The Power of Trees - Peter Wohlleben

The Power of Trees: How Ancient Forests Can Save Us If We Let Them
by Peter Wohlleben

Published by Black Inc. - 2023 - Paperback - 274pp – 15.5cm x 23.5cm

Trees can survive without humans, but we can’t live without trees. Even if human-caused climate change devastates our planet, trees will return - as they do, always and everywhere, even after ice ages, catastrophic fires, destructive storms and deforestation. It would be nice if we were around to see them flourish.

The Power of Trees is forester Peter Wohlleben’s follow-up to his internationally bestselling The Hidden Life of Trees. It is as fascinating and eye-opening as it is trenchant in its critique: on the one hand, Wohlleben shares astonishing discoveries about how trees pass knowledge down to succeeding generations, helping them to survive climate change; on the other, he is unsparing in his criticism of those who wield economic and political power - who plant trees exclusively for the sake of logging and virtue-signalling, even as they ruthlessly exploit nature.

The Power of Trees is a love letter to the forest and a passionate argument for protecting nature’s boundless diversity - not only for the trees, but also for ourselves.

‘Eye-opening… The Power of Trees reminds us that trees are not the slow learners when it comes to climate change - we are.’ — Danielle Clode

‘A magisterial take on how forests can save the planet from our worst endeavours.’ — Fred Pearce, author of When the Rivers Run dry

Peter Wohlleben spent over twenty years working for the forestry commission in Germany before leaving to put his ideas of ecology into practice. He now runs an environmentally friendly woodland in Germany, where he is working for the return of primaeval forests. He is the author of numerous books about trees including Can You Hear the Trees Talking, the kid version of the bestselling The Hidden Life of Trees.