A spiritual, cultural, environmental and economic celebration of Australian trees - trees that, according to author John Halkett are increasingly vital as humanity searches for solutions to climate change, renewable energy and more sustainable lifestyles in the 21st century. Despite being thought of as 'the wide brown land' Australia has a diverse, unique and precious heritage of trees and forest communities. Their contribution to our welfare and sense of what it is to be Australian is immense. In saluting the amazing qualities, geographic spread, botanical complexity and the special Australianness of our trees and their forest homes, this book recognises the importance of trees to continuing human existence and survival in Australia and across the globe.
The mission of this book is to detail how to better harness the power of the products of photosynthesis to offset adverse climate change. Specifically, this book asserts that trees and forests, plus wood products, will be even more important in assisting to tackle climate change, and in contributing to a sustainable energy and carbon neutral future. This book details how trees and forests will be a critical ingredient in the search for a zero net carbon emissions future. Not only do trees 'suck' carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and wood products store it away for decades, but trees have the capacity to be at the centre of a sustainable future for humanity. They will be an essential energy component beyond the end of the fossil fuel era. The book advocates the wider utilisation of wood-based products that use less energy in their manufacture, store carbon, and have the capability to restrict the use of high energy materials, like steel and aluminium. The good news, says this book, is that the most dangerous impacts of climate change may still be avoided if humanity moves fossil fuel-based energy systems towards renewable sources, and increases the use of sustainable materials like wood. Even though there is much to be worried about climate change-wise, this book is not too despondent. It says that in an increasingly carbon-constrained world, trees, forests and wood products are important, not only as carbon 'sinks' but as substitutes for more carbon-intensive materials and fossil fuels. John Halkett's last book: Jungle Jive: Sustaining the forests of Southeast Asia was released by Connor Court Publishing in 2016. This and his past five books traverse a wide range of topics, but all have trees at the centre of the narrative.
It's easy to be gloomy about the future prospects for the tropical jungles of Southeast Asia. This book takes a constructive look at jungle conservation, arguing that implementing economic measures that value jungle trees is the way to sustain them and their biological values. The central thesis of the book is the need to inject a dose of economic realism into a subject that has been long on superlatives and emotion, but short on commercial reality. The book sets out an argument for the management of tropical jungles founded on an economic case that in part lies in the increasing prospects of sustainable, legally verified wood production and climate change abatement carbon credit trading. It also advocates that making trees too valuable to destroy is a critical piece of the jungle survival puzzle. It advances an argument for developing economic incentives to retain healthy, functioning, viable jungle ecosystems across Southeast Asia. Such a prescription will help to create a set of circumstances where tropical jungles are seen as economic assets, not liabilities, and where governments, corporations and local communities have a vested interest in keeping trees standing. This is author John Halkett's fifth tree related book. He runs a forest consultancy business in Sydney, Australia and has expertise in temperate and tropical forest management and forest based industries. John also serves on the Board of the Global Timber Forum. He has held senior positions in government forest and conservation agencies in Australia and New Zealand. John has also worked in the United States, Canada, Papua New Guinea, across Southeast Asia, Myanmar, China and Africa. In addition to his books he has written numerous scientific papers and writes for trade publications.
In 1811, on land he received as a grant from the Hudson Bay Company in what is now Manitoba, the Earl of Selkirk established the Red River Colony. The colony met with conflict from the very beginning and was dispersed in 1815. The following year Selkirk arrived from Scotland to supervise. Selkirk became embroiled in litigation with the North West Company and the Canadian government, Selkirk believing that the whole affair was a conspiracy against him and the Hudson Bay Company. He also believed the British government was trying to restrict emigration to Canada to support the economy. This book was published as evidence of Selkirk'Äôs thwarted intentions to create a land of opportunity and, further, to clear his good name.
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