Notes from the Rainforest is the diary of two months spent in a cabin on Vancouver Island. The diary consists of entries written at night in the silence of the forest. The entries – absorbing, provocative, playful, and profound – range from philosophical aphorisms to acid comments on the state of communism today, the excesses of the American way of life, the characteristics of Canadian culture, and the vagaries of history and human nature.
In this award-winning environmental history of Cuba since the age of Columbus, Reinaldo Funes Monzote emphasizes the two processes that have had the most dramatic impact on the island's landscape: deforestation and sugar cultivation. During the first 300 years of Spanish settlement, sugar plantations arose primarily in areas where forests had been cleared by the royal navy, which maintained an interest in management and conservation for the shipbuilding industry. The sugar planters won a decisive victory in 1815, however, when they were allowed to clear extensive forests, without restriction, for cane fields and sugar production. This book is the first to consider Cuba's vital sugar industry through the lens of environmental history. Funes Monzote demonstrates how the industry that came to define Cuba--and upon which Cuba urgently depended--also devastated the ecology of the island. The original Spanish-language edition of the book, published in Mexico in 2004, was awarded the UNESCO Book Prize for Caribbean Thought, Environmental Category. For this first English edition, the author has revised the text throughout and provided new material, including a glossary and a conclusion that summarizes important developments up to the present.
Where do tree porcupines live? Author Shirley Najhram's passion for the rain forest spills over onto Layers of the Rainforest, bringing a freshness and newness to the well-loved topic--rainforest. See the rainforest through her eyes of knowledge, experience, and more importantly, love. She weaves a canopy of touching words, painting the layers with heartfelt memories. As long as there are stories like this, every child will have the opportunity to see the Layers of the Rainforest.
Through the magic of close-up photography, the author first asks the reader to identify an object found in a rain forest in a super-close-up picture, with the next page revealing the entire picture.
Photographer Mattias Klum takes us into the soul of the Borneo rainforest. Patiently waiting behind blinds, shooting from platforms high in the trees, or skimming above the forest canopy in a hot air balloon, Klum has captured the mystery, beauty, and complexity of Borneo's renowned but virtually impassable Danum Valley. He mounted the Borneo expedition to photograph the rainforest as it really is: filled with darkness and shadows shot through with streaks of light. Teeming with life, the rainforest promises unexpected encounters with creatures large and small, as its jungle of trees and undergrowth reach for the sky in infinite shades of green. Klum's keen lens captures it all. From a bizarre bearded pig to the increasingly rare Low's pitcher plant, from the king cobra to the delicate damselfly, Borneo Rainforest shows us an ancient, complex, irreplaceable ecosystem. Passionate descriptions and a journal of the expedition's events round out this homage to an extraordinary place.
Today is doomsday for a young Venezuelan Indian boy's beloved rain forest and its animal life—unless he and a visiting naturalist can save it. "George makes drama large and small out of the minute-by-minute events in an ecosystem . . . gripping ecological theater." —C. "An example of nonfiction writing at its best." —SLJ. Notable 1990 Children's Trade Books in Social Studies (NCSS/CBC) Outstanding Science Trade Books for Children 1990 (NSTA/CBC)
The goal of this book is to provide a current overview of the impacts of climate change on tropical forests, to investigate past, present, and future climatic influences on the ecosystems with the highest biodiversity on the planet.Tropical Rainforest Responses to Climatic Change will be the first book to examine how tropical rain forest ecology is altered by climate change, rather than simply seeing how plant communities were altered. Shifting the emphasis onto ecological processes e.g. how diversity is structured by climate and the subsequent impact on tropical forest ecology, provides the reader with a more comprehensive coverage. A major theme of this book that emerges progressively is the interaction between humans, climate and forest ecology. While numerous books have appeared dealing with forest fragmentation and conservation, none have explicitly explored the long term occupation of tropical systems, the influence of fire and the future climatic effects of deforestation, coupled with anthropogenic emissions. Incorporating modelling of past and future systems paves the way for a discussion of conservation from a climatic perspective, rather than the usual plea to stop logging.
Journey into the Rainforest is an adventurous journey through the most magical place on earth. We explore the whole of the forest, from its floor up to the canopy and beyond. Tropical rainforests are the home of millions of strange and beautiful plants and animals - these are captured here in stunning wildlife photography, accompanied by lively text. Tim Knight has lived in the rainforests of South-East Asia, working on nature conservation projects. He regularly lectures in schools, leads youth expeditions and raises funds for the conservation of rainforest wildlife.
Part of the critically acclaimed Over and Under series! Award-winning duo Kate Messner and Christopher Silas Neal take readers on a thrilling tour of one of the most diverse ecosystems on planet earth: the rainforests of Central America. Discover the wonder that lies hidden among the roots, above the winding rivers, and under the emerald leaves of the rainforest. • Features animals like the slender parrot snake to the blue morpho butterfly • Explores the canopies, where toucans and pale-billed woodpeckers chatter and call • Other animals include capuchin monkeys who swing from vines and slow-moving sloths who wait out daily thunderstorms Under the canopy of the rainforest hundreds of animals make their homes, but up in the leaves hides another world. This stunning read is perfect for kids who can't get enough of the rainforest and all the animals living in it. • Equal parts educational and beautiful, this book is perfect for parents and grandparents, as well as librarians, science teachers, and educators. • A great book for kids who love nature, rainforests, animals, and learning more about the world • Perfect for children ages 5 to 8 years old • You'll love this book if you love books like The Big Book of Bugs by Yuval Zommer, The Animal Book by Lonely Planet Kids, and A Butterfly Is Patient by Dianna Aston.
