The treeline; the last forest and the future of life on earth
Title of the book: The Treeline; The Last Forest and the Future of Life on Earth Author: Ben Rawlence
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Publishing Date: 2022
ISBN: 978-1-250-27885-2
Summary:
In the tradition of Elizabeth Kolbert and Barry Lopez, a powerful, poetic and deeply absorbing account of the "lung" at the top of the world.
For the last fifty years, the trees of the boreal forest have been moving north. Ben Rawlence's The Treeline takes us along this critical frontier of our warming planet from Norway to Siberia, Alaska to Greenland, to meet the scientists, residents and trees confronting huge geological changes. Only the hardest species survive at these latitudes including the ice-loving Dahurian larch of Siberia, the antiseptic Spruce that purifies our atmosphere, the Downy birch conquering Scandinavia, the healing Balsam poplar that Native Americans use as a cure-all and the noble Scots Pine that lives longer when surrounded by its family.
It is a journey of wonder and awe at the incredible creativity and resilience of these species and the mysterious workings of the forest upon which we rely for the air we breathe. Blending reportage with the latest science, The Treeline is a story of what might soon be the last forest left and what that means for the future of all life on earth.
(From goodreads)
Ben grew up in Wiltshire in the UK before studying in London, Tanzania and the USA. He worked for several years in New York and then in politics in the UK and in Tanzania before joining Human Rights Watch where he worked from 2006-2013.
He was an Open Society Foundations Fellow 2013.
He is represented by Sophie Lambert at Conville and Walsh in London.
I am writing this review just when it will be second time this winter will hit where I live with a vengeance. Within a day, snow will arrive, making it first year in memory that this type of cold weather has hit where I live twice in one year. I definitely find that significant. And I am not the only one. Although they live in different remote places, pretty much all people say that weather is strongly changing for the worse. Reading this book, I learned a whole lot that I never knew before: that trees aren't nonliving members but are vibrant and full of personality, the importance of cold weather to tribes and animals that thrive within, and whether we like it or not, the predictable weather we grew up will possibly be extinct, only in history books instead of something that we can experience. While the author lists the problems brilliantly, what aren't listed as much or paid attention to are solutions. And here is an important question: in the book what is the most urgent problem? I often got impression that for all of their degrees and knowledge, not even scientists know how to fix these issues, although they are trying. All in all, a beautiful written nonfiction work.
This was sent for review
5 out of 5
(0: Stay away unless a masochist 1: Good for insomnia 2: Horrible but readable; 3: Readable and quickly forgettable, 4: Good, enjoyable 5: Buy it, keep it and never let it go.)
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