Longlisted for the Wainwright PrizeShortlisted for the Richard Jeffries AwardThe story of one
woman's passion for glaciersAs one of the world's leading glaciologists Professor Jemma Wadham
has devoted her career to the glaciers that cover one-tenth of the Earth's land surface. Today
however these 'ice rivers' are in peril. High up in the Alps Andes and Himalaya
once-indomitable glaciers are retreating in Antarctica meanwhile thinning ice sheets are
releasing meltwater to sensitive marine foodwebs and may be unlocking vast quantities of
methane stored deep beneath them. The potential consequences for humanity are almost
unfathomable. Jemma's first encounter with a glacier as a student sparked her love of these
icy landscapes. There is nowhere on Earth she feels more alive. Whether abseiling down
crevasses skidooing across frozen fjords exploring ice caverns or dodging polar bears - for
a glaciologist it's all in a day's work. Prompted by an illness that took her to the brink of
death and back in Ice Rivers Jemma recalls twenty-five years of expeditions around the globe
revealing why the glaciers mean so much to her - and what they should mean to us. As she guides
us from the Alps to the Andes the importance of the ice to crucial ecosystems and human
livelihoods becomes clear - our lives are entwined with these coldest places on the planet.
This is a memoir like no other: an eye-witness account by a top scientist at the frontline of
the climate crisis and an impassioned love letter to the glaciers that are her obsession.
