Into the Thaw: Witnessing Wonder Amid Arctic Climate Crisis

A award-winning author and photographer returns to the Arctic to document the effects of climate change.
Forty years ago, author and photographer Jon Waterman took his first paddling journey into the Noatak headwaters in the Alaskan Arctic. In this fully illustrated book, he ventures once again, this time “into the thaw,” documenting the changes – both environmental and cultural – wrought by climate change. Sharing this eye-opening adventure with his son, Waterman documents the effects on altered land, wildlife and the Inuit-Inupiat life.
A widely published author and photographer, Waterman’s narrative alternates between adventure and wilderness memoir and plainly stated natural history of the area. He documents the extraordinary changes he sees, both natural – man-high wild grasses where none should be, tear-drop-shaped landslide thaw slumps—a.k.a. thermokarsts—caused by the melting permafrost -- and manmade -- roads and buildings and pipelines falling crazy aslant as if taken by an earthquake. He describes the journey and his emotions as he witnesses the effects of global warming on one of the places dear to his heart.
Waterman has been a scholar of the Arctic since his first trip 40 years ago. The alternating half chapters offer brief descriptions of the natural history of this unique ecosystem, bringing it alive for those unfamiliar.
Waterman spends time in the villages as well, with the kindhearted, welcoming people most effected by the Arctic collapse. They let him know what it is like to live amid these melting conditions and how it feels to watch their ago-old culture change.
In the end, Waterman offers hope by articulating actions we can all take to slow the thaw and preserve what is left of this remarkable frontier.