Cold : adventures in the world's frozen places / Bill Streever

Includes bibliographical references (p. 249-283) and index.

JULY: Explorers, victims of cold, and immersion in 35 degree water north of the Arctic Circle -- AUGUST: A tunnel in ground frozen for 40,000 years, landscapes changing as temperatures rise, and animals harmed by warmth -- SEPTEMBER: The Little Ice Age, the Pleistocene Ice Age, and the ancient ice age of Snowball Earth, when the entire planet was veiled in ice -- OCTOBER: Animals coping with cold, migrating by the millions, and hibernating with body temperatures below freezing -- NOVEMBER: Skis and skiing, a trail closed by a late-season bear, and freezing trees releasing a burst of heat and flushing the fluid from their cells -- DECEMBER: Overheating in the depths of winter, shadows of Weddell seals in the sea ice, and Japanese ama divers in water cold enough to kill most humans -- JANUARY: Weather patterns that cause frigid conditions, medieval weather forecasters burning at the stake, and a frozen ocean -- FEBRUARY: plummeting temperatures, the cooling of Westminster Abbey, and approaching absolute zero and the death of matter -- MARCH: A search for polar bear dens near 40 below zero, winter apparel, igloos, quinzhees, and a house instrumented to measure cold -- APRIL: Frost-heaved roads, broken pipes, crops destroyed by frost, and 143 caribou killed by an avalanche -- MAY: The end of the Pleistocene Ice Age, rising sea levels, howling winds, receding glaciers, and mammoth carcasses in thawing ground -- JUNE: Fourier's greenhouse effect, Revelle's geophysical experiment, debating science, and the melting Beaufort Sea.

A narrative account of the author's forays into some of the world's coldest regions describes his encounter with an Arctic swimming hole, investigations into ancient and more recent ice ages, and examinations of animal hibernation habits.