North to the Future

Ben Weissenbach-an L. A. native with little prior wilderness experience-treks through the Alaskan tundra with a series of eccentric environmental scientists, and returns with a new perspective on technology and a revitalized sense of wonder for the natural world. At the age of twenty, college student Ben Weissenbach went north to Arctic Alaska armed with little more than inspiration from his literary heroes and a growing interest in climate change. What met him there was a world utterly unlike the 21st century Los Angeles he grew up in-a wild land seen by few outside a small contingent of scientists with big personalities. There's Roman Dial, the larger-than-life ecologist who leads Ben on a six week trek across Alaska's Brooks Range. There's Kenji Yoshikawa, the reindeer-herding permafrost expert who leaves Ben alone for eleven days to care for his off-grid cabin, where temperatures drop to -49 degrees Fahrenheit. And there's Matt Nolan, the independent glaciologist who flies Ben to the largest glaciers in the American Arctic. As these scientists teach him to read the changing Alaskan landscape, Ben confronts the limits of digital life, and the complexity of the world beyond his screens. He emerges from each wilderness excursion with a new perspective on our modern relationship to technology-and a growing wonder for our natural world.