Publication - November 28, 2003
The cryosphere comprises all the frozen water and soil on the surface of the Earth. The book from Cambridge University Press, "Mass Balance of the Cryosphere", to be published in January 2004, focuses on two key components of this sensitive environment: land ice, in the form of ice sheets, caps and glaciers, and sea ice. These are important indicators of both short and long- term climate change. Written by a team of 23 expert scientists and edited by Dr Jonathan Bamber and Dr Anthony Payne of Bristol University, the book warns that the cryosphere is extremely sensitive to climate change and we ignore at our peril the dramatic and disturbing trends that have already been observed globally.