The Age of Melt

Tune in as we talk with Lisa Baril about her new book, The Age of Melt. Around the world, ice has preserved some of history’s most fascinating artifacts, such as the skeleton of an Iron Age horse, wooden arrows with bird-feather fletching, and even a baby mammoth. Yet, these incredible pieces of history were only discovered as the ice began to do what we all feared: melt. Science journalist Lisa Baril traveled all over the world studying ice and its effect on humans. In THE AGE OF MELT, she explores the shifting view that humans have long held of glaciers—from fear, to awe, to conquest. A unique form of science, ice-patch archeology, arose from the current climate crisis, as such discoveries could only be made at the cost of the world’s ice formations. It’s paradoxical, Baril notes, “The more the ice melts, the more we learn about the past...while melting ice compromises our future.” Yet Baril is hopeful, “Although we can’t rewind the clock to a time before human-caused climate change, we can use the knowledge gained from melting ice to help us respond more thoughtfully when considering the kind of future we want for ourselves and for the generations of humans yet to be born.”