The Age of Melt

A thought-provoking scientific narrative investigating ice patch archaeology and the role of glaciers in the development of human culture.

Glaciers figure prominently in both ancient and contemporary narratives around the world. They inspire art and literature. They spark both fear and awe. And they give and take life. In The Age of Melt, environmental journalist Lisa Baril explores the deep-rooted cultural connection between humans and ice through time. 

 Thousands of organic artifacts are emerging from patches of melting ice in mountain ranges around the world. Archaeologists are in a race against time to find them before they disappear forever. In entertaining and enlightening prose, Baril travels from the Alps to the Andes, investigating what these artifacts teach us about climate and culture. But this is not a chronicle of loss. The Age of Melt explores what these artifacts reveal about culture, wilderness, and what we gain when we rethink our relationship to the world and its most precious and ephemeral substance—ice.

• “The Age of Melt proves everything is connected—including volcanoes, ice, and all of humanity—and that there is a good story behind every one of these connections. Reading this book deepened my love of the earth, my amazement at the ingenuity of people striving to understand, and my resolve to keep fighting against climate change. The Age of Melt is a love letter to our perfectly complicated world.”
   
   

  Sara Dykman, author of Bicycling with Butterflies

• “The Age of Melt offers amazing insights on ice. This book not only demystified the cryosphere, but it also explains the critical links between melting ice and the future of our warming planet. A MUST read!” 

  Meg Lowman, National Geographic Explorer and author of The Arbornaut

• "Lisa Baril takes us on a riveting journey to decipher what the Earth’s melting ice reveals about the past, present, and future. In a striking blend of climate history, culture, and archeological exploration, The Age of Melt weaves together the timely discoveries that come from our vanishing ice. Writing like a detective who pieces together clues from around the world, Baril delivers a page turner."
   

  Lauren E. Oakes, author of In Search of the Canary Tree and Treekeepers

• "The Age of Melt is a collection of fast-paced, enthralling scientific detective stories set in the world's highest, coldest, most breathtaking places. Ice patches and glaciers may look lonesome and inhospitable to modern eyes, but Lisa Baril shows that few environments reveal more about humanity's past—nor are more inextricably tied to our future."

  Ben Goldfarb, author of Crossings and Eager

• “In The Age of Melt, science journalist Lisa Baril takes the reader on a well-crafted and entertaining journey into Earth’s frozen realms.”

  Nature