Adventurer turned environmentalist Robert Swan illuminates the perils facing the planet come 2041—the year when the international treaty protecting Antarctica is up for review—and the many steps that can be taken to avoid environmental calamity. In 1985, when Robert Swan walked across Antarctica, the fragile polar environment was not high in his mind. But upon his return, the earth’s perilous state became personal: Robert’s ice-blue eyes were singed a pale gray, a result of being exposed to the sun’s rays passing unfiltered through the depleted ozone layer. At this moment, his commitment to preserving the environment was born, and in Antarctica 2041 Swan details his journey to awareness, and his firm belief that humans can reverse the harm done to the planet thus far, and secure its future for generations to come. Despite the dire warnings Swan raises in Antarctica 2041—exponentially high greenhouse-gas levels; rising seas; massive species extinction—he says there is much we can do to avert looming disaster. Ultimately an upbeat call to action, his book provides the information people need to understand the world’s crisis, and the tools they need to combat it, ultimately showing us all that saving Antarctica amounts to saving ourselves.

An activist and adventurer makes predictions about imminent environmental dangers associated with the 2041 expiration of an international treaty protecting Antarctica and discusses what can be done to prevent specific problems.

"Originally published in hardcover in the United States as Antarctica 2041: my quest to save the earth's last wilderness by Broadway Books"--T.p verso.

“On this land of ice, where we are thousands of miles of ice and mountains, it’s really beautiful.” Antarctica is the coldest, windiest, driest, and most remote part of the world. No one owns it. Only peaceful and scientific endeavors are permitted. It is a true wilderness. Delve into the incredible geography, biodiversity, and exploratory history of the world's coldest continent through the diary entries of George W. Gibbs, Jr., the first Black person to set foot on Antarctica. Author Leilani Raashida Henry, Gibbs's daughter, shares the importance of protecting and understanding the Antarctic landscape and ecosystem as climate change advances. The Antarctic Treaty, which protects the continent from environmentally destructive practices such as mining and drilling, will be up for renewal in 2041, and The Call of Antarctica prepares readers with the knowledge of why it is necessary to reinstate that treaty and help protect this unique wilderness.

This book provides a diplomatic history of a turning point in Antarctic governance: the 1991 adoption of comprehensive environmental protection obligations for an entire continent, which prohibited mining. Solving the mining issue became a symbol of finding diplomatic consensus. The book combines historiographic concepts of contingency, conjuncture and accidental events with theories of structural, entrepreneurial and intellectual leadership. Drawing on archival documents, it shows that Antarctic governance is more adaptive than some imagine, and policy success depends on the interplay of normative practices, serendipitous events, public engagement and influential players able to exploit those circumstances. Ultimately, the events revealed in this book show that the protection of the Antarctic Treaty itself remains as important as protecting the Antarctic environment.

How will AI change our world within twenty years? A pioneering technologist and acclaimed writer team up for a “dazzling” (The New York Times) look at the future that “brims with intriguing insights” (Financial Times). This edition includes a new foreword by Kai-Fu Lee. A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Financial Times Long before the advent of ChatGPT, Kai-Fu Lee and Chen Qiufan understood the enormous potential of artificial intelligence to transform our daily lives. But even as the world wakes up to the power of AI, many of us still fail to grasp the big picture. Chatbots and large language models are only the beginning. In this “inspired collaboration” (The Wall Street Journal), Lee and Chen join forces to imagine our world in 2041 and how it will be shaped by AI. In ten gripping, globe-spanning short stories and accompanying commentary, their book introduces readers to an array of eye-opening settings and characters grappling with the new abundance and potential harms of AI technologies like deep learning, mixed reality, robotics, artificial general intelligence, and autonomous weapons.

The author spent one and half years as head of the country's first research station in Antarctica, Dakshin Gangotri. He discusses in details the frozen continent's unique environmental aspects, the international presence, world governance and the Indian Antarctic Programme (IAP). The book throws light on how perspectives and positions of leading countries represented in Antarctica, such as the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Argentina, Chile, US, Russia, China, Japan, Norway, South Africa and India have shaped over the years. Their strategic interests, including those in the Arctic, provide for an interesting kaleidoscope of factors with the potential for various global scenarios in the coming years. The world will be surely and anxiously watching the developments in Antarctica in future. According to the widely accepted geological theory of plate tectonics, the Indian subcontinent was once a part of the supercontinent Gondwana, so named after one of the tribes of central India, along with Antarctica, Africa, Australia and South America. However, the general awareness about the continent in India is very poor. The book in details traces the history of India's involvement in Antarctica, its three permanent stations conducting valuable scientific research and efforts to make a presence among other nations in the continent. It points out the country's total dependence on all its logistics needs by outsourcing which may prove to be detrimental to its influence and interests. It would be interesting to see how India reacts to the positions of other nations in the changing global kaleidoscope and how it will gear itself, to establish a truly influential Antarctic presence for safeguarding its own strategic interests. India may do well to lay down a polar doctrine at the earliest.