While Glaciers Slept ─ Being Human in a Time of Climate Change

While Glaciers Slept weaves together the parallel stories of what happens when the climates of a family and a planet change. Jackson, a National Geographic Expert, reveals how these events are deeply similar and intertwined. She tells the story of her parents’ struggles with cancer while describing in detail the planetary changes she’s witnessed in Africa, Alaska, and in the lower 48. Above all else, Jackson shows that even in the darkest of times there is clear reason for hope and light.

Readers are drawn into a world where complex climatic themes and glacial processes are broken down for a general audience through writing often tinged with whimsy. Jackson dances us over solar, wind, and geothermal mysteries, bringing us along on expeditions where she teaches climate change for National Geographic. Climate change, she convinces us, is not just about science— it is also about the audacity of human courage and imagination.While Glaciers Slept shows us that the story of one family can be the story of one planet, and that climate change has a human face.

While Glaciers Slept is one of the first books to explore climate change in truly human terms. Currently book is approximately 60,000 words. A variety of photographs of glaciers, glacial landscapes, expeditions, and the author are available from National Geographic photographers including Kim Heacox, David Estrada, Jes Therkleson, Peter Richards, Federico Pardo, and Jill Schneider.

While Glaciers Slept is an innovative way to write about climate change, which has mass-market appeal. Climate change is in the news daily, but many people do not understand what it is, what is at stake, and most importantly, how it affects them personally. Ambivalence and confusion towards climate change by general audiences is in part rooted in scientific reports that readers find inaccessible due to the dense science and confusing language. Frankly, most of climate change media bores readers into a state of uncaring neutrality. Unpacking scientific topics such as glacier construction by utilizing every day, human analogy and metaphor is one of this book’s truest strengths.While Glaciers Slept is an original way to bridge the gap between the human life cycle and planetary life cycle while providing intimate access both.While Glaciers Slept tells a relatable and intimate story of a family whose dynamic, like our planet’s, is shaped and changed as it struggles to exist under the increased presence of disease and death.

While Glaciers Slept teaches readers about climate change in beautiful, accessible language while also providing a compelling human narrative. Women, a large segment of the book-buying market, will pick up this book because, at its heart, this is a story about a family struggling to overcome the loss of a mother and a father while trying to keep sight of the beauty and hope that is still in this world. Younger readers involved in sustainability and green movements will gravitate towards this book for nourishment and hope. Fans of nature writing will be attracted to While Glaciers Slept as Jackson weaves her personal story around the developing narrative of the world surrounding us. Stories of wild places sprinkled with interesting facts and tidbits are found in every chapter. Much of While Glaciers Slept explores two landscapes of endless fascination: Alaska and Africa. These places catch people’s imagination in stirring ways as evidenced by the growing lists of books and television shows hitting the market every year. If readers cannot travel themselves to those remaining wild places, the next best thing is to pick up a book describing them. Another market for this book is anyone within the environmental sciences. Scientists are continually looking for better ways to translate hard science into human language: and that is precisely what this book does. Anyo