A Forest Journey: The Role of Trees in the Fate of Civilization by John Perlin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Very comprehensive in covering thousands of years of cutting down trees.
This book had a new edition released in February 2023 by Patagonia, which adds many photos and images in addition to text material. It’s hard for me to determine exactly all that is new, but certainly anything that is dated after the original release in 1989.
The book covers just about all of human civilization, going way back to when people started using trees for nearly everything. From building fires to keep warm, houses and buildings, tools, furniture and really just about everything. When we reach the iron age wood is needed for fuel to burn in the furnaces. In the later centuries wood was needed for ship building, particularly large trees for masts.
Wood has been part of human life and civilization growth since the beginning, and yet it has always been treated as an endless source that will never disappear. Perlin shows us that is otherwise, how landscapes have changed.
There is a bit of focus on the clearcutting that went on since the beginning of human civilizations with a focus on the west. Perlin does try to cover the globe but misses a few areas, several I wished he did cover (Easter Island for one). The bulk of the book discusses England then a larger section, nearly a third of the book, is about North America.
It seems humans have learned nothing about destroying forests, about what happened in the past, nor about how acting only for the immediate now will effect the future.
At times I found the information overwhelming in repetition of deforestation, and other times amazed at how many things wood is used for. I learned about countries and history and without forests, trees, wood, we would not able to sustain our way of life today. And yet we cannot regrow ancient forests, quickly. Some trees need to be left to grow, and certainly we can have some for use.
Did I mention the beautiful photographs? This is an incredible book.
Thank you to Patagonia and NetGalley for an advance review electronic copy of the book. However, I did listen to audiobook version for reading. I used the eBook for viewing the amazing images and photographs.
No comments:
Post a Comment