Frostlines (A Journey Through Entangled Lives and Landscapes in a Warming Arctic, from Alaska to Greenland to the Russian Border)

A Recommended Read from Yale Climate Connections

“[Frostlines weaves] together natural history, indigenous perspective, and environmental transformation in the Arctic. The book helps bring a human story to the science of climate change.”—Parade

A sweeping exploration of the Arctic—and how it’s being transformed by climate change—from National Geographic writer Neil Shea

As warming reshapes our planet, the Arctic—a region that once seemed unchangeable, beyond the reach of modern problems—is quickly coming undone. While the old cold world can still be glimpsed in the movements of caribou, the hidden lives of wolves, and the hunting skill of an Iñupiaq elder, look closer and you’ll find a new Arctic appearing in its place.

In Frostlines, Neil Shea blends natural history, anthropology, and travel writing to explore how the beauty, chaos, and power of change in the far north are reflected in the lives of people and animals. He sojourns with a wolf pack on Canada’s Ellesmere Island and travels with Indigenous hunters in Alaska, Nunavut, and the Northwest Territories. He tracks dwindling caribou herds across the top of North America, searches for vanished Vikings in Greenland, and visits the front line of the new Cold War rising between Russia and Europe. What Shea finds is not one Arctic but many—all still linked by shattering cold, seasons of darkness, and a pure, inimitable light.

Frostlines illuminates:

• How Greenland’s history has led to Trump’s interest in [or obsession with] the country today
• How Russia is using the Arctic as a testing ground for geopolitical confrontations
• Why oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge will further threaten Indigenous people and animals
• Why increased ship traffic in the Northwest Passage has profound consequences for the Inuit and global politics

Written with masterful prose and a spark of adventure, Frostlines is an expansive yet intimate revelation of the Arctic during a time of transformation, and a journey along the threshold of a stunning and sometimes frightening world that’s emerging right before our eyes.