Rebecca Priestley Knihy

Rebecca Priestley longs to be in Antarctica, but it is also the last place on Earth she wants to go. In 2011 Priestley visits the wide white continent for the first time on a trip that coincides with the centenary of Robert Falcon Scott's fateful trek to the South Pole. She is to travel south twice more, spending time with Antarctic scientists, including paleo-climatologists, biologists, geologists, and glaciologists. Writing against the backdrop of Trump's America, extreme weather events, and scientists' projections for Earth's climate, she grapples with the truths we need to tell ourselves as we stand on a tightrope between hope for the planet and catastrophic change. Fifteen Million Years in Antarctica offers a deeply personal tour of a place in which a person can feel like an outsider in more ways than one. Priestley reflects on what Antarctica can tell us about Earth's future and asks: do people even belong in this fragile, otherworldly place?