Bearing Meaning

Finalist for the 2020 PEN / E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award Acclaimed on its hardcover publication, a global journey that reminds us "of how magical the planet we're about to lose really is" (Bill McKibben) With a new epilogue by the author After nearly a decade overseas as a war reporter, the acclaimed journalist Dahr Jamail returned to America to renew his passion for mountaineering, only to find that the slopes he had once climbed have been irrevocably changed by climate disruption. In response, Jamail embarks on a journey to the geographical front lines of this crisis—from Alaska to Australia's Great Barrier Reef, via the Amazon rainforest—in order to discover the consequences to nature and to humans of the loss of ice. In The End of Ice, we follow Jamail as he scales Denali, the highest peak in North America, dives in the warm crystal waters of the Pacific only to find ghostly coral reefs, and explores the tundra of St. Paul Island where he meets the last subsistence seal hunters of the Bering Sea and witnesses its melting glaciers. Accompanied by climate scientists and people whose families have fished, farmed, and lived in the areas he visits for centuries, Jamail begins to accept the fact that Earth, most likely, is in a hospice situation. Ironically, this allows him to renew his passion for the planet's wild places, cherishing Earth in a way he has never been able to before. Like no other book, The End of Ice offers a firsthand chronicle—including photographs throughout of Jamail on his journey across the world—of the catastrophic reality of our situation and the incalculable necessity of relishing this vulnerable, fragile planet while we still can.

We belong to a gullible, partly delusional/hallucinating, self-destructive species: Homo sapiens. First, we create the conditions for global catastrophes including epidemics by following unsustainable policies, and then, as we are hit—as the COVID-19 pandemic shows—we react often too late, confused and short-sighted. Hence, we badly need a new, evolved global vision/mission to steer away from our innate and self-destructive shortcomings and flaws. This book includes two parts. Book One tells my true/legendary story with the Green Man, describing how such a vision/mission was conceived. Book Two describes a tour de force beyond Homo sapiens’s current wisdom, ultimate meaning, and fixed destiny, leading to the abovementioned new, evolved vision for a future civilization, which will focus on saving us from ourselves.