Fred PearceReseñas

An accomplished science and nature writer takes on a ubiquitous topic: tree canopy. This was a thorough and well-researched story on what our global forests have been through, how they are recovering from various attempts at clearcutting to use the land for something else, and where humans should (and shouldn't!) intervene to help that recovery along. This would be a good title for the lover of nature in your life, as it gives a relatable message of why we should care about the state of the Earth's tree cover, and how we can actually help it.

A Trillion Trees is a look into how trusting nature might be the solution to reforesting to aide with the battle against climate change, restore ecosystems, and halt species extinction. Library Thing Early Reviewers provided an Advance Reader Copy in exchange for a review. By now (August 2023) some of the information may be outdated, however, it is a remarkable snapshot of this planet's forests. Pearce's voice and experience combine to create a consistent narrative flow through the work. He shows repeatedly how humankind has created this situation and how nature will persevere. There isn't a clear check list for the best-path forward through the woods, various forests show how they are taking charge and growing.½

Excerpt from a longer article:

Timely Take-aways for Life-long Learners: Trees and Forests
Whether exploring the impact of climate change or the restoration of forests, several new books examine individual trees, tree ecology, and forests of the world.
...
A Trillion Trees: Restoring Our Forests by Trusting in Nature
Fred Pearce, Apr 2022, Greystone Books
Themes: Nature, Plants, Trees
Pearce weaves interviews with indigenous people into an exploration of forests of the world, their destruction, and their recovery.
Take-aways: Pearce’s investigation provides a wide range of ideas for forest recovery that address the many forces driving change. Involve youth in discussing these forces.

...
Whether helping educators keep up-to-date in their subject-areas, promoting student reading in the content-areas, or simply encouraging nonfiction leisure reading, teacher librarians need to be aware of the best new titles across the curriculum and how to activate life-long learning. - Annette Lamb

A Trillion Trees is a very extensive study of trees all over the world. We may all have heard about the beneficial effect of trees and forests, but do we really know the facts of what is being done. The author, Fred Pearce, has been all over the world studying how different countries deal with their trees, and he shares his knowledge in detailed stories of all the various places he has been. There are success stories and some not so successful. But Pearce maintains optimism throughout, displaying an implicit trust in how human beings are tackling the problem. A very instructive and valuable book for anyone interested in the environment.

A book that is particularly relevant in this time of wildfire devastation, A Trillion Trees reminds us of how vastly important trees are to the health of our planet. Our misguided attempts to control the forests have led to increased problems. A balance must be struck between conservation and letting nature do what it does best.

hardback

Just the sort of book I enjoy: Pearce has traveled widely to interesting forested places, met fascinating people in those places, and tells us about them while adding in relevant pieces from recent scholarly literature. He offers a balanced and even somewhat optimistic look at the state of the world's forests, and importantly notes that solutions that might work in one place or one forest may well not be the best solutions for other places.

Terrific book, balanced, about one of the most important topics of our time. Highly recommend.½

I will admit I was a little uncertain when it comes to an entire book about trees. But Pearce has a writing and narrative style that captured my attention and made this into a definite page-turner. Be prepared for your understanding and beliefs about the deforestation crisis to be challenged and enlightened. The problems are more complex than I understood, but the solutions may actually be much simpler.

(Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from the publisher as part of LibraryThing's Early Reviewers program in exchange for an honest review.)

A Trillion Trees is one the rare, hopeful books from an environmental perspective. The deforestation of much of the earth’s landmass has been a constant. I remember hearing about Amazonian deforestation back when I was in school and to this day, there are alarming stories of reckless deforestation. However, Fred Pearce demonstrates how again and again, forests surprise us with their persistent resilience.

In the first part of the book, Pearce writes about the many ways trees make life possible. I think nearly everyone knows about photosynthesis. Trees are the world’s lungs breathing in carbon dioxide and breathing out oxygen. That’s cool, but trees do so much more. For example, they alter the temperature of the surrounding area. They also form “flying rivers” bring rain to the interior. They make the planet livable. And they are in trouble.

In the second part, Pearce breaks readers’ hearts by recounting so many ways trees are being over-harvested and destroyed. He reviews the history of harvesting and the many uses trees serve in business.

In the third part, he talks about government efforts to reforest, to save the trees by planting more. Tree-planting is popular with many companies offering to plant a tree if you buy x, y, or z. Reading the book raised my awareness of the many corporate programs that plant trees. But it turns out not all tree planting is the same and really, trees know better than we do what needs to happen.

While there may be a U.N. plan to plant a trillion trees, but Pearce argues that we will make more progress if we listened to the people living where the trees are and trust trees to rewild themselves more effectively that the more typical tree plantations that get planted.

This book made me feel a rare bit of environmental optimism. Glaciers are melting, sea levels are rising, and we have increasingly extreme weather, but trees are making a comeback. Pearce makes a good argument for stricter limits on tree-cutting and tree-planting that listens to indigenous people among the trees and to the trees themselves.

I only have one quibble, but it’s a big one. The book felt repetitious, saying the same thing again and again. It is optimistic. The most interesting part was the first, learning how wonderful trees and miraculous trees are. It got boring at times, mostly because I felt he was driving the point home again and again.

I received an ARC of A Trillion Trees from the publisher through Shelf Awareness

A Trillion Trees at Greystone Books
Fred Pearce at Yale School of the Environment and at The Guardian

https://tonstantweaderreviews.wordpress.com/2022/12/24/a-trillion-trees-by-fred-...

I have a son who is very Forest Sensitive and reads a great deal about forest damage, reforestation, etc. I thought I'd read A Trillion Trees: Restoring Our Forests by Trusting in Nature to educate myself a bit so that I could engage on this subject with my son. After reading the book, which took me a bit of time, I feel far more knowledgeable about trees, climate, forests, and numerous other issues the Mr. Pearce addresses in this book, but I think I could have started with a less dense book for my purposes.

Attention to climate change is sorely needed, so I’m glad this book exists. However, Pearce’s writing wasn’t my cup of tea. I couldn’t help comparing it to other environmental books I’ve read this year, which I found both more grounded and more hopeful. I realize the last part of the book actually gets around to solutions, but I struggled with the first section (and the overriding theme of “Trees do this! And this! And this too! Even though no mainstream scientists think so!” and I could not make myself slog through the doom and gloom of the middle. Maybe this will speak to someone else, though.

It’s just a guess, but scientists suggest that there are probably about 100 to 400 billion stars in the Milky Way, and possibly as many planets. Put together they would still fall short of the number of trees on earth—some three trillion.

That’s a lot of wood. Yet in terms of climate control, we could use more, hence the title of journalist Fred Pearce’s book, A Trillion Trees: Restoring Our Forests by Trusting in Nature (Greystone Books, $27.95).

A trillion more trees? Well, why not just plant them, and grow our way out of climate change? Certainly there are any number of world-wide organizations dedicated to doing just that, planting as many trees as possible.

To boil Pearce’s premise down to three words: not so fast. The notion that climate woes can be solved solely through reforestation is far too simplistic. More trees, to be sure, they’ll help. But how and where?, and through whose aegis?, are questions that can’t be avoided. As Pearce notes, “... planting trees where there were none before requires extreme care and is often best avoided. They may do more environmental harm than good.”

And while planting might be warranted in some cases, Pearce makes the startling suggestion (to me, at least), of letting nature do the work: “So, if not by more planting across the world’s desert and grasslands, how should we regreen our planet? In most places, most of the time, the best answer is not to plant at all.”

The London-based Pearce has been reporting on the environment for four decades. He has visited forests in scores of countries and he is, make no mistake, a fan of trees who completely believes, “A planet with a trillion more trees would be a much better place.”

It’s just that he’s also clear-eyed about human nature, our penchant for bungling, for ignoring the facts before our eyes, for greed, for corruption that can befoul any seemingly noble effort. Therefore, “...the last thing we need is a big planet-wide project to go out and plant them….We don’t have to do the planting. We shouldn’t do the planting. Nature will mostly do it for us. And she will do it better. If we stand back and give them room, forests will grow.”

There’s a big “if” in there, naturally, but to embroider his optimistic premise Pearce structures the book into four sections, weaving in his various travels into the woods. He opens his first chapter (“Trees Are Cool”) by simply describing the wonder of trees, their contributions to the planet beyond mere photosynthesis, forests acting as vast organisms to create clouds, winds, weather, all working to keep the planet cool and moist. They work to our benefit—if not particularly for it—says Pearce: “Trees release moisture to make a world fit for more trees.”
That only works to a point, and the second section, “From Paradise to Plunder,” is the sobering scorecard of how deforestation has brought us to the tipping point of human endeavor overcoming nature’s recuperative powers. The destruction to the Amazonian rain forest gets it due here, but Pearce grimly points out other equally stark and infuriating incidences of wanton forest clearing.

And while plenty of bad actors are the main contributors to the devastation, Pearce doesn’t let any of us completely off the hook: “Most of us eat rainforests in our burgers, wear rainforests in our shoes, feed rainforests into our printers, wash ourselves in rainforest soap, spread rainforests on our bread and even drive our cars on rubber from former rainforests.”

Suitably chastened, readers can move on to the good news in the “Rewilding” section, in which Pearce depicts the resiliency of trees, the ability of forests to regenerate themselves, and the welcome trends of regrowth around the world.

In the final section Pearce makes a convincing case for putting forests under local, often Indigenous control. Contrary to once-accepted theory, it is not outsiders who step in to defend the land that are most effective; the forest inhabitants themselves are the practitioners who can lead to greater restorations.

It should be said that the book is dense with statistical matter only partially alleviated by anecdote. One wishes here and there for a bit more narrative spark and human interaction. But Pearce is writing about science, not wanderlust, and he does that lucidly indeed. One can only wish the book would be put into the hands of policy makers. Even more pointedly, that they would read it, come to the conviction that trees are indeed cool, and act accordingly.

[A version of this review, with illustration, is at http://theaposition.com/tombedell/golf/lifestyle/9166/seeing-the-forests-for-the...

A Trillion Trees is an on-the-ground account of the effort to preserve the forests of the earth. The author reports from wide ranging locations such as Uganda, Brazil, Russia and Canada. The preservation efforts are complicated by politics, weather, geography and economics but Pearce shows us that nature can restore itself if given a chance.

I’m reminded of the Chernobyl nuclear plant disaster. The area around the plant was off limits for more than 30 years and in that time both the forests and the animals survived and even thrived without any human intervention.

So there are details of destruction and despair in this book but also glimmers of hope. Jair Bolsonaro recently lost his election to Luiz Inacio Lula de Silva and that is a win for the Brazilian rain forests. This is an uphill battle but Pearce presents it on a very personal and approachable level and shows the reader that letting nature rebound on its own can be an important part of the solution.

I am a lover of trees and every time I see any cut down, I am sad and angry. Obviously, we have problems resulting from loss, including landslides, wild animal imbalance & habitat loss, and air pollution. I think we should improve existing housing rather than cut down forests & build fancy new neighborhoods with the lumber. However, the author, while acknowledging how destructive clearcutting has been, simply argues that it's not so bad after all. We, the environmentalists & conservationists, i.e., the white educated people, just need to let the Indigenous people and the "locals" manage their forests in their own ways. He cites facts such as how certain forests are still around despite being entirely cut down, tree by tree over many years. He cites the existence of trees over 200 years old, or older, in certain places. He notes that new trees are springing up in heavily-cleared tropical areas which, after stripped of value, still survive because Nature knows what it's doing and doing it best. Humans interfere with Nature by deforestation, but Humans should not interfere with Nature by attempting to replace trees. This is the apparent answer. The work spans the globe, featuring examples from North America, South America, Africa, Eastern Europe, and the Far East. There's a good list of Further Reading at the end. This review is in exchange for a free ARC from the publisher & LibraryThing Early Reviewers.

This is a book about hope. After decades of destruction, forests appear to be making a comeback. The book does start out on a depressing note as the author chronicles the losses of forests in Brazil, Indonesia, Africa and elsewhere. Many governments are now getting behind the idea of forest restoration, with impressive results.

Will this last as the world's population continues to increase with a continuing rise in the demand for natural resources? One can only hope.

This book was provided through Librarything Early Review Program.½

AS a budding environmentalist, I have not necessarily paid attention to trees and forests. By reading this book I realized that maybe everything else we do to save the environment doesn't matter if we don't preserve the trees.

Fred Pearce's A Trillion Trees is great eye-opening education on the action and importance of trees and forests in the Earth's overall biosphere and hydrosphere, the practices and policies that threaten that importance (contributing to local and possibly global climate changes), plus plenty of high-profile plans mitigate or reverse the damage that don't seem to work so well and some quieter ones that do.

There's a lot in there, and it can feel like a lot to absorb, but it's all woven together nicely and presented in a story-telling style that I found easy to read and follow. Even if I don't remember every event and concept presented, I did come away with a significantly expanded understanding of the important role trees and forests play in Earth's climate, how the effects of that role has changed over time in response to extensive logging and deforesting, replanting projects, and both government and indigenous approaches to land and forest management.

If you're interested in and/or concerned about Earth's climate and water cycles, how they've changed over time, and what we might be doing to them, A Trillion Trees feels like a must-read.

i think this is notable book about the ecology of trees and our reliance on them , restoration efforts now put forth to help trees/ forest thrive, very interesting for those who care about nature

This is a book you can't gloss over when reading It requires a fair amount of concentration but is well worth it. This book outlines how integral trees are to the globe for environmental and meterological reasons. The author is an environmental journalist and recounts his travels and issues in different parts of the globe, mostly as a result of deforestation. He brings up valid points regarding current efforts to plant more trees and explains that indigenous cultures knew how to preserve and maintain forests, understanding their value. Part of his point in the book is to stop deforestation before it harms the earth. Barring this planting trees must take into account the need for biodiversity of the trees to insure that the interconnectedness trees have with one another continues. This interconnectedness assists other vegetation and animals that interconnect with the forest.
This book also explains how integral trees are through their transpiration and storage of carbon dioxide. Surprisingly, he explains how indigenous cultures knew that natural burnings of forests actually helps the forest by clearing growth, enriching the soil and encouraging seeds to propagate. In short, he is almost saying leave the forests alone and they will recover what is lost rather than trying to articially try to recover for the forest through these plantings.

I received this print book as and ARC from Graystone Books, and it took a long time to read because these old eyes usually read ebooks where I can enlarge the print.

Nevertheless, I found the book intriguing, and informative beyond what many are aware of. That in showing how much we need the forests, the tipping points we are reaching in our relentless destructive drive, the missteps in reforestation together with the misdirection of aspects of current conservation "wisdom", and why we should let Nature restore our decimated forests and biodiversity, as opposed to business as usual. What do you think got us into and is exacerbating this mess?

I found this enlightening book both saddening and hopeful, and I believe it is essential reading for everyone in these times.

"Forests long ago made our planet's atmosphere, environment and life-support systems. And they still do it. We mess with their life-support systems at our peril."

My hat is off to those like this author that are trying to expand our understanding of the overriding environmental dilemma we face, especially with so many, consciously or unconsciously, choosing nescience.

Fred Pearce’s A Trillion Trees: Restoring Our Forests by Trusting in Nature is a surprisingly engaging book that explores the science of how forests work and how vital trees are to the ecological stability and welfare of the Earth’s ecosystem. Pearce’s narrative skills make the material understandable for the layman. This is scientific and ecological/environmental nature writing at its finest. In Section One of the book, Pearce presents one illuminating example after another, in which we learn of the precise meteorological forces, beholden to forests and trees, that keep our planet in balance. Each chapter can be seen as another intriguing adventure, illustrating a particular facet of the trees’ biochemical processes at work. Section Two proceeds to chronicle the various ways in which man has systematically encroached on the world’s forestry. Section Three discusses recent successes in reforestation and natural regeneration. And Section Four discusses perhaps the last best hope of maintaining what’s left of many of the world’s great forests: the indigenous caretakers - the defenders of the forest commons who often are more acutely attuned to the trees’ needs than the foresters, environmentalists and other outsiders. In his fitting postscript, the author provides the relatively small but significant nineteenth century case of Wandsworth Common in London, a thousand year old park space owned by the Spensers, an aristocratic family who wanted to sell the land to speculators for housing. The public outcry and mass protest was such that the Spensers scuttled the plan with Wandsworth Common remaining common land for the common use of the common people in perpetuity. If this example of the preserving common spaces on a small scale is meaningful, then the importance of retaining our woodlands cannot be overstated.

A Trillion Trees - Restoring Our Forests by Trusting in Nature by Fred Pearce is one of the most important books I've read this year. Much has been made in recent years of the catastrophe of the destruction of the rain forests in Brazil as well as the loss of large intact forests in Asia and around the world. A Trillion Trees goes into depth about the state of forest cover around the world and what that means for Earth's climate as a whole and for the local effects of forest loss.

The book is divided into four parts. Part one explores some of the science of how trees affect the weather, climate, and land health in a very readable and enjoyable way. The author tells a good story in such a way that it's easy to understand a complex subject.

Part two goes into the history and current state of deforestation around the world, while part three is titled Rewilding which discusses the more hopeful and intricate questions around planting trees. If I have any complaint about this book it is that part two was so disheartening that I had a very difficult time continuing to read it. My life, and I think the state of the world we live in right now, is complicated and scary if you care at all about the environment and politics. It is difficult to willingly read more bad news. The good news comes in part three. I would have appreciated perhaps a blending of the two parts in such a way that the information is still clearly there but easier to feel hopeful about.

Part four discusses the cultural and societal uses of forests and makes some excellent points about the wisdom inherent in nature and also in traditional cultures who have lived within forests for ages. This is one place the book really shines. Moving forward into our collective future is going to require some rethinking about how we manage Earth's resources. Continually being honest and pragmatic about what actually improves the health of the environment and all of the people on the planet is going to be more and more important as we try to counteract the effects of industrialization, etc. I think the ideas in this book need to be continually tested and treated with the urgency that they deserve and I thank Fred Pearce for writing this book.

Mr. Pearce, a long time environmental journalist, argues in this book that the best thing we can do to sequester carbon in forests is to let indigenous people and the trees themselves manage the world's forests. He makes a convincing case but of course various international and national government entities are already involved. This is a realistic and overall optimistic book about the future of the world's forests.

Forests are a lovely thing. They (re)generate rainfall and enrich the soil. They provide food, timber and more for people, while providing prime habitat for other living things. Forests moderate the local weather and help stabilize the climate, but we’ve destroyed vast areas of forest, and so we get initiatives to plant more trees. In this book. Fred Pearce argues against that approach. What’s needed instead is to let the forests regrow themselves, and empower the indigenous peoples who live there manage them. The book is his evidence for that argument.

I enjoyed this book. The early chapters taught me things I didn’t know about forests, including some archaeological evidence that contradicts what history taught about major forests, including the Amazon rainforest (not the untouched state of nature that we thought). It gets into complexities of deforestation, including some that has nothing to do with using the land that is cleared. Later chapters compare the performance of government- and NGO-sponsored forest preserves to that of the actively managed forests of indigenous peoples. It seems that removing the population and declaring a protected area hasn’t done of great job of protecting remaining forests, especially compared to the husbandry of forest-dwelling cultures.

There’s a lot in this book, but Pearce’s writing style makes for pleasant reading. If you have any interest in the topic, I think you’ll enjoy this book.