The Treeline: The Last Forest and the Future of Life on Earth Contributor(s): Rawlence, Ben (Author)

ISBN: 1250905966    EAN: 9781250905963

Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin   

US SRP: $20.00 US  

Binding: Paperback

Pub Date: December 12, 2023

Physical Info: 0.9" H x 8.1" L x 5.3" W (0.6 lbs) 320 pages

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, Canada to Sweden 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 these species' incredible creativity and resilience 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.

Ben Rawlence is a former researcher for Human Rights Watch in the horn of Africa. He is the author of City of Thorns and Radio Congo and has written for a wide range of publications, including The Guardian, the London Review of Books, and Prospect. He is the founder and director of Black Mountains College and lives with his family in Wales.

Winner of the 2023 Helen Bernstein Book Award for Excellence in Journalism

"Original and readable." ―Financial Times' Best Environmental Books of 2022

"Superb, inspiring." ―Winner, National Academies of Science Schmidt Awards for Excellence in Science Communications

"Illuminating." --Silver Medalist, National Outdoor Book Awards

Longlisted for the American Library Association's 2023 Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction

Finalist, 2023 Banff Mountain Book Competition

Finalist, 2023 Dayton Literary Peace Prize