“In an interview with Yale Environment 360, polar scientist Mark Serreze talks about the rapid changes he has witnessed over more than three decades of working in the Arctic and the future stability of the region if temperatures continue to climb…Serreze discusses how he and his colleagues gradually began to accept that human carbon emissions were radically altering the Arctic; talks about the huge environmental, cultural, and geopolitical implications of a warming Arctic; and describes the shock of witnessing the stunning transformation of the region in his professional lifetime.

The thing is, when you’re thinking about the Arctic, the Arctic’s soul is its ice,” says Serreze, author of the new book Brave New Arctic: The Untold Story of the Melting North. “When you lose that ice, the Arctic loses its soul.”