Rainforest : dispatches from earth's most vital frontlines /

Destruction of rain forests remains central to the environmental problems of today, as one of the major causes of the extinction crisis and global climate change. This book by the current chair of Natural England, a non-departmental public body of the UK, provides a wide-ranging update to the scope of the problem. The first few chapters provide scientific background on rain forest ecosystems and their importance for biodiversity and climate. The majority of chapters, forming the middle part of the book, together comprise a global tour of rain forests, focusing on the people living in them and the reasons for deforestation. Juniper gives firsthand accounts of his work as an environmental advocate for the rain forests. The book's final chapters describe existing international agreements and campaigns to slow deforestation. Endnotes provide the sources for the information covered in the book. This work illustrates the complexity of the deforestation problem, showing how poverty in tropical countries has interacted with destructive policies of the wealthy countries (including those enacted through the World Bank and large corporations) to destroy vast areas of rain forest. This book is essential reading for anyone who wants a better future for our planet. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers. --Mark P. Gustafson, Texas Lutheran University

Environmentalist Juniper has a decades-long history of work in forest conservation and currently serves as chair of Natural England, the country's official government conservation agency. He tackles the rain forest as a topic from multiple angles in this heavily researched, smartly written, and singularly important title. Moving beyond discussion of the Amazon region, home to planet's best-known rain forest, he shares the history of the term (it entered the mainstream with the 1952 publication of The Tropical Rain Forest, by P. W. Richards), touches on the accurate use of descriptors like green ocean and sky rivers, and takes readers around the world as he tracks the significance of rain forests on several continents. Most important, he explains the far-reaching effects of rain forests, explaining how they serve as freshwater systems, recycling rain in areas surprisingly distant from their own geography. Consider this: the Amazon system moves about one-fifth of all freshwater traveling in the Earth's rivers. This is science writing at its best, an immersive read with a powerful message about why what happens in one part of the world matters to all of us.--Colleen Mondor Copyright 2010 Booklist

A thoughtful exploration, scientific and political, of the ecological web from raindrop to global climatic system.The clue is right there in the name: What makes a rainforest tick is rain. However, the tropical rainforests that gird the equator do more than sit silently as the rain drips from leaf to ground. Instead, they play a central role in sequestering carbon dioxide and in regulating the world's climate, so that deforestation in the Amazon has second-order effects on rainfall in the American grain belt. Longtime Friends of the Earth organizer and rainforest campaigner Juniper (How We're F***ing Up Our Planet, 2018, etc.) examines "the diverse set of systems we call tropical rainforests," which mediate the flow of staggering amounts of water. Roughly one-fifth of all the water on the planet moves through the Amazon, for example, whose mouth is more than 200 miles wide, "greater than the distance between London and Paris." Essential to this movement, of course, is rain, and deforestation has markedly affected rainfall. Juniper looks closely at the various threats to the rainforest, whose decline, he notes, begins with logging, which, legal or not, is often done not just for timber harvesting, but also to clear ground for new housing and farmland. Consumers in developed nations drive destruction in developing regions, with incessant demands for beef, soybeans, palm oil, and other forest-unfriendly products. Juniper can become a touch mystical at times. Mostly, however, he writes with a lightly worn but deep understanding of ecology, conservation biology, and population dynamics. He lucidly explains such matters as how to enlist rural populations in sustaining rainforests, identifying a host of big-picture problems such as poverty and political corruption, and making a strong case for "the idea that in combating climate change there [is] no more effective step than halting deforestation."A sturdy primer for anyone interested in learning about tropical rainforests and why it's essential to keep them healthy. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.