Tree of Rivers: The Story of the Amazon

In his long career of exploration and scholarship Hemming has become a powerful advocate for the Amazon.The New York Times John Hemming Amazonia is one of the most magnificent habitats on earth. Containing the worlds largest river with more water and a broader basin than any other it hosts a great expanse of tropical rain forest home to the planets most luxuriant biological diversity. The human beings who settled in the region 10 000 years ago learned to live well with its bounty of fish game and vegetation. It was not until 1500 that Europeans first saw the Amazon and unsurprisingly the rain forests unique environment has attracted larger-than-life personalities through the centuries. John Hemming recalls the adventures and misadventures of intrepid explorers fervent Jesuit ecclesiastics and greedy rubber barons who enslaved thousands of Indians in the relentless quest for profit. He also tells of nineteenth-century botanists fearless advocates for Indian rights and the archaeologists and anthropologists who have uncovered the secrets of the Amazons earliest settlers. Hemming discusses the current threat to Amazonia as forests are destroyed to feed the worlds appetite for timber beef and soybeans and he vividly describes the passionate struggles taking place in order to utilize protect and understand the Amazon. 20 color 50 b&w illustrations