The North Pole, by Kathan Brown

The North Pole is in the Arctic Ocean, under a vast sheet of drifting ice that was ten feet thick when submarines using sonar began measuring it in 1958. Now, it has diminished to six feet thick. Why this has happened (global warming) and why it matters to us is a sub-theme of the book.The main theme is the author's trip to the North Pole in 2002 on a Russian nuclear powered icebreaker. Her account of the journey is juxtaposed with excerpts from the gripping diary of Fridtjof Nansen, an explorer who traveled in the area by dogsled a hundred years ago. Brown also includes 120 photographs and eight conversations with various experts on history, wildlife, exploration, and current scientific ideas concerning this empty but strangely compelling and symbolic spot on the surface of the earth. "The North Pole by Kathan Brown is an eloquent book that defies conventional categorization. Part travelogue, it is also a testament to the aspiration of human endeavor and a warning about the potential