Overview

Snow has had an astonishing influence on the shape of the land and human history. Ruth Kirk writes perceptively of how animals and people survive in the snow; of glaciers, continental ice sheets, blizzards, and avalanches; and of the awesome hazards of Arctic and Antarctic exploration. She discusses both our battles against snow and our uses of it, showing its importance to agriculture, climate, and the future. Through scientific reports and interviews with experts in various fields—from Antarctic explorers to atmospheric physicists—Kirk surveys the scope of snow’s influence.

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9780295977348

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Reviews

Kirk gives us a remarkably encompassing picture of snow's enormous impact on the climate and life of our planet . . . In a sense her book is an encyclopedia on the subject. -- Audubon

Kirk gives us a remarkably encompassing picture of snow's enormous impact on the climate and life of our planet ... In a sense her book is an encyclopedia on the subject. Audubon There's a surprise around every page ... delightful reading. Kirkus Reviews

Two or three million years ago Man probably first encountered snow near Mount Kenya and he's been trying to adjust to the frigid realities of life ever since. Snow shapes our lives, we hate it, love it, and most assuredly we need it. And Kirk knows how to handle it. After soundly traversing familiar role of and future of grounds, the rest is - topic by topic - a warming melange of gee-whiz science and fascinating anecdote. Here are weary explorers ( Polar exploration is at once the cleanest and most isolated way of having a bad time yet devised ) and snowy con artists; cold-weather tricks (Eskimos urinate on sledge runners) and stubborn human refusals to give in to snow - like the Finnish carpenter who survived being trapped under ten feet of avalanche debris for three days and nights; gandy dancers in the ice-choked Sierra Nevada and Klondike stampeders, including a 70-year-old German matriarch who wore an ankle-length dress covered with a lace apron. There are creature adaptions: sled dogs and foxes thrive at -100 F.; gazelles in the Gobi Desert get water from snow mines concealed a foot or two under scorching sand; and polar bears have a built-in windshield wiper to clear slush off the eyeball. There's a surprise around every page, all neatly linked, as Kirk turns a dull, sterile world into delightful reading. (Kirkus Reviews)

Kirk gives us a remarkably encompassing picture of snow's enormous impact on the climate and life of our planet ... In a sense her book is an encyclopedia on the subject. -Audubon There's a surprise around every page ... delightful reading. -Kirkus Reviews Ruth Kirk has a rare gift: the ability to crystallize masses of information into clear, sparkling narrative that reflects her own ehthusiasm. -Paul Brooks, author of Speaking for Nature Revisiting Kirk's excellent text takes me out of my cozy hibernation and back into the great, wide world - to make snowballs with macaques, to go venturing with the polar explorers, and to gain a better appreciation of how both land and lives have been shaped by the cold white stuff. -The Olympian

Kirk gives us a remarkably encompassing picture of snow's enormous impact on the climate and life of our planet... In a sense her book is an encyclopedia on the subject. Audubon There's a surprise around every page... delightful reading. Kirkus Reviews

Author Information

Ruth Kirk is the author of many titles in natural and cultural history, including Ozette: Excavating a Makah Whaling Village, Snow, Tradition and Change on the Northwest Coast, and (with Jerry Franklin), The Olympic Rain Forest: An Ecological Web.

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