Deep Jungle: Journey To The Heart Of The Rainforest - Couverture souple

Pearce, Fred

Couverture souple

ISBN 10 : 1903919568 ISBN 13 : 9781903919569

Editeur : Eden Project Books, 2006

Synopsis

Unusual book

A propos du livre

Présentation de l'éditeur :

DEEP JUNGLE is an exploration of the most alien and feared habitat on Earth. Starting with man's earliest recorded adventures, Fred Pearce journeys high into the canopy - home to two-thirds of all the creatures on our planet, many of whom never come down to earth. During his travels he encounters all manner of fantastic flora and fauna, including a frog that can glide from tree to tree, a spider that can drag live chickens into its burrow and a flower that smells of decaying flesh.

It is in the jungle that Pearce discovers secrets about how evolution works, the intricate links that connect us all, and maybe even clues to where humans came from - here is the key to our future foods and medicines, our climate and our understanding of how life works. At the start of a new millennium Pearce asks why we continue to waste precious time - and billions of dollars - looking for signs of life elsewhere in our universe when the greatest range of life-forms that have ever existed lies right here on our doorstep. Today environmentalists say we are on the verge of destroying the last rainforests, and with them the planet's evolutionary crucible, and maybe even its ability to maintain life on Earth. But nature has a way of getting its own back. The Mayans and the people of Angkor went too far in manipulating nature and paid the ultimate price. Their civilisations died and the jungle returned. Nature reclaimed it's own and it may do so again ...

Quatrième de couverture :

From the world's largest rainforest in the Amazon to the leech-infested wilds of Sumatra, Fred Pearce journeys high into the canopy - home to two-thirds of all creatures on our planet - and encounters flying frogs, huge spiders, a flower that smells of decaying flesh, and all manner of other fantastic flora and fauna.

Travelling with the twenty-first century's new breed of bounty-hunters - scientists using cutting-edge technology to explore a truly alien world - Pearce offers us a new perspective on the rainforest, so often described as the 'heart and lungs of our planet'. From the great architects of Angkor Wat to the ancient Mayans, past civilizations have 'conquered' jungles yet none have survived to tell the tale. Are we on the verge of destroying our planet's most precious resource, or will nature reclaim its own? Is the jungle a green heaven or hell?

'...a fascinating piece of work. It contains a wealth of facts, legend and argument that should be of interest to anyone with any curiosity about the history and future of the planet.' Sunday Tribune

'A fascinating exploration of the rainforest' The Ecologist

À propos de cette édition

• Éditeur: Eden Project Books
• Date d'édition: 2006
• ISBN 10: 1903919568
• ISBN 13: 9781903919569
• Reliure: Broché
• Nombre de pages: 320