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Books > Earth & environment > Geography > Physical geography > General
The newspaper advertisement for volunteers to accompany Ernest
Shackleton on his planned traverse of Antarctica in 1914 was frank
in its offering. "Men wanted for hazardous journey. Low wages,
bitter cold, long hours of complete darkness. Safe return doubtful.
Honour and recognition in event of success." Still, hundreds
applied. There were few chances left to be the first to reach the
last challenge on Earth. As the 20th Century came of age, explorers
had uncovered most of the world's mysteries, sailing to the far
corners of the globe, ascending many of its most forbidding peaks,
crossing its greatest deserts and penetrating its thickest jungles.
Frozen, alien, inhospitable, dangerous, and close to impossible to
reach, there were only two tiny dots on the globe that human beings
had not yet set foot on--the North and South Poles. The Greatest
Polar Exploration Stories Ever Told is a visceral, exciting and
stunning collection of twelve stories recounting the bravery,
resoluteness, and strength of the men who willingly traversed
frozen hells to be the first to reach the North or South Pole. It
is a collection that will both inspire and inform--and answer
questions about the limits of human endurance. Many men would die
during their challenging, frozen journeys, and their deaths were
not pleasant. Yet they continued to try again. Here are stories,
wrought by the challenging landscape and weather, that made these
explorers household names and heroes: Peary, Scott, Amundsen,
Shackleton, Franklin, Cherry-Garrard, Scott, Kane, Cook--and others
lost to history whose bravery was nonetheless as admirable. Each of
these men knew success would bring glory for their countries and
financial security and fame and eminent places in history for
themselves. Each knew also the odds of success were slim and the
chance of dying great. Nations held their collective breaths for
news of each expedition and those years later were termed the
Heroic Age of Exploration--there were simply no other endeavors
that captured the world's attention the various races to the poles.
The Greatest Polar Exploration Stories Ever Told recaptures the
spirit, drama, and tragedy of a time in history that will never
come again.
Recent studies indicate that - due to climate change - the Earth is
undergoing rapid changes in all cryospheric components, including
polar sea ice shrinkage, mountain glacier recession, thawing
permafrost, and diminishing snow cover. This book provides a
comprehensive summary of all components of the Earth's cryosphere,
reviewing their history, physical and chemical characteristics,
geographical distributions, and projected future states. This new
edition has been completely updated throughout, and provides
state-of-the-art data from GlobSnow-2 CRYOSAT, ICESAT, and GRACE.
It includes a comprehensive summary of cryospheric changes in land
ice, permafrost, freshwater ice, sea ice, and ice sheets. It
discusses the models developed to understand cryosphere processes
and predict future changes, including those based on remote
sensing, field campaigns, and long-term ground observations.
Boasting an extensive bibliography, over 120 figures, and
end-of-chapter review questions, it is an ideal resource for
students and researchers of the cryosphere.
A cultural history of one of Paris’s most fascinating and
variegated areas, whose history can be summarized as ‘from riches
to rags and back again.’ The Marais was the beating heart of
fashionable Paris from the Middle Ages through to the time of Louis
XIV, when the court’s move to Versailles marked the start of a
decline in its fortunes. Thereafter it became a working-class,
largely Jewish area, sometimes described as a ‘ghetto’, and by
the early twentieth century was in a parlous condition from which
it was extricated by the Paris City Council and the 1960s
restoration plan of André Malraux (which did not go without
criticism and opposition). Its most recent avatar has been as the
best-known gay quartier of the capital, though again this identity
has not been a straightforward or always easily-accepted one. The
stress throughout will be on representations – literary,
cinematic, autobiographical, photographic and in graphic-novel form
– as much as if not more than the unfolding of historical events.
Notwithstanding the importance of modern technology, fieldwork
remains vital, not least through helping to inspire and educate the
next generation. Fieldwork has the ingredients of intellectual
curiosity, passion, rigour and engagement with the outdoor world -
to name just a few. You may be simply noting what you see around
you, making detailed records, or carrying out an experiment; all of
this and much more amounts to fieldwork. Being curious, you think
about the world around you, and through patient observation develop
and test ideas. Forty contributors capture the excitement and
importance of fieldwork through a wide variety of examples, from
urban graffiti to the Great Barrier Reef. Outdoor learning is for
life: people have the greatest respect and care for their world
when they have first-hand experience of it. The Editors are
donating all royalties due to them to the environmental charity,
The Field Studies Council, to support student fieldwork at the
Council's field centres.
From deciding the best day for a picnic, to the devastating effects
of hurricanes and typhoons, the weather impacts our lives on a
daily basis. Although new techniques allow us to forecast the
weather with increasing accuracy, most people do not realise the
vast global movements and forces which result in their day-to-day
weather. In this Very Short Introduction Storm Dunlop explains what
weather is and how it differs from climate, discussing what causes
weather, and how we measure it. Analysing the basic features and
properties of the atmosphere, he shows how these are directly
related to the weather experienced on the ground, and to specific
weather phenomena and extreme weather events. He describes how the
global patterns of temperature and pressure give rise to the
overall circulation within the atmosphere, the major wind systems,
and the major oceanic currents, and how features such as mountains
and the sea affect local weather. He also looks at examples of
extreme and dangerous weather, such as of tropical cyclones
(otherwise known as hurricanes and typhoons), describing how
'Hurricane Hunters' undertake the dangerous task of flying through
them. We measure weather in a number of ways: observations taken on
the land and sea; observations within the atmosphere; and
measurements from orbiting satellites. Dunlop concludes by looking
at how these observations have been used to develop increasingly
sophisticated long- and short-range weather forecasting, including
ensemble forecasting. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short
Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds
of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books
are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our
expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and
enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly
readable.
This is a comprehensive regional geography synthesis of the most
important physical and human spatial processes that shaped Serbia
and led to many interesting regional issues, not only to Serbia but
to the Balkans and Europe. The book provides an overall view on the
Serbian physical environment, its population and economy. It also
highlights important regional issues such as regional disparities
and depopulation, sustainable development and ecological issues and
rural economy in the context of rural area development, which have
been shaped by different political and historical processes. This
highly illustrated book provides interesting and informative
insights into Serbia and its context within the Balkans and Europe.
It appeals to scientists and students as well as travelers and
general readers interested in this region.
This edited book summarizes numerous research studies on remote
sensing and GIS of natural resource management for the Himalaya
region done by Indian Institutions and Universities over the last
decade. It gives an overview of hydrometeorological studies on
Himalayan water resources and addresses concerns in the development
of water resources in this region, which is dealing with an
increased pressure in population, industrialization and economic
development. While the source of some of the major rivers of India
are found in the Himalayas, the glaciers and water bodies in the
region are continuously shrinking leading to a depletion of water
and deterioration of water quality. This is affecting a population
of up to 2.5 billion people. The ecosystems have been under threat
due to deforestation, loss of biodiversity, expansion of
agriculture and settlement, overexploitation of natural resources,
habitat loss and fragmentation, poaching, mining, construction of
roads and large dams, and unplanned tourism. Spaceborne remote
sensing with its ability to provide synoptic and repetitive
coverage has emerged as a powerful tool for assessment and
monitoring of the Himalayan resources and phenomena. This work
serves as a resource to students, researchers, scientists,
professionals, and policy makers both in India and on a global
level.
This book provides a profound geographical description and analysis
of Central Asia. The authors take a synthetic approach in a period
of critical transformation in the post-soviet time. The monograph
analyzes comprehensively the physical and human geography as well
as human-nature interactions of Central Asia with focus on
Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.
Natural processes are described at a systemic scale, focusing on
ecological impacts and consequences and contemporary human
adaptations and organization. It also discusses in which ways the
human organizations try to apply solutions for their needs such as
security, territorial management and resources renewability,
material and functional needs, identity elaborations, culture and
communication. The Geography of Central Asia appeals to scientists
and students of regional geography and interested academics from
other areas such as social, political, economic and environmental
studies within the context of Central Asia. The book is also a very
useful resource for field trips into this area.
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