Earth’s Crysphere, 2011, Vol. XV, No. 4, p. 3-7

CRYOSOPHY: AN OUTLOOK OF THE COLD WORLD

V.P. Melnikov, V.B. Gennadinik

Institute of Earth’s Cryosphere, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, PO box 1230, Tyumen, 625000, Russia; melnikov@ikz.ru

The outlook of the cryosphere in the present scientific community has been changing rapidly. Rather than being a danger, the sphere of ice and cold is taken as an active element of the universe, a wealth, and a source of wellbeing and new potentialities for the mankind. This is the reason for increasing recent interest to the cold world among different scientists and, on the other hand, for broadening the scope of the classical permafrost science. It is time to create a new school of thought, that of cryosophy. Cryosophy should focus on the role of cold matter in the ever changing world and on the basic properties of the cryosphere. The presented snapshot of highlights of the cryosphere from the early Universe to the life origin, which remain little discussed in the permafrost community, illustrates the urgent need in new ontological approaches.

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