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In 2018, frozen soil, collected from the bottom of the world’s first deep ice core and lost for decades, reappeared in Denmark. When Paul Bierman and his team melted a piece of this material, they found preserved leaves, twigs and moss. This led them to a startling discovery: Greenland’s ice sheet had melted before and was more fragile than scientists had realised.

In When the Ice Is Gone, Bierman traces the story of this finding, revealing how it changes our understanding of the Earth and its climate. He takes us to Camp Century, a U.S. military base built, where engineers drilled through mile-thick ice and into the frozen soil beneath.

Changes in Greenland reverberate around the world. Losing Greenland’s ice will catalyse devastating events if we don’t change course and address climate change now.