Earth911 Podcast: Author John Perlin Explores the Role of Trees in the Rise & Fate of Civilization

Let’s venture into the history of <a href="https://earth911.com/inspire/infographic-reasons-why-trees-are-awesome/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">trees</a>, wood, and the axe. Everywhere humans have gone they’ve mowed trees down to make tools, homes, fires, bridges, buildings, even railroad tracks — yes, the first railroads often ran on wooden rails, as author <a href="https://john-perlin.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">John Perlin</a> explains in a new edition of his classic book, <a href="https://amzn.to/3SOf0Ry" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">A Forest Journey: The Role of Trees in the Fate of Civilization</a>. First published in 1989, A Forest Journey has been rereleased in an expanded, beautifully illustrated edition by <a href="https://www.patagonia.com/home/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Patagonia</a>. And, yes, there is an environmental impact disclosure on the copyright page of the book.<br /><br />John is also the author of <a href="https://amzn.to/3mlt20V" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Let It Shine: The 6000-Year Story of Solar Energy</a> and other histories of solar technology. His writing is consistently surprising and illuminating. For example, A Forest Journey challenges many current assumptions about the advantages of peoples and nations.It is a challenge to the conclusions in Jared Diamond’s influential history, <a href="https://amzn.to/3EWMtno" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Guns, Germs, and Steel</a>. John makes a clear case that Northern Europe achieved global dominance largely on the basis of its access to vast forests that, in other parts of the world, had been chopped down during antiquity. The largely barren Mediterranean basin, for example, was heavily forested before humans entered the region. A Forest Journey is available now from <a href="https://amzn.to/3SOf0Ry" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Amazon</a> and <a href="https://www.powells.com/book/forest-journey-the-role-of-trees-in-the-fate-of-civilizat