Ever Green: Saving Big Forests to Save the Planet


Book Description

Clear, provocative, and persuasive, Ever Green is an inspiring call to action to conserve Earth’s irreplaceable wild woods, counteract climate change, and save the planet. Five stunningly large forests remain on Earth: the Taiga, extending from the Pacific Ocean across all of Russia and far-northern Europe; the North American boreal, ranging from Alaska’s Bering seacoast to Canada’s Atlantic shore; the Amazon, covering almost the entirety of South America’s bulge; the Congo, occupying parts of six nations in Africa’s wet equatorial middle; and the island forest of New Guinea, twice the size of California. These megaforests are vital to preserving global biodiversity, thousands of cultures, and a stable climate, as economist John W. Reid and celebrated biologist Thomas E. Lovejoy argue convincingly in Ever Green. Megaforests serve an essential role in decarbonizing the atmosphere—the boreal alone holds 1.8 trillion metric tons of carbon in its deep soils and peat layers, 190 years’ worth of global emissions at 2019 levels—and saving them is the most immediate and affordable large-scale solution to our planet’s most formidable ongoing crisis. Reid and Lovejoy offer practical solutions to address the biggest challenges these forests face, from vastly expanding protected areas, to supporting Indigenous forest stewards, to planning smarter road networks. In gorgeous prose that evokes the majesty of these ancient forests along with the people and animals who inhabit them, Reid and Lovejoy take us on an exhilarating global journey.




Why Forests? Why Now?


Book Description

Tropical forests are an undervalued asset in meeting the greatest global challenges of our time—averting climate change and promoting development. Despite their importance, tropical forests and their ecosystems are being destroyed at a high and even increasing rate in most forest-rich countries. The good news is that the science, economics, and politics are aligned to support a major international effort over the next five years to reverse tropical deforestation. Why Forests? Why Now? synthesizes the latest evidence on the importance of tropical forests in a way that is accessible to anyone interested in climate change and development and to readers already familiar with the problem of deforestation. It makes the case to decisionmakers in rich countries that rewarding developing countries for protecting their forests is urgent, affordable, and achievable.




Let's Save Our Planet: Forests


Book Description

Perfect for future change-makers and eco-conscious kids, Lets Save Our Planet: Forests is a timely and empowering book.




Why REDD will Fail


Book Description

Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD) attempts to address climate change from one angle – by paying developing countries to slow or stop deforestation and forest degradation. Trumpeted as a way to both mitigate climate change and assist countries with development, REDD was presented as a win-win solution. However, there have been few attempts to understand and analyse the overall framework. Why REDD Will Fail argues that the important goals will not be met under the existing REDD regime unless the actual drivers of deforestation and forest degradation are diminished. The book delves into the problematic details of the regime, ranging from; national capacity to monitor results, the funding mechanism, the definition of a forest, leakage, and the impetus behind the drivers of deforestation and forest degradation. As the international community rallies around REDD and developed countries and companies are willing to commit substantial amounts to implement the scheme, this books seeks to address whether REDD has the potential to achieve its purported goals. This is an important resource for academics and students interested in the policy and management aspects of mitigating climate change, environmental policy, international relations and development studies as well as policy makers involved in the REDD process.




Sustaining Life


Book Description

Edited and written by Harvard Medical School physicians Eric Chivian and Aaron Bernstein, Sustaining Life presents a comprehensive--and sobering--view of how human medicines, biomedical research, the emergence and spread of infectious diseases, and the production of food, both on land and in the oceans, depend on on the earth's disappearaing biodiversity. With a foreword by E.O. Wilson and a prologue by Kofi Annan, and more than 200 poignant color illustrations, Sustaining Life contributes essential perspective to the debate over how humans affect biodiversity and a compelling demonstration of the human health costs.




Moral Ecology of a Forest


Book Description

Forests are alive, filled with rich, biologically complex life forms and the interrelationships of multiple species and materials. Vulnerable to a host of changing conditions in this global era, forests are in peril as never before. New markets in carbon and environmental services attract speculators. In the name of conservation, such speculators attempt to undermine local land control in these desirable areas. Moral Ecology of a Forest provides an ethnographic account of conservation politics, particularly the conflict between Western conservation and Mayan ontological ecology. The difficult interactions of the Maya of central Quintana Roo, Mexico, for example, or the Mayan communities of the Sain Ka’an Biosphere, demonstrate the clashing interests with Western biodiversity conservation initiatives. The conflicts within the forest of Quintana Roo represent the outcome of nature in this global era, where the forces of land grabbing, conservation promotion and organizations, and capitalism vie for control of forests and land. Forests pose living questions. In addition to the ever-thrilling biology of interdependent species, forests raise questions in the sphere of political economy, and thus raise cultural and moral questions. The economic aspects focus on the power dynamics and ideological perspectives over who controls, uses, exploits, or preserves those life forms and landscapes. The cultural and moral issues focus on the symbolic meanings, forms of knowledge, and obligations that people of different backgrounds, ethnicities, and classes have constructed in relation to their lands. The Maya Forest of Quintana Roo is a historically disputed place in which these three questions come together.




Forests Forever


Book Description

Fragile kingdoms of innumerable organisms and rich beauty, forests today are both our most plentiful and our most endangered natural resource. Understanding their workings and how to sustain them is imperative to ensuring the future of humanity. John Berger urges us to learn what can be done to preserve these treasures, and he offers here a compelling guide to the complex issues surrounding forest preservation. An expanded and revised version of Berger's bestselling Understanding Forests, Forests Forever offers a clear and readable survey of forest history and management. Berger draws upon diverse sources in law, ecology, economics, politics, and anthropology to argue that ecology, rather than the marketplace, should be the driving force behind forest management. Historical case studies of forests worldwide support this contention, the book reveals, as does the history of governments' forest policy. Keeping pace with today's issues, Berger critically evaluates government policy over the last seven years, including a contrast between the destructive policies of the Bush Administration and model programs instituted by the Canadian Boreal Initiative and others. Ultimately, he offers us the guiding principles of sustainable forestry as an answer to the ever-increasing demand for wood products. Anchoring the account are galleries of breathtaking full-color images of trees, forest, wildlife, and other forestry subjects taken by the world's leading nature photographers. A concise and wholly readable account, Forests Forever issues a call to arms for all those concerned with preserving and managing the world's forests today.




Rainforest


Book Description

Rainforests have long been recognized as hotspots of biodiversity—but they are crucial for our planet in other surprising ways. Not only do these fascinating ecosystems thrive in rainy regions, they create rain themselves, and this moisture is spread around the globe. Rainforests across the world have a powerful and concrete impact, reaching as far as America’s Great Plains and central Europe. In Rainforest: Dispatches from Earth’s Most Vital Frontlines, a prominent conservationist provides a comprehensive view of the crucial roles rainforests serve, the state of the world’s rainforests today, and the inspirational efforts underway to save them. In Rainforest, Tony Juniper draws upon decades of work in rainforest conservation. He brings readers along on his journeys, from the thriving forests of Costa Rica to Indonesia, where palm oil plantations have supplanted much of the former rainforest. Despite many ominous trends, Juniper sees hope for rainforests and those who rely upon them, thanks to developments like new international agreements, corporate deforestation policies, and movements from local and Indigenous communities. As climate change intensifies, we have already begun to see the effects of rainforest destruction on the planet at large. Rainforest provides a detailed and wide-ranging look at the health and future of these vital ecosystems. Throughout this evocative book, Juniper argues that in saving rainforests, we save ourselves, too.




Sustainable Development Goals


Book Description

A global assessment of potential and anticipated impacts of efforts to achieve the SDGs on forests and related socio-economic systems. This title is available as Open Access via Cambridge Core.




Who Saved the Redwoods


Book Description

Powerful lumber interests stood in the way of the first campaigns to save the redwood trees of Humboldt County, California, but they were boldly opposed and pushed back. This history of the early 1900s recalls the Progressive Era crusades of women and men who prevailed against great odds, protecting the best of California’s northern redwood forests. This book tells the forgotten, dramatic story of early 20th-century Californians and other Americans who were the first group to preserve an important span of California’s northern redwood forests, a story never told before in one place. Numerous books have been published about battles to save the redwoods, particularly during the California redwood wars of the 1960s, 1970s and 1990s. But no book exclusively details the first fights during the 1920s and 1930s and portrays the significant role of women. By successfully fending off the logging industry, they paved the way for the modern environmental movement. The book, incorporating archived material that highlights for the first time the prominent role of women, covers the most formative period of early efforts to save the redwoods, the 21 years from 1913 through 1934. The story recounts a colorful moment in time when a paradigm firmly shifted toward preservation and a new generation of native Californians successfully faced down Eastern lumber interests over destruction of their beautiful, ancient forests. The storyline follows a trajectory of initial failure and ridicule, then limited successes, and the determination that overcame the entrenched intransigence of lumber interests. Finally, a historic rush of stunning preservation victories established Humboldt Redwoods State Park as the largest expanse of surviving old-growth redwoods on earth. This book offers a definitive account of a pivotal moment in environmentalism and a new explanation of how forceful, determined people a century ago preserved the great California redwood forests that are now enjoyed by millions of visitors from every corner of earth. This book tells the forgotten, dramatic story of early 20th-century Californians and other Americans who were the first group to preserve an important span of California’s northern redwood forests, a story never told before in one place. By successfully fending off the logging industry, they paved the way for the modern environmental movement. The book, incorporating archived material that highlights for the first time the prominent role of women, covers the most formative period of early efforts to save the redwoods, the 21 years from 1913 through 1934. The story recounts a colorful moment in time when a paradigm firmly shifted toward preservation and a new generation of native Californians successfully faced down Eastern lumber interests over destruction of their beautiful, ancient forests. The storyline follows a trajectory of initial failure and ridicule, then limited successes, and the determination that overcame the entrenched intransigence of lumber interests. Finally, a historic rush of stunning preservation victories established Humboldt Redwoods State Park as the largest expanse of surviving old-growth redwoods on earth. This book offers a definitive account of a pivotal moment in environmentalism and a new explanation of how forceful, determined people a century ago preserved the great California redwood forests that are now enjoyed by millions of visitors from every corner of earth.