
A Trillion Trees
How We Can Reforest Our World
Fred Pearce(Author)
Granta Books (Publisher)
Published on 5. August 2021
Book
Hardback
320 pages
978-1-78378-691-6 (ISBN)
Article exhausted; check for reprint
Description
**A Book of the Year in The Times and The Sunday Times **
Trees keep our planet cool and breathable. They make the rain and sustain biodiversity. They are essential for nature and for us. And yet, we are cutting and burning them at such a rate that many forests are fast approaching tipping points beyond which they will simply shrivel and die. But there is still time, and there is still hope. If we had a trillion more trees, the damage could be undone. So should we get planting? Not so fast. Fred Pearce argues in this inspiring new book that we can have our forests back, but mass planting should be a last resort. Instead, we should mostly stand back, make room and let nature -- and those who dwell in the forests -- do the rest.
Taking us from the barren sites of illegal logging and monocrop farming to the smouldering rainforests of the Amazon, Fred Pearce tells a revelatory new history of the relationship between humans and trees - and shows us how we can change it for the better. Here we meet the pilot who discovered flying rivers, the village elders who are farming amid the trees, and the scientists challenging received wisdom. And we visit some of the world's most wondrous treescapes, from the orchid-rich moutaintops of Ecuador to the gnarled and ancient glades of the South Downs.
Combining vivid travel writing with cutting edge science, A Trillion Trees is both an environmental call to arms and a celebration of our planet's vast arboreal riches.
Trees keep our planet cool and breathable. They make the rain and sustain biodiversity. They are essential for nature and for us. And yet, we are cutting and burning them at such a rate that many forests are fast approaching tipping points beyond which they will simply shrivel and die. But there is still time, and there is still hope. If we had a trillion more trees, the damage could be undone. So should we get planting? Not so fast. Fred Pearce argues in this inspiring new book that we can have our forests back, but mass planting should be a last resort. Instead, we should mostly stand back, make room and let nature -- and those who dwell in the forests -- do the rest.
Taking us from the barren sites of illegal logging and monocrop farming to the smouldering rainforests of the Amazon, Fred Pearce tells a revelatory new history of the relationship between humans and trees - and shows us how we can change it for the better. Here we meet the pilot who discovered flying rivers, the village elders who are farming amid the trees, and the scientists challenging received wisdom. And we visit some of the world's most wondrous treescapes, from the orchid-rich moutaintops of Ecuador to the gnarled and ancient glades of the South Downs.
Combining vivid travel writing with cutting edge science, A Trillion Trees is both an environmental call to arms and a celebration of our planet's vast arboreal riches.
Reviews / Votes
We should all read Fred's book. He tells us in a practical and most readable way, how we can bring back the forests of the Earth and restore our planet to health. Never think that we can plant a forest ecosystem. The mega mix of species has to come together by itself. That is the best and easiest way to save ourselves and perhaps Gaia -- James Lovelock That most commonplace thing, a tree, is now our best hope for maintaining a habitable planet. This book explains in accessible, urgent prose the many wondrous workings of trees in making rain, wind, oxygen and habitats for much of life on earth as well as a vision for how we can, and must, reforest the world. Essential reading for the twenty-first century -- Ben Rawlence With Pearce, one of the UK's best science journalists, you always know you are going to get something interesting and counterintuitive. That is certainly the case with this insightful science-based travelogue... [A Trillion Trees] deserves to become an environmental classic * Literary Review * Erudite and authoritative... He takes the reader deep into the forests and finds the real story * Mail on Sunday * Eloquently mulls the ecological dynamics of forests as well as the social, economic, cultural, and political forces that determine their fate * LA Review of Books *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Dimensions
Height: 234 mm
Width: 153 mm
Thickness: 22 mm
Weight
524 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-78378-691-6 (9781783786916)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
New editions

Book
05/2022
Granta Books
€13.50
Available immediately
Additional editions

E-Book
08/2021
GRANTA BOOKS
€24.49
Available for download
Person
Fred Pearce is an award-winning journalist and author, reporting from 87 countries. He has been the environmental consultant of New Scientist magazine since 1992, a regular broadcaster and contributor to the Guardian, Washington Post and others. He has written fourteen books on environmental and development issues, translated into 27 languages.