The Whale and the Supercomputer: On the Northern Front of Climate Change

A traditional Eskimo whaling party races for shore while their comrades drift out to sea: ice that should be solidly anchored at this time of year is giving way. A team of scientists traverses the breadth of Alaska, measuring the thinning snow in an effort to understand albedo, the snow's reflective ability to cool the earth beneath it. Climate change isn't an abstraction in the Far North--it is a reality that has already altered daily life for Native people who still live largely off the land and sea, and lured scientists seeking to uncover its mysteries. Wohlforth follows both groups as they navigate a radically shifting landscape. The two cultures see the same changes, but they struggle to reconcile their different ways of comprehending what these changes mean.