The Treeline: The Last Forest and the Future of Life on Earth

by Ben Rawlence Narrated by Jamie Parker

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

From the Publisher

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

Kirkus Reviews

★ 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

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