Author:Diana Beresford Kroeger
A world expert on how trees chemically affect our environment, Diana Beresford-Kroeger has woven together ecology, ancient myth, horticulture, spirituality, science and alternative medicine in The Global Forest to capture their enormous significance to us - and our future.
From enormous native Savannah trees that create their own sunscreen to hedgerows that contain and entire chain of life, this book shows us the power of the global forest. Trees absorb pollutants from the ground, comb particulates from the air and house beneficial insects. But what they do chemically in the environment is something we're only beginning to understand. Trees not only breathe and communicate; they also reproduce, heal and even nurture, and each of these forty interlocking essays picks out a different aspect of the life of the forest, explains it and then shows why it is so vitally important.
Combining the precision of a scientist with the lyricism of a poet, Diana Beresford-Kroeger has written an unforgettable work of natural history that shows how we really can save the Earth, one tree at a time.
Beresford-Kroeger's ideas are a rare approach to natural history... The essays of The Global Forest are a beautiful and poetic tribute to their subject, based on wide-ranging scientific knowledge.
—— E.O. Wilson, Professor Emeritus , Harvard UniversityA beautifully written and carefully constructed book ... As I walked to work this morning, I did begin to see the trees with a newfound respect and awe
—— Kayleigh Lawrence , New Scientist[H]as the potential to do for trees what Rachel Carson's Silent Spring did for peregrines in the 1960s. The Global Forest has amazing breadth...Easy to read, each of her short essays could inspire a week's meditation. Live with them and discover your place in the global forest...When you have read this book you may want to embrace its author.
—— Graham Long , BBC Wildlife magazineA deeply thoughtful study of Fritz Haber - a brilliant, fascinating and finally tragic figure - and his equivocal legacy... A book to make one ponder.
—— Oliver SacksThe Black Swan changed my view of how the world works
—— Daniel Kahneman, author of Thinking, Fast and SlowGreat fun... brash, stubborn, entertaining, opinionated, curious, cajoling
—— Stephen J. Dubner, co-author of FreakonomicsThe most prophetic voice of all
—— GQAccessible and enlightening ... It's not Greenberg's way to preach; he's happier letting the facts speak for themselves
—— ObserverRequired reading for anyone who eats seafood ...Greenberg is an unfailingly entertaining writer, and his book arms you with the information you need to make intelligent choices when you are confronted by the ... offerings at the fish counter
—— AtlanticLucid, readable ... a story well told
—— Charles Clover , Sunday TimesAn elegantly composed and strikingly level-headed inquiry into our relationship with the fish we eat and the waters that sustain them
—— Tom Fort , Sunday TelegraphA powerful case for action ... combining on-the-ground and on-the-ocean reporting from the Yukon to Greece, from the waters off New England to the Mekong Delta, along with accounts of some stirring fishing trips, Greenberg makes a powerful argument ... marvellous exploration of that contradiction, a necessary book for anyone interested in what we take from the sea to eat, and how, and why
—— Sam Sifton , ScotsmanOren Harman's outstanding new biography of the American scientist George Price makes the case that Price's theoretical contributions to biology are among the most important of the twentieth century...Price was undoubtedly an opaque figure; Harman has approached his life with sensitivity and intelligence, providing a clearer window into this troubled mind
—— Tom Bailey , TLSMoving biography exploring a geneticst's understanding of human selflessness
—— The TimesAn energetic tale that presents not only the science but the history and politics which produced it
—— Islington Tribune