Andri Snær Magnason

The book that will make you understand what our future holds for us, if we don't act immediately.

On Time and Water

Icelandic author and activist Andri Snær Magnason's 'Letter to the Future', an extraordinary and moving eulogy for the lost Okjökull glacier, made global news and was shared by millions. Now he attempts to come to terms with the issues we all face in his new book On Time and Water. Magnason writes of the melting glaciers, the rising seas and acidity changes that haven't been seen for 50 million years. These are changes that will affect all life on earth. Taking a path to climate science through ancient myths about sacred cows, stories of ancestors and relatives and interviews with the Dalai Lama, Magnason allows himself to be both personal and scientific. The result is an absorbing mixture of travel, history, science and philosophy.

I am clearly on a bit of a Climate Change binge and I am thrilled that I picked this insightful and beautiful written book up. 

Andri Snaer Magnason (ASM) approaches the issue with a focus on simultaneously delivering his message with absolute clarity and stunning prose. He weaves personal anecdotes into his points, with an underlying theme of connection and ancestry, touching on experiences with his direct family members and interviews with the Dalai Lama. 

ASM highlights a critical point in the role that language can, and will have to play in the correction of this issue. As a species we simply are not grasping the imminence and severity of the issue we face. What do these buzz words like ocean acidification mean? What do they mean to us now? What WILL they mean to us in 20 years time? 

There are a plethora of books on the Climate Change issue. However, where I think ASM truly shines is in his understanding that the endless listing of horrifying facts is insufficient to incite change in the reader. We are not moved by numbers, or graphs, and we cannot grasp what a 0.1 change in ocean pH level actually resembles. What we do understand, are stories. ASM made the issue personal, and made it real. 

On Time and Water

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