With more than a century of mapmaking experience, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC continues to be one of the world's preeminent cartographic publishers. The new 11th edition atlas is produced by a deeply experienced editorial and cartographic team, in collaboration with preeminent scientists, scholars, and researchers, continuing a legacy of publishing quality atlas products that combine the art and science of mapmaking. ALEXANDER M. TAIT, M.Sc., is The Geographer at the National Geographic Society. He heads National Geographic's Map Policy Committee, leads mapping initiatives for Nat Geo Labs, and provides mapping and geography expertise for programs and media throughout National Geographic. He has worked as a cartographer at the Washington Post, a lecturer at the University of Maryland, and adviser to legal teams on the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.
If you're going to buy just one atlas this fall, make it the 11th edition of the NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC ATLAS OF THE WORLD (National Geographic, $215), a 7.8-pound behemoth that's a foot and a half long and a foot wide. Its mammoth size allows you to appreciate the details in its dozens of maps - satellite maps, cultural maps and physical maps, all of them striking. The best one, Life on a Warming Planet, lays out where temperatures are rising (and by how much), where permafrost is melting, what nations emit the most carbon dioxide and which large cities are at high risk. -The New York TImes