Gabrielle Walker – författare

There have been many books about Antarctica in the past, but all have focused on only one aspect of the continent - its science, its wildlife, the heroic age of exploration, personal experiences or the sheer awesome beauty of the landscape- but none have managed to capture the whole story, until now.Gabrielle Walker, author, consultant to New Scientist and regular broadcaster with the BBC has written a book unlike any that has ever been written about the continent. Antarctica weaves all the significant threads into an intricate tapestry, made up of science, natural history, poetry, epic history, what it feels like to be there and why it draws so many different kinds of people back there again and again. It is only when all the parts come together that the underlying truths of the continent emerge. Antarctica is the most alien place on Earth, the only part of our planet where humans could never survive unaided. It is truly like walking on another planet. And yet, in its silence, its agelessness and its mysteries lie the secrets of our past, and of our future.

We not only live in the air, we live because of it. At ground level air transforms miraculously; it wraps our planet in a blanket of warmth, while the outer layer of our atmosphere soaks up violent flares from the sun. In this fascinating celebration of the Earth's fragile atmosphere, Gabrielle Walker traces a journey of groundbreaking scientific discovery from the first experiments in the Renaissance to recent findings in space.

We all know that global warming is a problem, but the blizzard of information and misinformation on the subject makes it hard to know what to do. The Hot Topic is the first book to set out the problems and the solutions in a straightforward way - no hidden agenda, no breast-beating, no hair shirts. Science - how the climate is already changing and what the future is likely to bring Adaptation - preparing for the changes we can't stop Technological solutions - new, clean ways to live, travel and keep the lights on Political solutions - the inside track on what it will take to bring the whole world to the same negotiating table, and how to deal with the 'problem' countries - China, India, Russia and the US Personal and local solutions - what you can do and why it will make a difference