here are two major differences in this amazing new Atlas; First, the Atlas is produced in a spherical format which sets it apart from any Atlas produced previously. Secondly, as the topic of Global Warming now covers the front page of every newspaper and is the main area of discussion on all media, the environment has become a major issue relative to the world as we know it today.
Atlas of the Environment negotiates every continent and country in the world and includes before and after maps and diagrams relative to population and urban growth, climate change, Forests, Pollution, the changes in deserts and drylands and extreme events. An essential tool for all students of the environment.

The brightest areas of the Earth are the most urbanised, but not necessarily the most populated. (Compare western Europe with China and India.) Cities tend to grow along coastlines and transportation networks. Even without the underlying map, the outlines of many continents would still be visible. The United States interstate highway system appears as a lattice connecting the brighter dots of city centres. In Russia, the Trans-Siberian railroad is a thin line stretching from Moscow through the centre of Asia to Vladivostok. The Nile River, from the Aswan Dam to the Mediterranean Sea, is another bright thread through an otherwise dark region.

The map to the left shows places on Earth where the average surface temperatures were either warmer (yellows and reds), cooler (blues), or the same as (white) the climatological average. The areas where temperatures were most above average were Alaska (upper right), the Antarctic Peninsula (bottom), and Central Asia (right of centre), particularly the region just east of the Caspian Sea.
In the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso, verdant green Amazon Rainforest is broken up by broad tracks of pale green and tan deforested land. In 2005, the government of Brazil said that 48 percent of Amazon deforestation that took place in 2003 and 2004 occurred in Mato Grosso.

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