According to this audiobook, boreal forest trees are dying and being replaced with smaller tree species that have literally moved north to take advantage of climate change. But these new trees don’t perform the photosynthesis cycle with the same magnitude that boreal forest trees do. Narrator Jamie Parker uses an intense tone to describe what is happening to these magnificent trees and what scientists predict the result will be. Parker’s British accent enhances Rawlence’s descriptions of these wonderful forests. His performance of the casual conversations among the ordinary people who work in these forests is rendered in cheerful tones, which helps listeners hear what people believe despite what scientists think. They believe the forests will adapt and continue to provide food and oxygen. Only time will tell who is correct. E.E.S. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine
The Treeline: The Last Forest and the Future of Life on Earth
Narrated by Jamie Parker
Ben RawlenceUnabridged — 11 hours, 59 minutes
The Treeline: The Last Forest and the Future of Life on Earth
Narrated by Jamie Parker
Ben RawlenceUnabridged — 11 hours, 59 minutes
Audiobook (Digital)
Free with a B&N Audiobooks Subscription | Cancel Anytime
Already Subscribed?
Sign in to Your BN.com Account
Related collections and offers
FREE
with a B&N Audiobooks Subscription
Overview
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. 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.
A Macmillan Audio production from St. Martin's Press
Editorial Reviews
10/25/2021
Rawlence (City of Thorns), founder of Black Mountains College, in Wales, explores the boreal forests along Earth’s shifting treeline in this eloquent account. Because of climate change, trees are migrating north, though “they shouldn’t be,” Rawlence writes, and to find out more about why, he travels across Canada, Siberia, Norway, Greenland, and Alaska to speak with ecologists and naturalists. He visits Sami reindeer herders in Norway who want the government to stop birch trees from encroaching on the tundra, because they disturb the lichen that reindeer feed on; treks over sea ice on Russia’s Taimyr Peninsula to meet with Nganasan families who call a “cryolithic larch forest” home; and describes in exquisite detail some of the world’s hardiest trees—Alaska’s spruce, Canada’s balsam poplar, Siberia’s larch, Norway’s downy birch, and Greenland’s mountain ash, which “disconnected from other populations... kept its own time, evolving to suit its new habitat.” Rawlence’s research leads him to conclude that change is inevitable, and every person—and every tree—must adapt to survive. His awe at the beauty and power of trees is moving: “Ancient trees are a source of wonder.” he writes. Nature lovers and travelers alike will find this a lovely paean to a rapidly changing landscape. (Feb.)
NPR, These 20 books will change the way you think about trees, Arbor Day, 2024
Conde Nast Traveler, Best Books to Read on the Beach This Summer: "A fascinating and relevant read." —Jenna Hamm, owner/operator of Camp Denali
One of Booklist's Top 10 Environmental Sustainability Books
"A sounding alarm, and a call to action."
―NPR's Best Books/Books We Love
"You feel the layering of [Rawlence's] heightened noticing throughout the book."
―Verlyn Klinkenborg, The New York Review of Books
"Written with refreshingly lovely and occasionally aching prose."
―James Tarmy, Bloomberg
"Important."
―Minneapolis Star Tribune
"[A] trip to six boreal forests around the world (Scotland, Scandinavia, Siberia, Alaska, Canada, and Greenland)...worth the effort."
―Miami Herald
“Compelling, intriguing, and thoroughly engaging …The Treeline is a game-changer.”
―Booklist (Starred)
“Rawlence evokes the natural world in lyrical, delicate prose … A timely, urgent message delivered in graceful fashion.”
―Kirkus (Starred)
"Eloquent...Nature lovers and travelers alike will find this a lovely paean to a rapidly changing landscape."
―Publisher's Weekly
"Lyrical and passionate."
―Mail on Sunday
"Clear-headed, perspective-altering book... a beautiful and evocative portrait of the natural world. It is essential reading for those hoping to better understand our changing planet."
―The Spectator
"Rawlence is a fine ecologist and an excellent writer... Timely, salutary and eminently readable. Excellent."
―Resurgence & Ecologist
“The book’s many detailed descriptions of the natural world are coupled with contemporary climate science, making the process of learning about the forest’s inner workings both awe-inspiring and ineffably sad.”
― Undark
"Absolutely fantastic and devastating."
―Emma Gannon, host of Webby nominated podcast Ctrl Alt Delete
"Thought-provoking."
―Gardens Illustrated
"What an extraordinary book this is! ... This is not just a description of a warming world but an active invitation to live differently, to participate with wisdom and humility in the cacophonous and ever-unfinished abundance of terrestrial life."
―Ben Ehrenreich, author of Desert Notebooks
"Utterly illuminating."
―Sophy Roberts, author of The Lost Pianos of Siberia
"In this beautiful homage to the world’s northernmost forests, Ben Rawlence brings the zeal of a journalist and the heart of a naturalist to his journey following the treeline east into the rising sun. As Rawlence explores vast wildwoods of pine, birch, larch, and spruce, he uses alluring prose to present fascinating and challenging ideas of what a forest is: not a static place on a map but a creative, evolutionary process―a “mobile community." Rawlence documents how the treeline is now undergoing one of its greatest transformations with enormous consequences for humanity and the planet. By focusing his formidable curiosity and craft on the arboreal biosphere, Rawlence has given both trees and people an enormous gift."
―M.R. O'Connor, author of Wayfinding
“A moving, thoughtful, deeply reported elegy for our vanishing world and a map of the one to come."
―Nathaniel Rich, author of Losing Earth and Second Nature
"Rawlence takes us on an unforgettable personal tour of the major treelines of the Northern Hemisphere. His prophetic insights on how global climate change is rapidly rewriting the boundaries and biodiversity of earth’s boreal forests are colored by the insights of the botanists, glaciologists, and indigenous peoples he met along the way. The Treeline is a page-turner that poetically challenges us to confront the elephant in the room."
―James McClintock, author of Lost Antarctica and A Naturalist Goes Fishing
"Urgent and insightful tour of some of the world’s strangest, most bewitching and most endangered environments... A tribute to indigenous wisdom, a paean to the otherworldly beauty of the taiga and the tundra, and a highly readable overview of the latest science. This is an important book, and one I will be pressing into other people’s hands."
―Cal Flyn author of Islands of Abandonment
"Evocative, wise and unflinching."
―Jay Griffiths, author of A Sideways Look at Time
★ 12/01/2021
In this work, Rawlence (City of Thorns: Nine Lives in the World's Largest Refugee Camp; Radio Congo) travels the treeline, stopping in northern Scotland, Norway, Siberia, Alaska, northern Canada, and Greenland, describing along the way the tree species (yew, pine, birch, larch, spruce, poplar, ash) that are indigenous to extreme climates. He examines the treeline's steady northward advance as the planet warms, and its implications for life on earth. In accessible and inviting writing, Rawlence demonstrates that the lives of trees impact even sea creatures and ocean currents; he stresses how all lifeforms are connected. His travels also introduce scientists (such as the acclaimed Diana Beresford-Kroeger) and non-scientist Indigenous peoples who study and try to preserve the ecosystems within which these trees thrive. His writing vividly brings readers inside the natural boreal forest settings he visits. In an eloquent epilogue, Rawlence finds that hope comes from recognizing that although much is unknown and mysterious about nature, all people must be stewards of the Earth, making an impact with every personal choice; all evolution is co-evolution, he writes. The book includes a glossary of trees. VERDICT Highly recommended for readers interested in nature, conservation, and climate change. —Caren Nichter, Univ. of Tennessee at Martin
According to this audiobook, boreal forest trees are dying and being replaced with smaller tree species that have literally moved north to take advantage of climate change. But these new trees don’t perform the photosynthesis cycle with the same magnitude that boreal forest trees do. Narrator Jamie Parker uses an intense tone to describe what is happening to these magnificent trees and what scientists predict the result will be. Parker’s British accent enhances Rawlence’s descriptions of these wonderful forests. His performance of the casual conversations among the ordinary people who work in these forests is rendered in cheerful tones, which helps listeners hear what people believe despite what scientists think. They believe the forests will adapt and continue to provide food and oxygen. Only time will tell who is correct. E.E.S. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine
★ 2021-11-16
Trees portend the future of Earth.
A former researcher for Human Rights Watch, Rawlence has reported on vulnerable humans in war-torn Africa and in refugee camps, experiences he potently chronicled in City of Thorns and Radio Congo. His latest investigation focuses on the greatest threat to all life on the planet: climate change. To document global warming, he set out to trace the tree line, the area beyond which trees are not able to grow: “a transition zone between ecosystems” that has moved northward, “no longer a matter of inches per century,” but rather “hundreds of feet every year.” He continues, “the trees are on the move. They shouldn’t be.” The author looks particularly at six trees—three conifers and three broadleaves: Scots pine in Wales; downy birch in Norway; Dahurian larch on the Russian taiga; spruce in Alaska; balsam poplar in Canada; and mountain ash in Greenland. Each reveals a teeming “mosaic of species” as well as indelible practical, cultural, and spiritual contributions to humans. The downy birch, for example, has been used “for tools, houses, fuel, food and medicine, it is home to microbes, fungi and insects central to the food chain and is critical for sheltering other plants needed to make a forest.” Rawlence evokes the natural world in lyrical, delicate prose: the “eerie and unending” dawn in Norway; the “noble air” of the larch; the “sprawling limbs” of the balsam poplar. On his journey, he discussed the issue with scientists, environmentalists, forestry experts, Indigenous peoples, reindeer herders, and farmers. He learned that climate change does not necessarily mean extinction but sometimes overgrowth and that temperature change can disorient animals’ movements. If reindeer, for example, don’t know when to move to winter pastures, their overgrazing can decimate a habitat. Rawlence offers no solutions for changes to come, only hope “in shared endeavor, in transformation, in meaningful work for the common good.” Harper’s botanical drawings complement the text.
A timely, urgent message delivered in graceful fashion.
Product Details
| BN ID: | 2940176247336 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Macmillan Audio |
| Publication date: | 02/15/2022 |
| Edition description: | Unabridged |
Videos
