Planet Ice app for iPhone and iPad

What the ice tells us about the past may help us understand its future - and ours - on Earth.

As ancient ice melts and retreats, our planet is changing - rapidly. The Planet Ice iPhone app documents the beauty and power of ice and its unique role in revealing the condition of our planet. Glaciers and ice fields are critical to the health of our world, and we are making them disappear.

Pairing over 150 striking photographs by James Martin with essays by Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard, polar bear expert Ian Stirling, ice scientist Richard Alley, glaciologist Gino Casassa, and noted writers Broughton Coburn and Nick Jans, Planet Ice illuminates the profound connection between ice - a substance at once mutable and forceful - and the well-being of the global community.

The Planet Ice iPhone app is based on a large-format photography book of the same name. Published in September 2009 by The Mountaineers Books in partnership with Braided River, the hardcover title showcases a different selection of equally stunning photographs, longer versions of the essays included here, and a piece by talented writer Gretel Ehrlich. As a bonus, this iPhone app also includes excerpts from "Digital Photography Outdoors," 2nd Edition by James Martin (The Mountaineers Books, 2007) and "Wake Up and Smell the Planet: The Non-Pompous, Non-Preachy Grist Guide to Greening Your Day," edited by Brangien Davis with Katharine Wroth (The Mountaineers Books and Grist.org, 2007).

Braided River combines the arts of photography and literature to create books, media campaigns, multimedia presentations, and museum exhibits that change perspectives and engage audiences beyond the traditional environmental community. By developing partnerships with like-minded organizations and building broader public support, we inspire action that results in on-the-ground victories for wilderness preservation. To learn more, visit www.BraidedRiver.org.