Between Earth and Sky

by Nadkarni, Nalini M.

• ISBN13: 9780520261655
• ISBN10: 0520261658
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2009-10-28
• Publisher: Univ of California Pr

Summary

World-renowned canopy biologist Nalini Nadkarni has climbed trees on four continents with scientists, students, artists, clergymen, musicians, activists, loggers, legislators, and Inuits, gathering diverse perspectives. InBetween Earth and Sky,a rich tapestry of personal stories, information, art, and photography, she becomes our captivating guide to the leafy wilderness above our heads. Through her luminous narrative, we embark on a multifaceted exploration of trees that illuminates the profound connections we have with them, the dazzling array of goods and services they provide, and the powerful lessons they hold for us. Nadkarni describes trees' intricate root systems, their highly evolved and still not completely understood canopies, their role in commerce and medicine, their existence in city centers and in extreme habitats of mountaintops and deserts, and their important place in folklore and the arts. She explains tree fundamentals and considers the symbolic role they have assumed in culture and religion. In a book that reawakens our sense of wonder at the fascinating world of trees, we ultimately find entry to the entire natural world and rediscover our own place in it.

Author Biography

Nalini M. Nadkarni is the coeditor of Monteverde: Ecology and Conservation of a Tropical Cloud Forest, with Nathaniel T. Wheelwright, and Forest Canopies, with Margaret D. Lowman, and the coauthor of a children's book, Rainforests, with Jinny Johnson. She teaches in the Environmental Studies Program at the Evergreen State College and is President of the International Canopy Network. Her work has been featured in such magazines as Natural History, Glamour, and National Geographic, and she has appeared in numerous television documentaries. In 2002, she received a Guggenheim Fellowship to support the public dissemination of her work.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. xi
Introduction: View from the Top	p. 1
What Is a Tree?	p. 19
Goods and Services	p. 50
Shelter and Protection	p. 88
Health and Healing	p. 111
Play and Imagination	p. 135
Connections to Time	p. 163
Signs and Symbols	p. 185
Spirituality and Religion	p. 214
Mindfulness	p. 243
Scientific Names of Trees in the Text	p. 267
Notes	p. 273
Recommended Readings	p. 293
Poetry Credits	p. 299
Index	p. 303
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