See my review of The Last Winter at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/20073-forecasting-end-cold-porter-fox-s-last-winter :

"In his new book, The Last Winter—an artful blend of memoir, science and travel writing—Porter Fox doesn’t have a lot to offer by way of good news ..."

This informative read is part memoir, part travelogue, part dire warning to readers. Follow Porter Fox as he tells of his family's and his experience chasing perfect powder and seeing how climate change threatens not just winter sports, but all life on earth. Fox reports on the current science and the natural systems we have been splintering apart since the Industrial Revolution. Excellent read with further reading referenced within the text.

This was a knowledge bomb where weather is concerned.
An enlightening read with a personal, human touch applied to it, in an easily approachable and exciting style.
Possibly best enjoyed by a lover of winter sports- like skiing.

I prefer my nonfiction to be more dry with facts at the forefront of the narrative, whereas the facts here are interspersed amongst the journeys of the author to various locations.

It was my pleasure to feature this title in my annal holiday gift books guide for The Globe & Mail national newspaper (Saturday Nov 20, 2021 print edition; also on AppleNews), organized thematically by giftee archetype. Feature online at related link.

research, travel, interviews, field-work, nonfiction, science, natural-history, nature-study, climatology, global-issues*****

Very well written and easily understood, this treatise describes the author's involvement with scientists investigating the effects of the arctic melt at present and what will happen if we don't make a concerted effort to reverse the trend. Read and become more aware!
I requested and received a free temporary PDF from Little, Brown and Company via NetGalley. Too bad a form with TTS was not on offer.

“Winter is not a weather event. It is, in part, the result of an ancient astronomical collision.”

Porter Fox loves winter and skiing has been a major part of his life. He wants to ensure that his children will be able to experience winter throughout their lifetime. He’s not sure that will be possible and sets out to investigate.

Fox’s book is sometimes labeled as a travel adventure. He does take us along on a journey. Each section describes his personal exploration to understand the evolving climate’s impact on winter. To learn what is happening and why, Porter interviews geologists, glaciologists, indigenous people, and others who have specialized knowledge or affection for snow and ice. These are not mere conversations in brightly-lit labs and cozy restaurants. Instead, Fox joins the experts in the field and participates in their studies.

As Fox works with the field teams, they explain why the loss of winter will increase forest fires, flood coastlines, and will create other disasters. More impactful than reporting just the data, these teams are involved in monumental efforts to document and communicate their findings. Fox conveys their concern, their haste, and their determination. Even for someone reasonably aware of the looming climate disaster, Fox’s findings add to the distress.

Despite this, the deft prose carries you forward. The writing is strong in part because of its honesty and vulnerability. He speaks a truth that we know in our hearts but somehow we cannot face.

“It was pleasant on the plane. Warm. Safe-feeling, even. The sedating effect of modern convenience made it seem like everything was going to be all right, like someone would figure everything out…Maybe there would be a technological Hail Mary…Maybe the planet would mend itself…That would be nice, I thought. Then I reached for the screen and searched for a movie, a football game, a comedy, any possible distraction.”

Climate change is a frequent topic in the news these days, as it should be. Unfortunately, for many audiences, the realities of climate change seem distant, both in where it is happening as well as when it will occur. Fox shows that climate change is real, it is now, and the consequences impact all of us. Whether we like winter or not, we need it and so do our children.


Why you should not miss this one:
* Real people, real stories, real impact
* Porter Fox’s writing feels like he is speaking directly to you, almost as if he is sometimes breaking the fourth wall
* This will likely become a classic in environmentalism literature

Thanks to NetGalley, Little, Brown, and the author, Porter Fox, for the opportunity to read a digital copy in exchange for this review.

#NetGalley #TheLastWinter @PorterFox

It is clear to anyone who is not living under a rock that the most pressing issue of our time, and likely the most pressing issue for generations to come, is climate change. As more and more literature is dedicated to the subject, fiction and nonfiction alike, it is hard to carve out a niche with a fresh perspective for those who are not well-versed in the subject. Porter Fox has managed to do that with The Last Winter.

The Last Winter is focused exclusively on the "cryosphere," the term applied to the frozen part of the Earth system: glaciers, snow, ice, etc. At times, this reads like an adventure story as the author follows the world's scientists into the cryosphere, from the Rockies, to the Alps, to Greenland. These adventures are interspersed with personal tidbits, as well as bursts of science laying out clearly the effects of climate change on the cryosphere. The fate of all humanity rests in some of the most inhospitable climates, which are vanishing at a rapid pace. Porter Fox does well to tie threads of humanity - between history, culture, arts, sports, travel, all connected to winter - and the potential impacts that will be felt as our winters become more scarce. It's hard to picture our children or children's children existing in a world without snowball fights or sledding, but this book forces you to face that head on. This was also a thoughtful love note to what might be most people's least favorite season. We might all hate snow or slush or the cold, but we might hate a world without it more.

I highly recommend this book.

“Warm Atlantic currents are fast melting the Arctic ice,” my grandfather said in an interview in 1960. He warned that within 150 years, Detroit could be under water, “caused by torrential rains caused by the Arctic ice melting.”

In 1958, my grandfather had read an article in Harper’s called “The Coming Ice Age” by Betty Freidan. It was about the Theory of Ice Ages proposed by Columbia University professors Dr. Maurice Ewing and Dr. William L. Donn. Gramps became a climate change believer. He wrote countless letters to the men, and I have their letters back in my possession. Gramps tapped his college friend Roger Blough, then president of U. S. Steel, to grant the Lamont researchers $25,000 for their project.

A letter dated August 17, 1959, from Dr. Ewing noted, “…a Mr. Vajado has returned from the north pole with the news that there is a lot of hot water coming into the Arctic, both through the Bering Straits and from the Gulf Stream.” As I was born in 1952, I essentially grew up in a family where talk about climate change and melting Arctic ice, rising sea waters, and torrential rains was table talk.

,Toward the end of Porter Fox’s book The Last Winter, he writes about rising sea levels and geoengineering projects including floating seawalls to block warm water currents from glaciers.

The mention of the floating seawalls sent me spinning back to my grandfather’s hobby horse: he was convinced that portable dams could block warm surface sea water and prevent further melting of Arctic ice. Gramps wanted to prevent a new Ice Age.

Climate science has changed since 1959, and we have had years to observe the effects of fossil fuels. Porter Fox is concerned not with glaciers taking over the Earth, but the end of glaciers and the havoc it would create.

Without glacier and mountain melt, rivers dry up. If rivers dry up, transportation is curtailed, human populations are without a water source, agriculture is affected, and mass migration is inevitable.

Fox traveled to the North Cascades, Alaska, the Swiss Alps, and Greenland to see how climate change and global warming is affecting these iconic ‘winter wonderlands’.

Part travelogue, part memoir, part biographical sketches, and part nature writing, the book is highly entertaining. His portraits of the people he met are wonderful, and I was very sorrowful when he wrote of the death of one man.

The book is also highly terrifying. More than one chapter’s end left me dejected and hopeless about the future we have fashioned for ourselves. The Earth will remain, but the future for humanity is so overwhelmingly bleak, it makes me accept that I have no grandchildren to survive it.

And yet…is there yet time to change our course? At least enough to prevent the worst case scenario? I dream of the wealthy putting their money to use to save the world, funding inventions to draw out carbon monoxide from the atmosphere, or alternative energy sources, and things I can’t even imagine but someone out there surely can.

Fox barely made it off Greenland in time to reenter America before the Covid-19 shut down. He and his family left the city for the mountains, enjoying the white world of ice and snow, aware that at any time, the winter he has loved could be the last.

I received a free egalley from the publisher through NetGalley. My review is fair and unbiased.

Did not know what to expect when I requested this but glad I did. Another great and sobering AF climatology/global warming that is presented as evidence of Earth's next extinction (PS- it is already happening). Well written and presented tastefully and concisely but with much warning.

Recommended for anyone interested in global warming threats, the next extinction event and climatology.

Thanks to Netgalley, Porter Fox and Little Brown & Company for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Available: 11/2/21