|  | Author: Bill Streever
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
List Price: $24.99
Buy New: $12.70
as of 11/22/2009 20:58 CST details
You Save: $12.29 (49%)
New (43) Used (13) from $12.57
Seller: a1books
Rating:  17 reviews
Sales Rank: 6370
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Pages: 304
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6.2 x 1.1
ISBN: 0316042919
Dewey Decimal Number: 910.911
EAN: 9780316042918
ASIN: 0316042919
Publication Date: July 22, 2009
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Brand new item. Over 6 million customers served. Order now. Selling online since 1995. Order with confidence. Code: B20091118215648T
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 16-17 of 17
 Mostly Meandering Minutiae July 30, 2009
Loyd E. Eskildson (Phoenix, AZ.)
9 out of 53 found this review helpful
I've trudged to work in 36 degrees below zero, traveled north of the Arctic Circle, and biked home at 122 degrees above. The latter is preferable, assuming you have water and shade - absent that, either is likely to be quickly fatal. Regardless, diesel trucks are almost impossible to start at low temperatures, and will not warm up unless driven - blinding whiteouts notwithstanding. Streever, however, keeps his book "Cold" entirely focused on "the absence of heat."
Readers learn that Prudhoe Bay ice is 6' thick in the winter, while permafrost exists year-round 18" underground to a depth of 1/3 of a mile - at which point the cold is overpowered by heat from the earth's innards. One-fifth of the earth's land lies in a permafrost zone. Willow trees never grow more than few inches.
The adult male burns through about 1,700 calories just to get by, rising to 2,100 calories when the body is cold. Physically fit men (eg. polar explorers) can maintain activity levels burning 600 calories/hour all day. (Alaskan sled dogs burn 10,000 calories/day during races.)
Moving on, we read about early polar expeditions (lots of frostbite, hypothermia, starvation, and being frozen in the ice), bird migration, and animals hibernating - nothing in depth, but reasonably interesting.
Finally, its briefly on to science - creating liquid helium (7 degrees above absolute zero), and cooling material to 50 billionths above absolute zero. Just enough material to say "you've read about it," not enough to really know anything useful or substantive, and totally oblivious to global warming.
So, I'll contribute my own fact to help make this review more useful. Studies show that white roofs reduce air-conditioning costs by 20 percent or more in hot, sunny weather. Art Rosenfeld, a member of the California Energy Commission who has been campaigning for cool roofs since the 1980s, argues that turning all of the world's roofs "light" over the next 20 years could save the equivalent of 24 billion metric tons in carbon dioxide emissions. "That is what the whole world emitted last year," Mr. Rosenfeld said. "So, in a sense, it's like turning off the world for a year." (New York Times, 7/30/2009) So paint your roof white, unless you live in Minneapolis, and help reduce global warming while keeping cooler.
 Brrrrr. July 28, 2009
BookBargainsandPreviews.com (New York)
11 out of 18 found this review helpful
This is an interesting book on cold weather and the coldest places in the world. Before you form an opinion, you need to read the book. Though it is well-documented, the author uses humor and stories to make his points and pass along his knowledge that was gained mostly from traveling to the most frigid places on earth!
I found the book not only interesting, but intriguing.
Showing reviews 16-17 of 17
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