The most isolated continent in the world is hands down the polar desert that is Antarctica, the coldest, driest, and windiest continent on Earth. Inhospitable as it sounds, Antarctica, which lies almost completely below the Antarctic Circle, is also a place of stunning beauty as evidenced by this image of Paradise Harbour, aka Paradise Bay, near the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula. Antarctica is also extraordinarily vulnerable to the effects of climate change, worth remembering today on Antarctica Day, which marks the anniversary of the signing of the 1959 Antarctic Treaty. The international agreement protects Antarctica as a scientific preserve.