The Fate of Greenland: Lessons from Abrupt Climate Change, £22.95, is published by MIT Press and is available from Amazon

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