“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.

How to improve living standards and promote economic growth throughout the world while still maintaining our natural resources and environmental quality.

The world has witnessed several revolutions since the dawn of industrial revolution some two centuries ago. During the current century itself, three revolutions in the area of communication, information processing and quality have taken place and each time the standard of living of man improved beyond predictions. But during the same period, the world population has also phenomenally increased dwarfing the gains achieved from the development. Increased level of industrial activity to meet the of humanity has caused irreversible damage to the pristine environment that the demand Earth once had. Economic disparity between the haves and havenots has widened, aggravating the situation further more. Ozone layer depletion, warming up of Earth's atmosphere and the pollution created by uncontrolled industrial activity to gain economic strength are now assuming the proportion of a catastrophe that may eventually threaten the survival of life on Earth. Developed countries blame the Third World countries for the uncontrolled emissions through burning of fossil fuels and for wasting precious resources of energy by using inefficient and uneconomical technologies, while the developed countries are equally responsible for avoidable oV,er-consumption and for the wastage of resources and energy and for not sharing the improved and efficient technologies with the developing countries. Thus the wastage by both these set of countries continues unabated. After all, resources of the world are finite and are meant to be shared by all its inhabitants.