Life: Selected Writings

Description

Tim Flannery is one of the world's great thinkers, environmental scientists and writers. Sir David Attenborough once described him as being 'in the league of the all-time great explorers like Dr David Livingstone.' This definitive collection of his work brings together thirty years of essays, speeches and occasional writing on palaeontology, mammology, environmental science and history, including the science of climate change and the challenges and opportunities we face in addressing this issue, so critical for all of us.

Tim Flannery is a paleontologist, explorer and conservationist, a leading writer on climate change, and the 2007 Australian of the Year. His books include the award-winning international bestseller The Weather Makers, Here on Earth and Atmosphere of Hope. He is currently chief councillor of the Climate Council.

'This man is a national treasure, and we should heed his every word.' * Sunday Telegraph * 'Flannery is a master storyteller, with an eye for the revealing detail.' * Australian Book Review * 'Flannery is a writer who sneezes at political correctness and charges into the densely land-mined territory of the biological determinants of human behaviour.' * Washington Post * 'Flannery synthesises a vast range of scientific studies and a decent selection of historical and cultural writings, leavening those with his own forceful ideas.' * New York Times Book Review * 'No one tells it better than Tim Flannery.' * David Suzuki * 'There are 35 years' worth [of essays] here, and they couldn't be more exciting if Indiana Jones himself had written them.' * North & South * 'It is a book which carries its learning lightly...It is approachable and useful while offering crucial insights.' * Stuff.co.nz * 'Mind-boggling in its intellectual range...[Life] conveys his infectious curiosity, enthusiasm and compassion in a lucid prose rare in scientific writing.' * Sydney Morning Herald * 'This is a gem of a collection, a tribute to Flannery's academic and reflective energies and passions.' * Otago Daily Times * 'Flannery takes both physical and intellectual risks in his explorations. It is the interweaving of these that makes the essays so vivid...The range and breadth of these essays is at times breathtaking: it is invidious to select favourites from a smorgasbord that stretches from tree-kangaroo foot bones to cosmology...Life is a wild and wonderful ride.' * Australian Book Review * 'Flannery takes both physical and intellectual risks in his explorations. It is the interweaving of these that makes the essays so vivid...The range and breadth of these essays is at times breathtaking: it is invidious to select favourites from a smorgasbord that stretches from tree-kangaroo foot bones to cosmology...Life is a wild and wonderful ride.' * Australian Book Review * 'For decades Flannery's essays and books have offered crucial summaries and clarifying perspectives on global biodiversity, climate, Australian history, mammals, megafauna and possibility for alternative energy sources...Life: Selected Writings is a testimony to [his] independent brilliance, and also to his canny talent for combining the high pitch and the common touch.' * Australian *