Non-fiction: Meredith Hooper: The Ferocious Summer (Profile Books, 2008)
Palmer Station is a research base on Anvers Island in Antarctica, operated by the U.S. It has been the site of long-term studies of penguins and other wildlife, their breeding patterns, migrations, diet, and so on. In Meredith Hooper’s book The Ferocious Summer, she spends a season at the base, and writes about the work of its scientists in a lot of detail.
Like with a lot of Antarctic scientific work, the perspective zooms from examining the contents of penguin stomachs to figure out what they eat to vast planetary issues of climate patterns and developments. Global warming causes the conditions at Anvers Island to heat up, making it unlivable for the Adelie penguins who have made their colonies there. Warmer temperatures mean that the conditions are more wet, there’s more snow, and it’s harder for eggs and chicks to survive. As a result, penguin populations plummet.
Hooper’s book is characterized by the meticulousness of her approach and the unique poetics of her language. Her writing is dense and beautiful, packed with detail and nuance. The book is a very detailed report of a very particular local instance of the global climate catastrophe.