A Journey in Antarctica Exploring the Future of the White Continent

Having always been fascinated by these singular landscapes, Sergio Rossi reconstructs some of the episodes that have marked the exploration of these territories, such as the dramatic race between Amundsen and Scott to conquer the South Pole, and Captain Shackleton’s odyssey to save his crew from certain death. But also modern trips including his own to these remote areas, explaining many aspects of the current science and political competition that is underway.

The book leads us on an entertaining overview of all the problems and opportunities that the planet’s most forgotten continent offers to humans. A remote mass of ice upon which our future as a species depends and which we cannot continue to ignore any longer.

Table of Contents:

Foreword

1. The continent at end of the world

2. Brief history of an arduous discovery

3. Paleoclimate: the importance of Antarctica

4. Survival Lessons: Mars on Earth

5. Glaciers in perpetual motion: where they arise

the icebergs

6. The Antarctic sea ice

7. Microbes

8. Ice, algae, krill

under the ice

10. Birds at the end of the world

11. The great mammals of the white continent

12. Climate change: not so isolated

13. What happened in Larsen?

14. Organisms and climate change

15. The ozone layer and Antarctica

16. Contaminants in the spotless

17. The last resort

18. Remote fishing grounds

19. Ecotourism and invasive species

20. The Antarctic Treaty

21. Antarctic international bases

22. Live on an icebreaker oceanographic vessel

23. Visions of the last virgin stronghold

Epilogue

Sergio Rossi is an Associate professor at DiSTeBA (Università del Salento) and Permanent Professor of Labomar (Universidade Federal do Cearà) , specialized in marine natural resources and biological oceanography. His main subjects are health status bioindicators of benthic coastal populations, energy fluxes in the bentho-pelagic coupling processes, sescape restoration, blue carbon and the management and conservation of wild marine fauna. Sergio Rossi has more than 140 SCI publications, has participated in more than 60 national and international congresses and in 50 scientific and applied projects. He is also a scientific journalist and writer, with 10 published books (Oceans in Decline, Copernicus, Springer-Nature, among others).