When we imagine the polar regions we see a largely lifeless world covered in snow and ice
where icebergs drift listlessly through frozen waters like solitary wanderers of the oceans
floating aimlessly in total silence. But nothing could be further from the truth. This book
takes us into the fascinating world of icebergs and glaciers to discover what they are really
like. Through a series of historical vignettes recalling some of the most tragic and most
exhilarating encounters between human beings and these gigantic pieces of matter and through
vivid descriptions of their cycles of birth and death Olivier Remaud shows that these entities
are teeming with many forms of life and that there is a deep continuity between iceberg life
and human life a complex web of reciprocal interconnections that can lead from the deadliest
to the most vital. And precisely because there is this continuity icebergs and glaciers tell
us something important about life itself - namely that it thrives in the most unexpected of
places even where there seems to be no life at all. At a time when we are increasingly aware
that the melting of ice sheets glaciers and sea ice is one of the many disastrous consequences
of global warming this beautiful meditation is a poignant reminder of the interconnectedness
of all life and the fragility of the Earth's ecosystems.
