This work draws together current research on the origins and effects of pollutants in the Artic area and the implications for arctic ecology and fauna as well as more far-reaching global change. Topics discussed include: toxic substances in the food chain; acids and heavy metals in snow and ice and the possible consequences to arctic ecology following snow melt; the Antarctic ozone hole; climate change and its effect on the northern hemisphere; climate and global sea levels; exploitation of minerals and fossil fuels; and future impacts from industrialization of the North.

" ... many eminent scholars, endowed with great geometric talent, make a point of never disclosing the simple and direct ideas that guided them, subordinating their elegant results to abstract general theories which often have no application outside the particular case in question. Geometry was becoming a study of algebraic, differential or partial differential equations, thus losing all the charm that comes from its being an art." H. Lebesgue, Ler;ons sur les Constructions Geometriques, Gauthier Villars, Paris, 1949. This book is based on lecture courses given to final-year students at the...