Sometimes, my “to read” list gets a bit out of control and I find myself juggling books by day to get one (or more) back to the library on time. Recently, I had to pause Finding the Mother Tree (Suzanne Simard) as The Heat Will Kill You First (Jeff Goodell) as available at the library.
Finding the Mother Tree was so uplifting, empowering, and hopeful; The Heat Will Kill You First was depressing, honest, and hard to digest at times. We are obviously in a climate crisis, and where trees offer much hope for a better climate future (https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/nov/13/conserving-restoring-forests-sequester-carbon-study-trees), they will be necessary when the heat becomes unbearable and we require refuge in the shade.
Deforestation has been one of the many factors contributing to climate change. Now we’re learning that trees do not only play an important role in absorbing CO2, restoring forests to their native habitats instead of monocultures can have a positive impact on the entire ecosystem. All while we experience more extreme weather, food shortages, new insects and diseases as a result of the climate crisis.
Reading these two books at once was difficult to mentally absorb. One outlining the faults in forestry over the last decades and the other highlighting the many ways the heat will kill us before we can restore an old growth forest. Where one book provided a bleak and depressing outlook for the future, the other offered hope. We may be doomed with warmer temperatures, and fewer crops able to grow at these temperatures, but maybe if we act now we can escape to a forest and enjoy the many benefits it provides.
Leave a Reply