Bowdoin Magazine 88:2 (2017): 20–25.
Mental maps of the world sometimes change in a historical instant, as they did five hundred years ago with the establishment of permanent transatlantic and transpacific sailing routes. Most of the time, however, our worldview changes piecemeal and more modestly, through personal necessity or experience—from the opening of a new road, perhaps, or relocation for school or work. As the Arctic thaws before our eyes, it is revealing the once-frozen region’s myriad mysteries, untapped potential, and innumerable hazards in ways that are redrawing the world map more dramatically than at any time since Columbus and Magellan.More