Tim Flannery Livres

Minuit cinq dans la nuit de 2 au 3 décembre 1984, un nuage de gaz toxique s'échappe d'une usine de pesticides à Bhopal, entraînant entre seize et trente mille morts et cinq cent mille blessés, marquant la plus meurtrière catastrophe industrielle de l'histoire. Ce récit explore l'aventure humaine et technologique qui a conduit à cette tragédie. On y découvre une famille de paysans indiens chassée de sa terre par des pucerons, trois entomologistes new-yorkais développant un pesticide miracle, et un géant de la chimie créant un gaz mortel pour sa fabrication. Des jeunes ingénieurs occidentaux s'efforcent de sauver le tiers-monde de la famine, tandis qu'une usine, décrite comme "aussi innocente qu'une fabrique de chocolats", cache un drame imminent. Les fêtes des habitants d'un bidonville, les interactions entre eunuques et princesses, et un ouvrier passionné de poésie qui déclenche l'apocalypse, s'entrelacent avec le dévouement d'héroïques médecins. Une jeune mariée échappe aux flammes grâce à une croix autour de son cou. Des centaines de personnages et de situations se croisent dans cette fresque d'amour, d'héroïsme et d'espoir, soulignant une tragédie contemporaine et un avertissement pour l'avenir de notre planète.

In his many voyages, the Scottish-born sailor John Nicol (1755-1825) twice circumnavigated the globe, visiting every inhabited continent while participating in many of the greatest events of exploration and adventure of the eighteenth century. During his career Nicol battled pirates, traded with Native Americans, and fought for the British navy in the American and French revolutions. In Hawaii, he was entertained by the King's court mere days after the murder of Captain James Cook. In Jamaica, he saw firsthand the horrors of the slave system and befriended slaves who invited him to join in their dance celebrations. En route to Australia, he would meet the love of his life, Sarah Whidam, a convict bound for the Botany Bay prison colony, who would bear his son before duty forced them apart forever.An international bestseller, The Life and Adventures of John Nicol, Mariner is a rousing memoir of an ordinary man's extraordinary life, a gripping true adventure tale.

Tim Flannery’s international bestseller The Weather Makers has sold over a million copies and influenced politicians, movie stars, even business leaders - after reading it, Sir Richard Branson pledged more than 3 billion dollars towards developing sustainable energy sources. We Are the Weather Makers is a concise and revised edition that will allow readers aged from nine to ninety to learn the real facts about the biggest question of our generation. Flannery takes us on a journey through history and around the globe, writing about hurricanes and droughts, coral reefs and polar bears, and wind energy and nuclear power. He shows us how, as we continue to heat the planet, humanity faces unprecedented dangers and challenges. We are the weather makers now.

The story of how human beings have consumed the resources they need for their own future. The book examines the first Afro-Asian people to travel down the chain of islands to Australasia and how they changed the flora and fauna, and the impact Europeans have made

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.

When Tim Flannery was a boy he found a fossilised tooth of the giant shark megalodon at a Port Philip Bay beach near his home. This remarkable find—the tooth was large enough to cover his palm—sparked an interest in palaeontology that was to inform his life’s work and a lifelong quest to uncover the secrets of the world’s largest ever predator, the great shark Otodus megalodon.Tim passed on his love of the natural world and interest in the fossil record to his daughter, Emma, a scientist and writer. And now, together, they have written a fascinating account of this ancient marine creature.Big Meg charts the evolution of megalodon, its super-predator status for about fifteen million years and its decline and extinction. It delves into the fossil record to answer questions about its behaviour and role in shaping marine ecosystems as well as its impact on the human psyche. It contains stories of the scientist and amateur fossil hunters who have scoured the seas, and land, for fossil remains, drawn to the beauty and mystique of the great shark, sometimes meeting their death in the process.Like the fossil record itself, this enthralling story is a piece of the great natural history of our planet.

Details the author's friendship with a New Guinea warrior and the fate of the indigenous peoples in the course of discovering species of mammals that science had yet to discover or classify.

Résumé éditeur : "Dans ce livre plein de grâce, acclamé dans le monde entier, le forestier Peter Wohlleben nous apprend comment s'organise la société des arbres. Les forêts ressemblent à des communautés humaines. Les parents vivent avec leurs enfants, et les aident à grandir. Les arbres répondent avec ingéniosité aux dangers. Leur système radiculaire, semblable à un réseau internet végétal, leur permet de partager des nutriments avec les arbres malades mais aussi de communiquer entre eux. Et leurs racines peuvent perdurer plus de dix mille ans ... Prodigieux conteur, Wohlleben s'appuie sur les denrières connaissances scientifiques et multiplie les anecdotes fascinantes pour nous faire partager sa passion des arbres. Après avoir découvert les secrets de ces géants terrestres, par bien des côtés plus résistants et plus inventifs que les humains, votre promenade dans les bois ne sera plus jamais la même."

Dual biography of planet Earth and the human species.

Acclaimed scientist Tim Flannery investigates exciting new technologies currently being developed to address our most pressing environmental threats in a book that presents a positive future for us and our planet. Climate change, food production and toxic pollution present huge challenges, but, as Flannery shows, we already have innovative, practical and inspiring solutions. Solar energy has, until now, been limited to supplying power only when the sun is shining. But new technology using concentrated sunlight to provide intense heat energy that can be effectively stored overcomes this problem, providing clean renewable power around the clock. Further, the large amounts of power produced can be used to tackle the issue of feeding the world’s growing population—by enabling energy-intense methods of purifying polluted land for agricultural production. Drawing carbon out of the atmosphere is an essential component in limiting climate change. Flannery explores the potential of kelp, a fast-growing sea algae, to be used on a large scale to convert carbon from the air to a non-gaseous form, reducing levels of atmospheric carbon. With accessible and engaging explanations of the fascinating science behind these technologies, as well as accounts of the systems already in operation around the world, Sunlight and Seaweed is an enlightening and uplifting view of the future.