Natural Science / Natural History > Environment / Ecology

Tim Flannery's first major book since The Weather Makers charts the history of life on our planet. Here on Earth, which draws its points of departure from Darwin and Wallace, Lovelock and Dawkins, is an extraordinary exploration of evolution and sustainability. Our success as a species has had disastrous effects on many of the Earth's ecosystems and could lead to our downfall. But equally, Flannery argues, we are now equipped as never before to explore our true relationship with the planet on which our biological, economic and cult... read more

A terrifying glimpse of the none-too-distant future, when climate change will force the world's powers into a struggle for advantage and even survival. Dwindling resources, massive population shifts, natural disasters. These are some of the expected consequences of runaway climate change, and any of them could tip the world towards conflict.

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Jean-Paul Fortom-Gouin, aka the Phantom, is a man on an anti-whaling mission who wangles his way on to the International Whaling Commission with a snappy suit and ticket from the Panamanian government. Ches Stubbs, skipper of the whaling ship Cheynes III, is known for his long-range skills with a harpoon. Just like Ahab, Ches loses a leg while whaling and, just like a pirate, sails with a pet cockatoo that happens to have a penchant for gnawing on naked toes. These are just two of the real-life characters captured with heart and hu... read more

What does climate change mean? How will global warming affect our lives? Is it the cause of wilder storms and more frequent droughts? Are these events inevitable? Tim Flannery makes this urgent issue completely accessible. He tells the fascinating story of climate change over millions of years to help us understand the predicament we face. By burning fossil fuels we are increasing the levels of greenhouse gases in our atmosphere, causing our planet to become warmer. Every nation is affected differently by these changes but we have ... read more

An Explorer's Notebook is an exhilarating selection of Tim Flannery's essays and articles written over a period of twenty-five years.

An Explorer's Notebook is an exhilarating selection of Tim Flannery's essays and articles written over a period of twenty-five years. In them we see his evolution from the young scientist doing fieldwork in remote locations to the major thinker who has changed the way we all think about climate and the threat that global warming presents to our planet. Flannery writes about his journeys in the jungles of New Guinea and Irian Jaya, about the extraordinary people he met and the species he discovered. He writes about population, wa... read more

Climate change, energy crises, environmental pressures, population stress, economic instability and inequity: is this a world on the brink of catastrophe? There's reason to think so. But, as this crucial new book explains, these 'tectonic stresses', massive and frightening though they are, are not the end of the story. From the precarious moment in which we now find ourselves, Thomas Homer-Dixon looks back to ancient Rome and the fall of another great civilization. He shows in lucid and compelling terms how breakdown looms when ... read more

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There's so much in the news about what's wrong with the planet. This book tells you how to make it right again - from using 'green' energy to reducing rubbish and giving planet-friendly gifts. It includes: informative and fun text, activities to test your knowledge, a glossary to explain new words, websites where you can find out more, and an index.

A panoramic book about a scientist and a continent, a fascinating work of travel and natural history, of contemporary culture and the patterns of history. Flannery encounters ancient Aboriginal cultures, examines Europeans trying to understand this singular environment, and conducts a remarkable enquiry into the evolution of the kangaroo.

Like many of us, Fred Pearce works hard from a city base, cares for his family and tries fitfully to do his bit for the planet. But travelling across the world to track his personal 'footprint', he finds himself questioning an extraordinary number of accepted truths. Perhaps his well-intentioned efforts are not so good after all. Should Kenyan green beans go right back on his shopping list? Should he stop campaigning for a clean coastline and start shouting, 'Save wildlife, sh** on the beach'? While he's at it, should he be cheerin... read more

Only a few hardcore hessian-wearing hippies want to go 'all the way' on the green scale. And yet - there is a strong groundswell of interest in all things 'green' as fears about the food chain, climate change, plummeting biodiversity and the sustainability of our current lifestyles take hold. So if you want to change the world without completely changing your life, what do you do? Buy "Shades of Green". "Shades of Green" is an easy-to-use, A-Z . Each entry has a short introduction then as many 'shades of green' as are appropriate f... read more

The Eden Project is all about quality of life. About understanding our world better and the part we play in it. Now is the most exciting time to live since we came down from the trees. Whatever our political persuasion and whatever the cause if it, all people agree that our wasteful world has to change. And each one of us has the power to make a difference. The Little Book of Big Ideas is full of food for thought ... Bite-sized chunks of information: *Everybody knows that plants make air, food, medicines and so on, but they can al... read more

The Eden Project has been described as the eighth wonder of the world. In the four years since it opened in a barren china clay pit in Cornwall, it has been visited by more than five million of us. We leave inspired and invigorated by the way it reminds us of one simple fact: that plants and people are interdependent. Without plants, we all die. Plants for biodiversity, plants for food, plants for health, plants for materials .. Out of Eden is designed to carry Eden's message way beyond the pit. Taking the exhibits

We all know the Earth is in crisis. We should know that it is big enough to sustain us if we can only mobilise politicians and economists to change course now. This book explores environmental, economic and social ideas to save our planet. It helps us understand what is happening to the planet today, exposes the actions of corporations and the lack of action of governments, weighs up new technologies, and champions innovative and viable solutions. Tackling a huge range of subjects - it has the potential to become the seminal refere... read more

The rocky reefs that ring New Zealand's coastline provide some of our most stunning natural 'landscapes'. From the vertical walls and caves of the Poor Knights Islands to the unlimited visibility and bizarre life forms under the sea ice of Antarctica, our coastal waters support an astounding array of marine organisms. <i>The Living Reef</i> is the most significant insight into this remarkable undersea world to be published for 30 years. The book is composed of 32 chapters which focus on key species of fish, animal and... read more

Humans first settled the islands of Australia, New Zealand, New Caledonia, and New Guinea some sixty millennia ago, and as they had elsewhere across the globe, immediately began altering the environment by hunting and trapping animals and gathering fruits and vegetables. In this illustrated iconoclastic ecological history, acclaimed scientist and historian Tim Flannery follows the environment of the islands through the age of dinosaurs to the age of mammals and the arrival of humanity on its shores, to the coming of European coloni... read more

The Eternal Frontier contains an enormous wealth of fascinating details, and Tim Flannery

The story of how human beings have consumed the resources they need for their own future. The book examines the first Afro-Asian people to travel down the chain of islands to Australasia and how they changed the flora and fauna, and the impact Europeans have made.