Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 10
From Rainforests to Ice
Caps: The Geography of
Climates
In This Chapter
Classifying climates
Getting sticky with humid tropical climates
Drying out with dry climates
Staying comfortable with humid mesothermal climates
Chilling out with humid microthermal climates
Freezing with polar climates
T he ancient Greeks divided the world climatically into a tropical
torrid zone,
two mid-latitude
temper-
ate zones
(one in each hemisphere), and two high-latitude
frigid zones.
The Greeks lived in the tem-
perate zone of the Northern Hemisphere and never sojourned to the frigid zone to their north or torrid
zone to their south. That suited them just fine, for what they knew — or rather believed to be true —
about those areas was fearsome.
The torrid zone in particular inspired dread. It was believed that the sun could literally burn people to
death or set fire to a ship. The Greeks' direct experience with Saharan temperatures reinforced that per-
ception, while observation of black-skinned Africans confirmed that fatal frying awaited one who ven-
tured too close. These ideas persisted for nearly two thousand years, until 1434, when the Portuguese
captain Gil Eannes rather clandestinely navigated into the area without ill effect to any of his crew.
