Tim Flannery

Tim Flannery has the answers. Introducing some of the most spectacular and unusual creatures on Earth, from water to sky and the forests and deserts in between, he offers in-depth and often bizarre facts about extraordinary animals that live in each habitat. Flannery ties concepts of climate change, evolution, conservation, and taxonomy to each animal's profile, firmly connecting the animal and its environment while sparking wonder at its role in the natural world. Did you know that lions once roamed North America, or that albatrosses sleep-fly? Have you ever heard a piranha bark, or wondered how the sloth got its name? Packed with vibrant illustrations and guided by real-life anecdotes from one of our greatest science communicators, Weird, Wild, Amazing teaches readers to cherish and delight in our planet's ecosystems with Tim Flannery's signature mix of humor and wisdom.

Get ready for a whole new look at the world around you. You’re about to meet the weirdest, wildest and most amazing animals on the planet. Are zombie jellyfish real? Do frogs like opera? Which animals eat poop? (And more importantly, WHY?!) What’s it like to wrestle a python? Buckle up – you’re about to find out! Bursting with bizarre facts, packed with vibrant illustrations and guided by one of the world’s greatest living scientists, Professor Tim Flannery, this deep-dive into the natural world will enthral and enlighten readers. It will also make them laugh out loud … and squirm in disgust.

A place of exceptional diversity, rapid change, and high energy, for the past 100 million years Europe has literally been at the crossroads of the world: ever since the interaction of Asia, North America and Africa formed the tropical island archipelago that would become the continent of today. In this unprecedented ecological history, Tim Flannery shows how Europe has absorbed wave after wave of immigrant species ever since; taking them in, transforming them, and sometimes hybridising them. Flannery reveals how, in addition to playing a vital role in the evolution of our own species, Europe was once the site of the formation of the first coral reefs, the home of some of the world's largest elephants, and now has more wolves than North America. This groundbreaking book charts the history of the land itself and the forces shaping life on it - including modern humans - to create a portrait of a continent that continues to exert a huge influence on the world today.

Leading scientist and climate writer Tim Flannery's #1 international bestseller, The Weather Makers, was one of the first books to break the topic of climate change out into the general conversation. In the ten years since, the facts of our changing climate have become widely accepted, but political leadership has not kept up. With Earth's climate system fast approaching a crisis, Flannery argues that we need to act now. Atmospheric CO2 levels are increasing faster than at any other time in the entire recorded history of Earth. A glacier the size of Florida is sinking into the waters of Antarctica. And around the world, people are already living with the consequences of an altered climate, from demobilizing winters to deadly heatwaves. The response to the climate crisis has been divided. Technological optimists envision geoengineering our way out of trouble with schemes like injecting light-reflecting sulfur into the stratosphere, while pessimists believe that at this point, nothing can be done--humans will have to adapt. Flannery draws on the latest science to describe a third way forward, using strategies that enhance the Earth's own systems for carbon capture and storage--from large-scale seaweed farming to the production of carbon-negative cement. If we begin investing now, third-way technologies could capture one-quarter of current global emissions by 2050. In the meantime, governments must work together to break the link between prosperity and pollution and to continue to increase the reach of alternative energies. Written with urgency but also optimism, Atmosphere of Hope is a must-read for anyone interested in our global future.

"A paradigm-smashing chronicle of joyous entanglement that will make you acknowledge your own entanglement in the ancient and ever-new web of being."--Charles Foster, author of Being a Beast Are trees social beings? In this international bestseller, forester and author Peter Wohlleben convincingly makes the case that, yes, the forest is a social network. He draws on groundbreaking scientific discoveries to describe how trees are like human families: tree parents live together with their children, communicate with them, support them as they grow, share nutrients with those who are sick or struggling, and even warn each other of impending dangers. Wohlleben also shares his deep love of woods and forests, explaining the amazing processes of life, death, and regeneration he has observed in his woodland. After learning about the complex life of trees, a walk in the woods will never be the same again. Includes a Note From a Forest Scientist, by Dr. Suzanne Simard

A timely intervention on climate change from the author of the hugely influential The Weather Makers. The tools required to avoid a climate disaster already exist. Between emissions cuts and emerging technologies, we can do it. Here Professor Tim Flannery introduces us to the innovative new solutions being developed around the world, which work with the Earth's systems to combat climate change - and could safeguard our future. 'An important voice in the debate on global warming' Josh Glancy, Sunday Times'Balances the difficult business of raising alarm about the dangers ahead with proposals for the types of action we need to take now to head off catastrophe tomorrow' Robin McKie, Guardian 'If you're not already addicted to Tim Flannery's writing, discover him now' Jared Diamond'Thoughtful, candid and - yes - ultimately upbeat, Atmosphere of Hope could not be more timely. It is just the book the world needs right now' Elizabeth Kolbert, author of The Sixth Extinction

Best known for his #1 international bestseller The Weather Makers, Tim Flannery is one of the world's most influential scientists, a foremost expert on climate change credited with discovering more species than Charles Darwin. But Flannery didn't come to his knowledge overnight. With its selection of exhilarating essays and articles written over the past thirty years, An Explorer's Notebook charts the evolution of a young scientist doing fieldwork in remote locations into the major thinker who has changed the way we think about global warming. In these thirty pieces, Flannery writes about his journeys in the jungles of New Guinea and Indonesia, about the extraordinary people he met and the species he discovered. He writes about matters as wide-ranging as love, insects, population, water, and the stresses we put on the environment. He shows us how we can better predict our future by understanding the profound history of life on Earth. And he chronicles the seismic shift in the world's attitude toward climate change. An Explorer's Notebook is classic Flannery--wide-ranging, eye-opening science, conveyed with richly detailed storytelling.

Tim Flannery is one of the world's most influential scientists, credited with discovering more species than Darwin. In Among the Islands Flannery recounts a series of expeditions he made at the dawn of his career to the strange tropical islands of the South Pacific, a great arc stretching nearly 4,000 miles from the postcard perfection of Polynesia to some of the largest, highest, ancient, and most rugged islands on earth. Flannery was traveling in search of rare and undiscovered mammal species, but he found much more: wild, weird places where local taboos, foul weather, dense jungle, and sheer remoteness made for difficult and dramatic exploration. Among the Islands is full of fascinating creatures--monkey faced bats, giant rats, gazelle-faced black wallabies, and more--and the adventure of discovery. This is an idea read for anyone who has ever imagined voyaging to the ends of the earth to uncover and study the rare and the wonderful.

Australia is home to many animals and plants found nowhere else on earth, making Australians caretakers of a unique heritage in a land that tolerates few mistakes. Yet, in After the Future, Tim Flannery shows that this country is now on the brink of a new wave of extinctions, which threatens to leave our national parks as 'marsupial ghost towns.' Why are species becoming extinct despite the tens of millions of dollars being spent to protect nature? And what more should be done? In this passionate and illuminating essay, Flannery tells the story of the human impact on the continent. He revisits his Future Eaters hypothesis, discussing how firestick farming helped to shape the ecology and preserve native fauna. He looks at the way recent governments, in tandem with an indifferent populace and a rabid libertarian right, have let environmental knowledge and commitments erode. Finally, he describes new approaches to wildlife conservation and argues that Australia must take to lead on these. This is an essay that rings the alarm on behalf of the natural world, and asks us to think again about protection of its irreplaceable riches.'Such is the depth of public ignorance about Australia's extinction crisis that most people are unaware that it is occurring, while those who do know of it commonly believe that our national parks and reserves are safe places for threatened species. In fact the second extinction wave is now in full swing, and its' emptying our national parks and wildlife reserves as ruthlessly as other landscapes.' Tim Flannery, After the Future Quarterly Essay presents significant contribution to the general debate. Each issue contains a single essay written at a length of about 25,000 words. It aims to present the widest range of political, intellectual and cultural opinion

Credited with discovering more species than Darwin, praised for his "ability to take complex ideas and--seemingly effortlessly-- make them accessible" (Sydney Morning Herald), Tim Flannery is one of the world's most influential scientists, head of Australia's Climate Change Commission, and a best-selling author. In his newest book, Here on Earth--an immediate best seller in Australia--he has written a captivating and dramatic narrative about the origins of life and the history of our planet. Beginning at the moment of creation with the Big Bang, Here on Earth explores the evolution of Earth from a galactic cloud of dust and gas to a planet with a metallic core and early signs of life within a billion years of being created. In a compelling narrative, Flannery describes the formation of the Earth's crust and atmosphere, as well as the transformation of the planet's oceans from toxic brews of metals (such as iron, copper, and lead) to life-sustaining bodies covering 70 percent of the planet's surface. Life, Flannery shows, first appeared in these oceans in the form of microscopic plants and bacteria, and these metals served as catalysts for the earliest biological processes known to exist. From this starting point, Flannery tells the story of the evolution of our own species, exploring several early human species--from the diminutive creatures (the famed hobbits) who lives in Africa around two million years ago, to Homo erectus--before durning his attention to Homo sapiens, who first started leaving Africa some fifty thousand years ago. Drawing on Charles Darwin's and Alfred Russell Wallace's theories of evolution and Lovelock's Gaia hypothesis, Tim Flannery's Here on Earth is a dazzling account of life on our planet. Also available: The Eternal FrontierThrowim Way LegThe Future EastersThe Weather Makers

What is our place on Earth? Are humans destined to become a footnote in history, or will we become stronger and wiser, and conquer our environmental problems? In this extraordinary story of our planet and our place upon it, Here on Earth discovers the remarkable source of all life and how it has developed into the wonder around us today. From ant-colonies to zinc mining, Tim Flannery takes us on a journey around the world and from the top of the food-chain to the very chemicals of which we are made, and explores how the fate of humanity is in our own hands.

Sometime this century, after 4 billion years, some of Earth's regulatory systems will pass from control through evolution by natural selection, to control by human intelligence. Will humanity rise to the challenge? This landmark essay by Tim Flannery is about sustainability, our search for it in the twenty-first century, and the impact it might have on the environ- mental threats that confront us today. Flannery discusses in detail three potential solutions to the most pressing of the sustainability challenges: climate change. He argues that Australia has a special responsibility when it comes to climate change, and that our prime minister could be a critical player on the global stage in Copenhagen in December 2009 - but only if we take swift and effective action and make sharp cuts in emissions. Brilliant and terrifying, Now or Never is a call to arms by Australia's leading thinker and writer on the natural world." Throughout the latter part of 2007 and into 2008, I found it increasingly hard to read the scientific findings on climate change without despairing ... I think that there is now a better than even chance that, despite our best efforts, in the coming two or three decades Earth's climate system will pass the point of no return." Tim Flannery, Now or Never

In his most personal book yet, Tim Flannery, the internationally acclaimed author of The Weather Makers, draws on three decades of travel, research, and field work to craft a love letter to his native land and one of its most unique and beloved inhabitants: the kangaroo. Crisscrossing the continent, Flannery shows us how the destiny of this extraordinary creature is inseparable from the environment that created it. Along the way he uses encounters with ancient aboriginal cultures and eccentric fossil hunters, farmers and scientists, kangaroo advocates and kangaroo hunters, to explore how Australia's deserts and rain forests have shaped human responses to the continent--and how kangaroos have evolved to handle the resulting challenges. Ultimately, Chasing Kangaroos is a captivating blend of memoir, travel, natural history, and evolutionary science--and further proof of Flannery's "offhand interdisciplinary brilliance" (Entertainment Weekly).

The Weather Makers tells the dramatic story of the earth's climate, of how it has changed, how we have come to understand it, and of what that means for the future. Tim Flannery's gripping narrative takes the reader on an extraordinary journey into the past and around the globe, bringing us closer to the science than ever before. Along the way he explodes the many illusions that have grown up around this subject.

An international best seller embraced and endorsed by policy makers, scientists, writers and energy industry executives from around the world, Tim Flannery's The Weather Makers contributed in bringing the topic of global warming to national prominence. For the first time, a scientist provided an accessible and comprehensive account of the history, current status, and future impact of climate change, writing what has been acclaimed by reviewers everywhere as the definitive book on global warming. With one out of every five living things on this planet committed to extinction by the levels of greenhouse gases that will accumulate in the next few decades, we are reaching a global climatic tipping point. The Weather Makers is both an urgent warning and a call to arms, outlining the history of climate change, how it will unfold over the next century, and what we can do to prevent a cataclysmic future. Originally somewhat of a global warming skeptic, Tim Flannery spent several years researching the topic and offers a connect-the-dots approach for a reading public who has received patchy or misleading information on the subject. Pulling on his expertise as a scientist to discuss climate change from a historical perspective, Flannery also explains how climate change is interconnected across the planet. This edition includes an new afterword by the author.

In Beautiful Lies Tim Flannery launches an attack on the various lies that we tell ourselves about our resources, our past and our future.The lie of terra nullius that made us ignore the Aborigines' knowledge of the environment. The lie of the Snowy Mountains Scheme that did untold damage to our river system for the sake of white immigration. The lie that rushing to preserve wilderness will save endangered species. Tim Flannery is also skeptical about the myths of multiculturalism, and he argues that we cannot sustain a larger population given our resources. In his conclusion, he asks how we can discharge our responsibility to the refugees who are the victims of American policies we collude with.'This essay is written as a thundering no to the characteristic Australian assumption that 'She'll be right' . . . This is a Quarterly Essay written in the passionate belief that we need a coherent policy on population . . . If we do not have one, we will never be in a position to do justice to . . . the dispossessed people of the earth; indeed our children's children will . . . think we have dishonoured their birthright.' -Peter Craven, Introduction'The refusal to ratify the Kyoto Protocol will almost certainly, in time, be remembered as the greatest failure of the Howard government - Tampa, detention camps and Iraq notwithstanding.' -Tim Flannery, Beautiful Lies

In "The Eternal Frontier, " scientist and historian Flannery tells the story of the geological and biological evolution of the North American continent, from the time of the asteroid strike that ended the age of dinosaurs 65 million years ago, to the present day. Illustrations.