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. A Trillion Trees: How We Can Reforest Our World
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An exceptional an accessible insight into forests worldwide 9781783786916
A Trillion Trees is one the rare, hopeful books from an environmental perspective. The deforestation of much of the earth’s landmass has been a constant. I remember hearing about Amazonian deforestation back when I was in school and to this day, there are alarming stories of reckless deforestation. However, Fred Pearce demonstrates how again and again, forests surprise us with their persistent resilience.
In the first part of the book, Pearce writes about the many ways trees make life possible. I think nearly everyone knows about photosynthesis. Trees are the world’s lungs breathing in carbon dioxide and breathing out oxygen. That’s cool, but trees do so much more. For example, they alter the temperature of the surrounding area. They also form “flying rivers” bring rain to the interior. They make the planet livable. And they are in trouble.
In the second part, Pearce breaks readers’ hearts by recounting so many ways trees are being over-harvested and destroyed. He reviews the history of harvesting and the many uses trees serve in business.
In the third part, he talks about government efforts to reforest, to save the trees by planting more. Tree-planting is popular with many companies offering to plant a tree if you buy x, y, or z. Reading the book raised my awareness of the many corporate programs that plant trees. But it turns out not all tree planting is the same and really, trees know better than we do what needs to happen.
While there may be a U.N. plan to plant a trillion trees, but Pearce argues that we will make more progress if we listened to the people living where the trees are and trust trees to rewild themselves more effectively that the more typical tree plantations that get planted.
This book made me feel a rare bit of environmental optimism. Glaciers are melting, sea levels are rising, and we have increasingly extreme weather, but trees are making a comeback. Pearce makes a good argument for stricter limits on tree-cutting and tree-planting that listens to indigenous people among the trees and to the trees themselves.
I only have one quibble, but it’s a big one. The book felt repetitious, saying the same thing again and again. It is optimistic. The most interesting part was the first, learning how wonderful trees and miraculous trees are. It got boring at times, mostly because I felt he was driving the point home again and again.
I received an ARC of A Trillion Trees from the publisher through Shelf Awareness
A Trillion Trees at Greystone Books
Fred Pearce at Yale School of the Environment and at The Guardian
https://tonstantweaderreviews.wordpre... 9781783786916 “We need trees for our souls.” 9781783786916 Timely
Interesting with someo challenging new ideas. It is an interesting idea to allow people to farm forest in order to save and increase forest cover. 9781783786916 This fit well with some of the other books I've read recently about forests and hydrology. It was especially important to learn more about how the world's forests can be managed best by indigenous inhabitants. 9781783786916 A Trillion Trees: How We Can Reforest Our World by Fred Pearce was extremely interesting read. It was published just last year in 2021 and is more relevant than ever in these times of the ever-present threat of climate change.
Fred Pearce does not offer a concrete solution, but shows several case studies from around the world. From Asia to Africa to South America, Pearce highlights different forestry practices and their impacts. At the beginning of the book, most of the examples seem negative, contributing to a We-Are-Completely-Fucked-And-Climate-Change-Is-Going-To-Wipe-Us-All-Out-Soon mindset.
But we shouldn't lose hope, the author shows us many examples of how we can also lead to a reforested future.
The world’s forests will be restored not by trying to recreate the past, but by providing the space for such forests to find their own new future.
If we are to save, nurture and restore the world’s forests, the best expertise for achieving that is alive and well, living in those forests right now. They cannot be bystanders in the conservation of their territories. They should - and must - be in charge of the process.
My only concern with non-fiction books like this is that everything will be outdated in a few years. Policies are constantly changing, and while I hope that's not the case, we may take different paths than Pearce suggests.
In addition, non-fiction books that use a lot of case studies and take the reader on a journey tend to be redundant and repeat the same message multiple times, which was the case with this book.
Overall, I liked the new perspectives this book offered and learned a lot of new things. I hope that with A Trillion Trees: How We Can Reforest Our World, Fred Pearce can contribute to a better future with more trees. 9781783786916