During the 1981–82 austral summer a Joint Services Expedition to South Georgia recorded meteorological observations at Royal Bay, near to the site of the German station of the First International Polar Year in 1882–83. Comparisons between the two sets of observations emphasize the storminess of the climate and indicate slightly higher temperatures in 1981–82. Weather conditions at Royal Bay in 1981–82 were more comparable to those at King Edward Point (Grytviken), the main meteorological station on the island, than in the central mountains of the Salvesen Range.

As architects for the extensions of the Scott Polar Research Institute in Lensfield Road, Cambridge, we have been asked to supply a description of the building.

The original Institute building, which was opened in November 1934, was designed by Sir Herbert Baker, R. A. It contained a museum on the ground floor, a library on the first floor, a picture gallery above and a few offices or research rooms. It is a small formal classical block, designed in a carefully detailed Georgian manner, and built of attractive warm buff-coloured facing bricks with limestone dressings and a brown tiled roof.

Most of the highly populated regions of the world are in the middle latitudes of the northern hemisphere. The shortest routes between some of them (and they happen to be the most advanced technologically) lie across the Arctic regions. The possibility of using these routes on a commercial scale has become real only comparatively recently, as technology has found ways of dealing with the distances and the natural obstacles. The transport systems with significant international applications are by sea and air. Land transport, whether by road or rail, crosses few frontiers (north of the Arctic Circle, only into and within Scandinavia) and raises no problems of special interest.

28 October, Monday. Another grand day. During forenoon we packed all our sledges already for a start tomorrow if the weather is fine; in the afternoon we took the Ponies for a short stroll. The Camp just at present looks like a young township, sledges here, there and everywhere; tomorrow all being well it will be deserted except for 2 men who are remaining behind. These 2 men have got their work cut out also, they have to make a journey sometime next month to Cape Royds to study the bird life etc, ie (Penguins and Skuas), they have also to look after the Hut in general and stow all stores in the Pony stables.

George William Manby (1766–1854) was an English inventor best known for his idea of firing a line from shore to a wrecked ship so that the crew might be saved by means of a breeches-buoy. Around 1819 he turned his attention to new typesof whaling harpoons, bothahand harpoon andagun harpoon. In 1821 he went on a voyage to the Greenland whaling grounds on board Baffin, Captain William Scoresby Jr, with the aim of trying out his inventions, but the experiments were foiled by the reluctance of the crew to cooperate. As a result of that voyage, Manby espoused three ideas that he pursued obsessively for the rest of his life: that there might still be Norse survivors in the so-called ‘Lost Colony’ in East Greenland; that Britain should claim the area of East Greenland north of the area claimed by Denmark; and that this area should be developed as a penal colony.

This article is dedicated to the aggravation of negative natural and anthropogenous changes in Central Siberia in the Yenisei River geo-system. These changes are probably the result of global warming and climate destabilisation combined with intensified destructive processes in the region.

The last decades were characterised by the following:

1. 1. Growth of mean annual temperatures and change of annual climate structure resulting in extreme weather and hydrologic situations;

2. 2. Large-scale degradation of insular permafrost with corresponding decrease of their water-cut;

3. 3. Dry thunderstorms, fires, forest disease outbreaks became more frequent and abundant in the large areas;

4. 4. Forage resources failures and game animals’ depletion in numbers became more frequent;

5. 5. Overgrowing of the Angara and the Yenisei Rivers. Significant drop of spawning sites’ reproductive functions;

6. 6. Northern borders of some wild populations’ habitats started moving further north;

7. 7. Aggravation of boat traffic conditions and traditional use of natural resources;

8. 8. Taiga lost its fire-suppression and chemical-protection functions almost completely;

9. 9. Some issues have emerged regarding protection of people and domestic animals against natural-endemic diseases as well as predators;