“An eye-opening and enchanting book by one of our major scientist-explorers.” —Diane Ackerman, author of The Zookeeper’s Wife Nicknamed the “Real-Life Lorax” by National Geographic, the biologist, botanist, and conservationist Meg Lowman—aka “CanopyMeg”—takes us on an adventure into the “eighth continent” of the world's treetops, along her journey as a tree scientist, and into climate action Welcome to the eighth continent! As a graduate student exploring the rain forests of Australia, Meg Lowman realized that she couldn’t monitor her beloved leaves using any of the usual methods. So she put together a climbing kit: she sewed a harness from an old seat belt, gathered hundreds of feet of rope, and found a tool belt for her pencils and rulers. Up she went, into the trees. Forty years later, Lowman remains one of the world’s foremost arbornauts, known as the “real-life Lorax.” She planned one of the first treetop walkways and helps create more of these bridges through the eighth continent all over the world. With a voice as infectious in its enthusiasm as it is practical in its optimism, The Arbornaut chronicles Lowman’s irresistible story. From climbing solo hundreds of feet into the air in Australia’s rainforests to measuring tree growth in the northeastern United States, from searching the redwoods of the Pacific coast for new life to studying leaf eaters in Scotland’s Highlands, from conducting a BioBlitz in Malaysia to conservation planning in India and collaborating with priests to save Ethiopia’s last forests, Lowman launches us into the life and work of a field scientist, ecologist, and conservationist. She offers hope, specific plans, and recommendations for action; despite devastation across the world, through trees, we can still make an immediate and lasting impact against climate change. A blend of memoir and fieldwork account, The Arbornaut gives us the chance to live among scientists and travel the world—even in a hot-air balloon! It is the engrossing, uplifting story of a nerdy tree climber—the only girl at the science fair—who becomes a giant inspiration, a groundbreaking, ground-defying field biologist, and a hero for trees everywhere. Includes black-and-white illustrations

The Living Land sets out a new 'stakeholder' vision for rural regeneration in Europe. It integrates three themes: sustainable agriculture, localised food systems and rural community development. All three offer ways of rebuilding natural and social capital, and a large 'sustainability dividend' is waiting to be released from current practices - creating more jobs, more wealth and better lives from less.

This book is intended primarily for serious students of geography but it will also appeal to the general reader. For this reason technical terms have been used as sparingly as is consistent with correct meaning. Wherever the subject matter permits, the author emphasizes geographical growth and shows the interaction of geographical environment and the human activity and institutions. When originally published in the 1960s China was beginning to change with breathtaking rapidity. These changes are presented here against geographical and historical background. Knowledge of the environmental facts is essential to an appreciation of the political, economic, and social problems that have faced the Chinese people.

Authors Paul Polak and Mal Warwick describe their Zero-Based Design of starting from scratch to create innovative products and services tailored for the very poor to show how their design principles and vision can enable unapologetic capitalists to supply the very poor with clean drinking water, electricity, irrigation, housing, education, health care, and other necessities at a fraction of the usual cost and at profit margins attractive to investors.