Want to know what books Mark Serreze recommends on their reading list? We've researched interviews, social media posts, podcasts, and articles to build a comprehensive list of Mark Serreze's favorite book recommendations of all time.
1
Henry Pollack Ph.D., Al Gore | 4.28
A cowinner of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize offers a clear-eyed explanation of the planet's imperiled ice.
Much has been written about global warming, but the crucial relationship between people and ice has received little focus-until now. As one of the world's leading experts on climate change, Henry Pollack provides an accessible, comprehensive survey of ice as a force of nature and the potential consequences as we face the possibility of a world without ice.
A World Without Ice traces the effect of mountain glaciers on supplies of drinking water and... more A cowinner of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize offers a clear-eyed explanation of the planet's imperiled ice.
Much has been written about global warming, but the crucial relationship between people and ice has received little focus-until now. As one of the world's leading experts on climate change, Henry Pollack provides an accessible, comprehensive survey of ice as a force of nature and the potential consequences as we face the possibility of a world without ice.
A World Without Ice traces the effect of mountain glaciers on supplies of drinking water and agricultural irrigation, as well as the current results of melting permafrost and shrinking Arctic sea ice-a situation that has degraded the habitat of numerous animals and sparked an international race for seabed oil and minerals. Catastrophic possibilities loom, including rising sea levels and subsequent flooding of low-lying regions worldwide. A World Without Ice answers our most urgent questions about this pending crisis, laying out the necessary steps for managing the unavoidable and avoiding the unmanageable. less 
Mark SerrezePollack’s book is about the relationship between people and ice, Arctic and Antarctic exploration, and the development of climate science. It is also a chilling story about the consequences of losing this ice. (Source)
See more recommendations for this book...
2
Richard Alley, one of the world's leading climate researchers, tells the fascinating history of global climate changes as revealed by reading the annual rings of ice from cores drilled in Greenland. In the 1990s he and his colleagues made headlines with the discovery that the last ice age came to an abrupt end over a period of only three years. Here Alley offers the first popular account of the wildly fluctuating climate that characterized most of prehistory--long deep freezes alternating briefly with mild conditions--and explains that we humans have experienced an unusually temperate... more
Richard Alley, one of the world's leading climate researchers, tells the fascinating history of global climate changes as revealed by reading the annual rings of ice from cores drilled in Greenland. In the 1990s he and his colleagues made headlines with the discovery that the last ice age came to an abrupt end over a period of only three years. Here Alley offers the first popular account of the wildly fluctuating climate that characterized most of prehistory--long deep freezes alternating briefly with mild conditions--and explains that we humans have experienced an unusually temperate climate. But, he warns, our comfortable environment could come to an end in a matter of years.
"The Two-Mile Time Machine" begins with the story behind the extensive research in Greenland in the early 1990s, when scientists were beginning to discover ancient ice as an archive of critical information about the climate. Drilling down two miles into the ice, they found atmospheric chemicals and dust that enabled them to construct a record of such phenomena as wind patterns and precipitation over the past 110,000 years. The record suggests that "switches" as well as "dials" control the earth's climate, affecting, for example, hot ocean currents that today enable roses to grow in Europe farther north than polar bears grow in Canada. Throughout most of history, these currents switched on and off repeatedly (due partly to collapsing ice sheets), throwing much of the world from hot to icy and back again in as little as a few years.
Alley explains the discovery process in terms the general reader can understand, while laying out the issues that require further study: What are the mechanisms that turn these dials and flip these switches? Is the earth due for another drastic change, one that will reconfigure coastlines or send certain regions into severe drought? Will global warming combine with natural variations in Earth's orbit to flip the North Atlantic switch again? Predicting the long-term climate is one of the greatest challenges facing scientists in the twenty-first century, and Alley tells us what we need to know in order to understand and perhaps overcome climate changes in the future.
lessMark SerrezeHow do we know what we know about climate change? Richard Alley’s book lays it all out in a very readable an engaging way. (Source)
See more recommendations for this book...
3
Richard E Byrd (1888-1957), was an American naval officer and explorer. Originally published in 1938, 'Alone' provides a gripping account of his second expedition to Antarctica in 1934. Contents: Richard E. Byrd; Preface; 1933: The Idea; March: The Decision; April i: God of 2.5; April ii: The Night; May i: The intimation; May ii: The Blow; June i: Despair; June ii: The Struggle; June iii: The Proposal; July i: Cold; July ii: The Tractors; August: The Searchlight. Many early books are becoming extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing this classic work, which has been... more Richard E Byrd (1888-1957), was an American naval officer and explorer. Originally published in 1938, 'Alone' provides a gripping account of his second expedition to Antarctica in 1934. Contents: Richard E. Byrd; Preface; 1933: The Idea; March: The Decision; April i: God of 2.5; April ii: The Night; May i: The intimation; May ii: The Blow; June i: Despair; June ii: The Struggle; June iii: The Proposal; July i: Cold; July ii: The Tractors; August: The Searchlight. Many early books are becoming extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing this classic work, which has been carefully selected for its interest and relevance to a modern audience, in a high quality and affordable edition. It features a specially written concise biography and reproductions of the artwork from the original text. less Mark SerrezeThe story of how Byrd made it through the long Antarctic night, all alone, slowly being poisoned, is at the same time both inspiring and chilling. (Source)
See more recommendations for this book...
4
The harrowing tale of British explorer Ernest Shackleton's 1914 attempt to reach the South Pole, one of the greatest adventure stories of the modern age.
In August 1914, polar explorer Ernest Shackleton boarded the Endurance became locked in an island of ice. Thus began the legendary ordeal of Shackleton and his crew of twenty-seven men. When their ship was finally crushed between two ice floes, they attempted a near-impossible journey over 850 miles of the South Atlantic's heaviest seas to the closest outpost of civilization.
In Endurance, the... more The harrowing tale of British explorer Ernest Shackleton's 1914 attempt to reach the South Pole, one of the greatest adventure stories of the modern age.
In August 1914, polar explorer Ernest Shackleton boarded the Endurance became locked in an island of ice. Thus began the legendary ordeal of Shackleton and his crew of twenty-seven men. When their ship was finally crushed between two ice floes, they attempted a near-impossible journey over 850 miles of the South Atlantic's heaviest seas to the closest outpost of civilization.
In Endurance, the definitive account of Ernest Shackleton's fateful trip, Alfred Lansing brilliantly narrates the harrowing and miraculous voyage that has defined heroism for the modern age. less 
Ryan Holiday50 plus years old, this is a story that more than stands the test of time. Sir Ernest Shackleton makes his daring attempt to cross Antarctic continent but his crew and boat are trapped in the ice flows. What follows are 600 days of harrowing survival, first from the elements, then from hunger, then from the sea as he makes a daring attempt in a small lifeboat to reach land 650 miles away, then... (Source)
Scott BelskyI think that there are some biographies, the Doris Kearns Goodwin type stuff, the Walter Isaacson classic biographies. I recently read Shackleton’s Endurance story. [...] Which, obviously, relates to my thinking these days, which is just a phenomenal story. And there’s so many interesting leadership lessons of counterintuitive things that he did that help you understand difficult decisions that... (Source)
See more recommendations for this book...
Don't have time to read Mark Serreze's favorite books? Read Shortform summaries.
Shortform summaries help you learn 10x faster by:
- Being comprehensive: you learn the most important points in the book
- Cutting out the fluff: you focus your time on what's important to know
- Interactive exercises: apply the book's ideas to your own life with our educators' guidance.
