The Frozen World presents to us a vivid view of the coldest places on Earth: the Arctic and Subarctic, the Antarctic and Subantarctic and the non-polar, high altitude parts of the world, such as the Himalayas, Andes, Alps, etc, the lands of the midnight sun, days and nights measured in months, not hours, the northern and southern lights, glaciers and icebergs, and home to polar bears, penguins and even, perhaps, the yeti. What these places all have in common is their extreme environments. Low temperatures and harsh winds render them all but uninhabitable by man, but that does not mean that man is absent. Railway lines, pipelines, research stations, eco tourism - all demonstrate man's ubiquity on this planet, and the vast mineral, gas and oil deposits in polar regions will ensure that he will not be leaving soon. But the biggest threat to these environments is not industry or pollution, but global warming - it is not if these will shrink, but by how much and when. This book is not a polemic about global warming, although inevitably these issues are raised. It is a brilliant evocation in awe-inspiring pictures and words of how these regions formed, their ecology, man's history in the region and his impact, their flora and fauna and their mind-boggling beauty. It takes a book of this physical size to even come near to showing us the majesty of places like this. There are 30 double page (almost three feet!) panoramas amongst the 214 spectacular colour images, polar bears, eagles, seals and a whole incridible world, we may be on the verge of losing.