Magnason’s book seeks to instil the reader with an awareness of the perilous course the world is taking as temperatures rise inexorably. His focal point is the worldwide demise of the glaciers, with particular attention to those of his native Iceland and the Himalayas. Magnason writes clearly and passionately about the way in which the vanishing glaciers are part of a trend which is going to have drastic impacts on the natural world and the human world. The book itself is a hotchpotch affair, including two conversations with the Dalai Lama, visits to the coral reefs of the Caribbean and the mountains of Nepal and lengthy reflections on the way the world his grandparents were born into has changed beyond recognition. He speculates about how the world will be in the epoch of his grandchildren, noting how, within the wider scheme of the earth’s timeline, five human generations is a drop in the ocean. The book addresses these issues with clarity and the author’s intentions are clear and honourable, even if the fragmented nature of his book at times means that his argument seems to ebb and flow. Furthermore, On Time and Water only helps to consolidate the thought expressed by Amitav Ghosh in The Great Derangement, that it is only through the writing of fiction and the construction of modern myths that a narrative will emerge whose impact might match the hopes and aspirations Magnason espouses for On Time and Water.
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