This is not just a book — it is a personal diary of life in the coldest and most fragile place on Earth. Norwegian journalist Linne Nagel Ilvisøker tells the story of how climate change is literally melting her world — literally and figuratively. With tragic stories of avalanches, encounters with polar bears, conversations with locals and scientists, the author invites the reader to look into the future that has already come. The book makes you stop and think: what will happen to us if the Arctic melts?
*** This is a fearless and honest first-person account of the Arctic.
Norwegian journalist Linne Nagel Ilvisøker lives with her family in Longyearbyen, the northernmost settlement of a thousand people on the Spitsbergen archipelago, where global warming is occurring faster than anywhere else on the planet.
In 2015, an avalanche covered the center of the village, taking the lives of a little girl and the father of another family. The following autumn brought rains and landslides. With the onset of winter, another avalanche hit the houses of Longyearbyen.
Increasingly frequent storms and thaws worry Linne. What is happening to her village and the Arctic? In search of answers, she talks to a meteorologist who herself was caught in an avalanche. Linne visits a hunter who has survived 40 winters in the harsh conditions of Spitsbergen. She understands what is happening to sea currents and weather, searches for traces of prehistoric forests on the archipelago, and meets three bears while hiking with her children. On her research journey, she describes the changes that Longyearbyen is going through and reflects on the paradoxes of a village that lives off coal mining and tourism.
