With 16 pp b&w illustrations. The five hottest years since records have been kept are, in descending order, 1996, 1995, 1994, 1993, and 1992. There is no longer a serious debate about whether global warming is a reality. Each year, disturbed weather patterns - severe winters, historic floods, freak droughts - provide devastating evidence of climatic change. The question is whether man is altering the very nature of life on Earth. In the summer of 1994, Wayne Grady joined a team of scientists aboard the Canadian icebreaker Louis S. St. Laurent on a research trip to the North Pole. Accompanied by the US icebreaker Polar Sea, the ship set off from Victoria, British Columbia to investigate the effects of global warming at the planet's northernmost reach. Weaving natural science, oceanography, and Arctic history through the narrative, Grady chronicles that two-month trip. The Quiet Limit of the World reveals the dedication and ingenuity of the scientists. It depicts the unexpected richness and beauty of the north. And it raises some profoundly disturbing questions. The expedition showed beyond a doubt the connectedness of the world's oceans. The Arctic can no longer be viewed as a one-dimensional entry in climate models. The scientists confirmed what had long been suspected: wastes dumped into southern waters eventually find their way into the Arctic, contaminating the food chain. More alarming was the discovery that greater amounts of warm Atlantic water are being pushed into the Arctic than ever before. Current predictions of a shrinking polar ice cap are based solely on atmospheric warming. The new findings suggest that polar ice is also being attacked from below, accelerating the melting process. This lends even greater urgency to what is already the most pressing environmental issue of our day. From the Hardcover edition.