El Ni o, La Ni a, global warming--terms that crop up frequently in current media coverage of anomalous weather conditions: a spring thaw in January in New York City...a snowstorm in Bakersfield, California...winterlike temperatures in Miami. Such phenomena as these and reports of devastating droughts, floods, and storms around the world bring home the fact of how deeply climate affects our daily lives--and of our inability to control the consequences of climatic events. Extraordinarily timely, The Climate Revealed explores the human-climate relationship in all its fascinating complexity. Packed with 250 beautiful, full-color photographs, the volume travels the globe to provide a detailed portrait of individual climate zones from the polar icecaps to the fiercest deserts. The expert and highly accessible text uncovers the essential elements--earth, air, fire and water--that make up the world's various climates. William Burroughs reveals the dramatic discoveries and techniques of historians and archaeologists in their search to understand climates of the past. In the book's conclusion he considers the future and presents every facet of the current environmental debate. With its detailed coverage of the past, present, and future, this marvelous work is essential reading for all those who want to understand one of the most critical facets of life, climate. William Burroughs is a well known and successful science author who has written four books on the weather including Does the Weather Really Matter? (1997), Weather Cycles: Real or Imaginary (1992), and Watching the World's Weather (1991), all published by Cambridge University Press.