We were flying over a landscape that looked primeval. Way below there were pyramid-shaped peaks covered in tropical forest... Going into the forests of Papua New Guinea today is like taking a trip back in time to Australia 15 million years ago. Then, even in the central desert, there were permanent rivers and lakes surrounded by tropical vegetation. Dolphins and crocodiles lived in the waters, flamingos fed in the shallows of the shores and opossums and other arboreal animals inhabited the forests of the area.
An Explorer's Notebookis a fascinating and exhilarating selection of Tim Flannery's essays and articles written over two decades. In them we see his evolution from the young scientist conducting field work in remote locations to the influential commentator on climate change. His bestselling book The Weather Makers has inspired readers around the world.
Flannery celebrates the wonders of the natural world. He describes his journeys into the jungles of New Guinea and Irian Jaya, the people he met and the species he discovered. He writes about matters as wide-ranging as love, insects, population, water and land management. And he shows us how we can better predict our future by understanding the profound history of life on Earth.