41 pages • 1 hour read
Hope JahrenThe Story of More: How We Got to Climate Change and Where to Go from Here
Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2020A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
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BetaPart 4, Chapters 16-17Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 4: “Earth”
Part 4, Chapter 16 Summary: “Melting Ice”
Jahren briefly discusses the Earth’s water and ice. The majority of the Earth’s water belongs in the ocean; a much smaller portion of the planet’s water is fresh, and much of that is frozen as ice. We are losing much of our frozen, fresh water to warming temperatures. A majority of the world’s ice sits at the poles in the form of glaciers, sea ice, and massive ice sheets. Global warming is causing the polar ice caps to melt at an increasingly fast pace. As the ice melts, it floods the ocean and contributes to global sea level rise.
While the loss of glacial ice in regions like the Arctic and Antarctic is invisible to the average person, many have experienced the loss of their favorite wintertime recreation: Ice skating, skiing, snowshoeing, and ice fishing are all outdoor sports that are harder and harder to access. Ski resorts such as Aspen or Vail are forced to open later and later each winter, waiting for the snow that is increasingly slow to come.
Part 4, Chapter 17 Summary: “Rising Waters”
In this chapter, Jahren explores how scientists are using instruments to study rising sea levels. Since 1880, the average global sea level has risen seven inches, in large part due to the melting polar ice caps that she references in the previous chapter. Because the surface of neither the ocean nor the coastline is evenly flat, sea level rise is affecting some regions more than others. The Gulf of Mexico and the East Coast of the United States are two regions where rising waters are inundating businesses and homes and devastating real estate prices.
There are other weird effects due to ice loss at the poles and warming waters all around. As sea water warms, it expands, increasing sea level rise at an even faster pace. Likewise, fish and other marine species are changing their traditional migration patterns and habitat in a quest for colder waters. Even in colder waters, the ocean soaks up high amounts of carbon dioxide, which affects all kinds of plant and animal species.
Part 4, Chapters 16-17 Analysis
As an educator, Jahren often takes daunting statistics and pares them down into relatable examples. For instance, she writes, “If you took all the water on our planet and shrank it down to fit in a bucket, that bucket would contain one gallon, thick with salt, of sloshing ocean. The amount of fresh water, by comparison, would be three spoonfuls” (143).
Many scholars of climate change are deeply critical of “last-chance tourism,” whereby people travel around the world to see outdoor sights before they are lost to climate change. Jahren encourages her readers to do just that:
The sculptured ice of Glacier National Park in northwestern Montana has been making tourists swoon since the park opened in 1910, but if you want to see it for yourself, take my advice and don’t put it off. Take your family with you, for all the glaciers in the park are on track to disappear within our kids’ generation (144).
This type of suggestion prioritizes the tourist over the local and Indigenous populations who live near these “disappearing” destinations. In the case of glacier and sea ice melt, for example, thousands of communities that have long depended on the ice are being harmed by the change and simultaneously adapting to the best of their ability. Jahren closes her chapter on global ice loss with a childhood story about a snowman, Covington, that melted in the spring sun. Such an anecdote is arguably out of step with the larger topic at hand.
The stakes are clear in Chapter 17, where Jahren writes, “The global records of carbon dioxide, temperature, ice mass, and sea level are large data sets from simple measurements that show an obvious trend over the last twenty years and yet somehow they also give rise to nonstop drama” (153). When it comes to climate change deniers, Jahren will not suffer fools. To be a scientist in the 21st century means fighting constantly against those who do not believe in the science. “I won’t lie to you—it’s a rough gig,” she writes (153). Weary of the polite discussions that lead nowhere, Jahren’s directness tells climate change deniers to close their mouths, open their eyes, and read the data.
