This morning, at the strike of 2015, I was in a hot tub with five friends and a bottle of champagne, with a pair of binoculars around my neck. We were on top of a Russian ship, the Akademik Ioffe, which was sailing along the western Antarctic Peninsula at midnight. What a way to start the year! I hoped to spot my first bird of 2015 from the hot tub. But after the traditional countdown and while someone sprayed champagne everywhere (to cries of “What, is this a NASCAR awards ceremony?”), it became apparent that no birds were in sight. Even in Antarctica, there are almost always some birds around—skuas, penguins, terns, gulls, maybe a shag or two. But as I looked around with excitement during the first minutes of 2015, nothing moved. The midnight sun hung low behind a layer of clouds, and the Ioffe sailed on a calm sea dotted by iceberg castles. The freezing air sucked the heat out of the hot tub in a hurry, and, after a few...