Earth – serie

Majestic and awe-inspiring, mountains demand our attention. Through the centuries, they have both repulsed and attracted. They have been appreciated and despised as sites of divine and diabolic sublimity, as the dwellings of gods and demons, hermits and revolutionaries. Mountain encounters have defined ways of seeing. They have changed our sense of time. They have pushed the boundary between life and death. Progressively tamed, exploited, even commodified, today mountains continue to attract seekers of spiritual quietness and of extreme emotions alike, as well as weekend travellers looking for a break from the everyday.In this compelling journey through peaks both real and imaginary, Veronica della Dora explores how the history of mountains is deeply interlaced with cultural values and aesthetic tastes, with religious beliefs and scientific practices. She shows how mountains are ultimately collaborations between geology and the human imagination, and how they have helped shape our environmental consciousness and our place in the world. Magnificently illustrated, and featuring examples from five continents and beyond, Mountain offers a fascinating 12 exploration of mountains and the idea of the mountain in art and literature, science and sport, religion and myth.

The Geographic South Pole is a place of paradox. It is a point around which the earth quite literally pivots; yet it has a habit of falling off the edge of our maps. An invisible spot on a high, featureless ice plateau, the Pole has no obvious material value, but is nonetheless a much sought-after location. The endpoint of exploration’s most famous ‘race’, between teams led by Robert F. Scott and Roald Amundsen, the Pole has more recently become a favoured destination of ‘extreme’ tourists. Like the whole of Antarctica, ‘90˚ South’ does not belong to any nation, but six national claims meet there, and for nearly sixty years the u.s. has occupied the site with a series of scientific stations. The Pole is a deeply political place.In South Pole Elizabeth Leane explores the important challenges that this strange place poses to humanity. What is its lure? How and why should people live there? How can artists respond to its apparent blankness? What can it teach us about our planet and ourselves? Along the way, she considers the absurdities and banalities of human engagement with the Pole.Ranging chronologically from the ancient Greeks to the present, and featuring spectacular images of the South Pole, this book offers a fascinating history of the symbolic heart of the Antarctic.To read and download some sample pages from the book please click here.

As major actors in the unfolding drama of climate change, glaciers feature prominently in Earth’s past and its future. Wherever on the planet we live, glaciers affect each of us directly. They control the atmospheric and ocean circulations that drive the weather; they supply drinking and irrigation water to millions of people; and they protect us from catastrophic sea-level rise. The very existence of glaciers affects our view of the planet and of ourselves, but it is less than 200 years since we realised that ice ages come and go, and that glaciers once covered much more of the planet’s surface than they do now.An inspiration to artists, a challenge for engineers, glaciers mean different things to different people. Crossing the boundaries between art, environment, science, nature and culture, this book uniquely considers glaciers from a myriad perspectives, revealing their complexity, majesty and importance, but also their fragility.

This book explores the sea and its meanings from ancient myths to contemporary geopolitics, from Atlantis to the Mediterranean migrant crisis. Richard Hamblyn traces a cultural and geographical journey from estuary to abyss, beginning with the topographies of the shoreline and ending with the likely futures of our maritime environments. Along the way the book considers the sea as a site of work and endurance, of story and song, of language, leisure and longing. By considering the sea as both a physical and a cultural presence, the book shines new light on the sea and its indelible place in the human imagination.

By turns creative and destructive, wind spreads seeds, fills sails and disperses the energy of the sun. Worshipped since antiquity, wind has moulded planets, decided the outcome of innumerable battles and shaped the evolution of humans and animals – yet it remains intangible and unpredictable.In this book Louise M. Pryke explores the science behind wind, as well as how it has been imagined and portrayed in myth, religion, art and literature since ancient times. Its formative effect on the Earth’s environment is reflected in its prominent role in myths and religions of antiquity. In the modern day, wind has inspired ground-breaking scientific innovations, and appeared in artistic works as diverse as the art of Van Gogh, the poetry of Keats and the blockbuster film Twister.

Though today largely dormant, volcanoes continue to erupt across the world, reminding us of their sheer physical power. In Volcano, James Hamilton explores the cultural history generated by the violence and terrifying beauty of volcanoes. He describes the reverberations of early eruptions of Vesuvius and Etna in Greek and Roman myth. Volcanoes have long been subjects in art – the earliest known wall painting of an erupting volcano was painted in 6,200 BCE – and Hamilton shows that volcanoes continue to influence the artistic imagination, as seen, for example, in the distinctive colours of Andy Warhol and Michael Sandle’s exploding mountains.Including works by famous artists, such as Salvator Rosa, Wright of Derby, Hokusai and Hiroshige, as well as previously little-known paintings, prints, drawings and photographs, this richly illustrated book will appeal to anyone interested in the science as well as the artistic impact of these spectacular natural phenomena.

The Himalayas are probably the most magical place on Earth. About 50 million years ago, a colossal clash between India and Asia resulted in the tallest landform on earth, with 14 peaks reaching over 8,000 meters above sea levels as it journeys through Nepal, India and Tibet.This book helps you discover the towns that inhabit its rugged lands, its legends and colours in an extraordinary way and features information on the culture and spirituality that lies in this beautiful part of the world.

Water flows centrally through human lives, hydrating our bodies and all of the organic species on which we depend; sustaining the ecosystems we inhabit; and enabling our agricultural and technological developments. Throughout human history, water’s life-giving and destructive capacities have had powerful symbolic meanings for diverse cultures and societies. Water considers our relationship with this essential element, its physical properties and the multiple effects these exert on our material activities, our emotions and our imaginations.In religious and secular contexts, water has always been seen as a source of regenerative power, carrying life through time and space. From the healing wells of prehistoric societies, to contemporary needs for water supply and sanitation, it remains central to human health. Water has enabled the movements of people along rivers, canals and across oceans. Its forces turned the wheels of the Industrial Revolution and continue to provide the hydro-power that drives modern economies. Visions of water as an economic ‘asset’ have encouraged its enclosure and privatization, sparking major conflicts – national and community-driven – over ownership and control. Increasing pressure on freshwater resources has also created devastating environmental problems which now threaten the welfare of humans and many other species, both land-based and marine.Water is a unique and fascinating account of water history. The first book of its kind to give a comprehensive bio-cultural view of human relationships with water, it explores cultural, material, ecological and political issues, and will appeal to all those interested in the environment and the state of the world today.

Arriving amid thunderous blasts and flame-streaked skies, meteorites were once thought to be messengers from the gods. Worshipped in the past, now scrutinized with equal zeal by scientists, meteorites helped sculpt Earth’s features and have shaped our understanding of the planet’s origins. Meteorite tells the long history of our engagement with these sky-born rocks, which are among the rarest things on earth.Scientists, scholars and enthusiasts have scoured the skies and combed Earth’s most unforgiving reaches for meteorites, contributing to a body of work that situates our planet and ourselves within the vastness of the universe. Prized for their strange and otherworldly qualities, meteorites are both collectibles and commodities, art objects and the objects of artists’ desires, while ‘meteorite hunting’ is an adventurous, lucrative profession for some and an addictive hobby for thousands of others.          This richly illustrated, wide-ranging account surveys the place of meteoritic phenomena in science, myth, art, literature and popular culture. Appealing to anyone interested in interplanetary space, in the uncanny and the marvelous, Meteorite explores the ancient, lasting power of the meteorite to inspire and awe.