The Greatest Polar Expedition of All Time: The Arctic Mission to the Epicenter of Climate Change

(Hardback)

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For readers of Madhouse at the End of the Earth, Endurance, and other seafaring adventure stories comes a thrilling account of a 21st-century Arctic mission.

The Greatest Polar Expedition of All Time vividly describes one year aboard the Polarstern, a powerful ice-breaker ship that journeyed deep into the Arctic in 2019, carrying over 100 scientists and crew known as the MOSAiC Expedition. Hailing from across the world, they would become the largest expedition to ever survive a polar winter. Their purpose To understand - and predict the impacts of climate change on the Arctic.

Written by the expeditions leader, the renowned atmospheric scientist Markus Rex, this page-turner reads like a captains log of daily life aboard the Polarstern. Living in one of the most remote, dangerous, and electrifying places on earth, Rex describes incredible sights: polar bears playing with scientific equipment, Christmas parties in the bitter cold, frostbitten scientists, and hair-raising storms that threaten to break the Polarsterns cables and send it flying across the ice. He also reveals breathtaking science from deep inside the sea ice.

Filled with sobering, heart-warming, and bone-chilling moments, The Greatest Polar Expedition of All Time is a testament to Rexs extraordinary drive to save a precious ecosystem. Its also an ode to a place that has beguiled sailors and explorers for centuries.

'A contemporary classic!' Ken McGoogan, author of Fatal Passage

'Show-stopping.' Publishers Weekly , starred review

Reviews

With Arctic ice in steep decline and the dangers inherent in our rapidly changing climate, there is no scientific research more crucial or urgent than the explorations launched by MOSAiC in 2019. In this compelling account, lead scientist Markus Rex shares the personal moments and the planetary stakes of the largest polar expedition in history. Andrea Pitzer, author of Icebound: Shipwrecked at the Edge of the World An illuminating portrait of a part of the planet that almost no one ever sees and of an undertaking whose scientific findings will be informing global decision making for years to come. James Raffan, author of Ice Walker and Emperor of the North This marvelous book brings us aboard a unique 21st-century Arctic expeditionscience-driven, multi-national, unprecedentedas it sails into the epicenter of the worsening climate crisis. For anyone concerned about global warmingand that should be all of us this book is essential reading. A contemporary classic! Ken McGoogan, author of Fatal Passage: The Story of John Rae, The Arctic Hero Time ForgotandDead Reckoning: The Untold Story of the Northwest Passage

Author Bio

Markus Rex is the head of atmospheric research at the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research, and a professor of atmospheric physics at the University of Potsdam. He has taken part in numerous expeditions to the Arctic, Antarctica, and other remote regions of the world to research the complex processes that can lead to dramatic changes in the climate. He heads the MOSAiC project, a unique research collaboration by ninety institutions from twenty countries.