"I cannot untangle in my mind the scientific study of climate change and the death of my parents." M Jackson is a scientist, National Geographic Expert and glacier specialist, but her memoir While Glaciers Slept: Being Human in a Time of Climate Change rarely takes a scientific perspective and never claims objectivity. Rather, Jackson tells the story of losing both her parents when she was a young woman just embarking on life, and the trauma and extended grieving process that resulted.
Following a brief, lovely foreword by Bill McKibben, Jackson poetically conflates her loss with the slow and still mysterious effects of anthropogenic climate change. Her scientific background and explorations of fascinating places—Denali and Chena Hot Springs in Alaska, Zambia with the Peace Corps—inform her writing and yield striking images, as she runs on spongy Alaskan tundra or contemplates cryoconite holes atop glaciers. But it is the personal side of her narrative that allows Jackson to address society's psychological difficulties with climate change.
Each chapter of While Glaciers Slept is a finely braided essay, considering an aspect of her parents' lives or deaths alongside a facet of climate change's challenges. Jackson mourns her mother with the help of Joan Didion's writing; windmills offer possible "undulating answers" and comfort her on her drive home upon learning that her father is dying. She employs a disordered chronology that slightly disorients her reader, just as Jackson was disoriented. The effect is an evocative, lyrical work of musing and allegory rather than a scientific treatise. — Julia Jenkins , librarian and blogger at pagesofjulia, Shelf Awareness
"I cannot untangle in my mind the scientific study of climate change and the death of my parents." M Jackson is a scientist, National Geographic Expert and glacier specialist, but her memoir While Glaciers Slept: Being Human in a Time of Climate Change rarely takes a scientific perspective and never claims objectivity. Rather, Jackson tells the story of losing both her parents when she was a young woman just embarking on life, and the trauma and extended grieving process that resulted.
Following a brief, lovely foreword by Bill McKibben, Jackson poetically conflates her loss with the slow and still mysterious effects of anthropogenic climate change. Her scientific background and explorations of fascinating places—Denali and Chena Hot Springs in Alaska, Zambia with the Peace Corps—inform her writing and yield striking images, as she runs on spongy Alaskan tundra or contemplates cryoconite holes atop glaciers. But it is the personal side of her narrative that allows Jackson to address society's psychological difficulties with climate change.
Each chapter of While Glaciers Slept is a finely braided essay, considering an aspect of her parents' lives or deaths alongside a facet of climate change's challenges. Jackson mourns her mother with the help of Joan Didion's writing; windmills offer possible "undulating answers" and comfort her on her drive home upon learning that her father is dying. She employs a disordered chronology that slightly disorients her reader, just as Jackson was disoriented. The effect is an evocative, lyrical work of musing and allegory rather than a scientific treatise. —Julia Jenkins, librarian and blogger at pagesofjulia
“M Jackson does an intriguing job of weaving together observations about human health and frailty with global biospheric health and frailty. Her narrative brings climate change down from an abstract global scale to a very personal human scale. Particularly engaging for the non-scientist reader.” —Dr. Steve Running, Nobel Prize winner and American’s foremost expert on climate change
“As the poet Tony Hoagland has pointed out, most of us ‘…walk like zombies through our burning dying world…’ Not so M Jackson, who moves through the world very much aware of both the little and individually important things, such as family, while simultaneously perceiving and understanding the catastrophe that is happening all around us. In While Glaciers Slept , she links the one to the other in a flawless and brilliant way. This is superb.” —Carlos Martinez, author of The Cold Music of the Ocean and The Raw Silk of the Dark
“The literary fabric of M Jackson’s While Glaciers Slept comprises two strands intricately and intimately braided together. One is her engagement in a family journey through accident and disease that inflict pain and ultimately death on her parents. The second strand is also one of inflicted pain, but at a planetary scale—the degradation of Earth itself by its human inhabitants. M moves almost effortlessly from loss of limb to loss of ice, from prosthetics to a planetary parasol. The intertwining of the two strands creates a powerful narrative of humanity, singly and in the multitudes.” —Henry Pollack, author of A World Without Ice and a winner of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for his work on climate change
“If you’ve known hard grief and loss, you will understand this book. If you have hope or the wish for it, this book will shore you up. While Glaciers Slept tells a story of devotion and survival as it examines the ongoing global crisis of climate change. M Jackson is a naturalist, a teacher, and a daughter who mourns her mother’s death as she discovers and explores the best choice, the only true choice ahead—a path of hope and action for ourselves and the living planet that birthed us all.” —Phil Condon, author of Montana Surround, Clay Center, and Nine Ten Again
“Climate change is many things, including an upheaval--sudden and violent--in the life of our planet. As such, it unleashes feelings and forces like those in a family when someone dies. This is a profound way of thinking about where we are right now, and what we better do about it.” —Bill McKibben, founder of 350.org and author of Eaarth and The End of Nature
“As the poet Tony Hoagland has pointed out, most of us ‘…walk like zombies through our burning dying world…’ Not so M Jackson, who moves through the world very much aware of both the little and individually important things, such as family, while simultaneously perceiving and understanding the catastrophe that is happening all around us. In While Glaciers Slept , she links the one to the other in a flawless and brilliant way. This is superb.” —Carlos Martinez, author of The Cold Music of the Ocean and The Raw Silk of the Dark
author of “The Cold Music of the Ocean&rdquo Carlos Martinez
“The literary fabric of M Jackson’s While Glaciers Slept comprises two strands intricately and intimately braided together. One is her engagement in a family journey through accident and disease that inflict pain and ultimately death on her parents. The second strand is also one of inflicted pain, but at a planetary scale—the degradation of Earth itself by its human inhabitants. M moves almost effortlessly from loss of limb to loss of ice, from prosthetics to a planetary parasol. The intertwining of the two strands creates a powerful narrative of humanity, singly and in the multitudes.” —Henry Pollack, author of A World Without Ice and a winner of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for his work on climate change
author of “A World Without Ice” and a Henry Pollack
“Climate change is many things, including an upheaval--sudden and violent--in the life of our planet. As such, it unleashes feelings and forces like those in a family when someone dies. This is a profound way of thinking about where we are right now, and what we better do about it.” —Bill McKibben, founder of 350.org and author of Eaarth and The End of Nature
founder of 350.org and author of The End of Nature Bill McKibben
“M Jackson does an intriguing job of weaving together observations about human health and frailty with global biospheric health and frailty. Her narrative brings climate change down from an abstract global scale to a very personal human scale. Particularly engaging for the non-scientist reader.” —Dr. Steve Running, Nobel Prize winner and American’s foremost expert on climate change
Nobel Prize winner and American’s foremost e —Dr. Steve Running
“Climate change is many things, including an upheaval--sudden and violent--in the life of our planet. As such, it unleashes feelings and forces like those in a family when someone dies. This is a profound way of thinking about where we are right now, and what we better do about it.”
founder of 350.org and author of Eaarth and The En Bill McKibben
“M Jackson does an intriguing job of weaving together observations about human health and frailty with global biospheric health and frailty. Her narrative brings climate change down from an abstract global scale to a very personal human scale. Particularly engaging for the non-scientist reader.”
Nobel Prize winner and American’s foremost e Dr. Steve Running
“As the poet Tony Hoagland has pointed out, most of us "...walk like zombies through our burning dying world..." Not so M Jackson, who in this book moves through the world very much aware of both the little, and individually important, things, such as family, while simultaneously perceiving and understanding the catastrophe that is happening all around us. In this book, she links the one to the other in a flawless and brilliant way. This is superb.”
Dr. Steve Running, Nobel Prize winner and American’s foremost expert on climate change - M Jackson
★ 06/01/2015
