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Review by Bruce Tierney
In July 1991, Myron Arms sailed northward along the coast of Labrador, only to be stopped by a huge mass of sea ice, which, by all rights, ought not to have been there. It was, after all, one of the hottest summers on record along the eastern seaboard. Surprised, and more than a little frustrated, Arms returned home in the fall determined to learn what geophysical forces were at work (or at play) in the ice, and how they related to the climatic changes purportedly taking place globally.
As often happens in science, the answer to one question suggests other questions: "The 'riddle of the ice' became a window into a larger and much more important question: the riddle of the Earth's climate."
In 1994, Arms, together with four intrepid crew members, put to sea in a 50-foot sailboat, the Brendan's Isle, to gather information and to attempt to solve the riddle of the ice. It was to be a journey defined by the interplay between technology and tradition, a combination of state-of-the-art electronics and that ancient mode of transport, the sailboat.
"Riddle of the Ice" is two parts nautical adventure, one part "Scientific American," with a dash of "Mother Earth News" thrown in for good measure. Ending on a cautionary note, Arms writes: "Together, our species is conducting a massive, unintended experiment on this planet. The evidence is mounting that we are altering basic chemical balances -- perhaps irreversibly -- even as we don't yet understand what these alterations may mean. We are in a race against ourselves, struggling to understand a highly complex system."
©1998, ProMotion, inc.
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