The Arbornaut, Meg Lowman
The Arbornaut, Meg Lowman
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The Arbornaut
A Life Discovering the Eighth Continent in the Trees Above Us

Author: Meg Lowman, Sylvia A. Earle

Narrator: Christina Delaine, Meg Lowman, Sylvia A. Earle

Unabridged: 15 hr 25 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 08/10/2021


Synopsis

This program includes a preface read by Meg Lowman and a foreword written and read by Sylvia Earle.

Nicknamed the “Real-Life Lorax” by National Geographic, the biologist, botanist, and conservationist Meg Lowman—aka “CanopyMeg”—takes us on an adventure into the “eighth continent” of the world's treetops, along her journey as a tree scientist, and into climate action

"Narrator Christina Delaine uses her beautiful deep voice and varied tones to channel Lowman's joy in the natural world and frustrations with the academic glass ceiling." —AudioFile Magazine

Welcome to the eighth continent!

As a graduate student exploring the rain forests of Australia, Meg Lowman realized that she couldn’t monitor her beloved leaves using any of the usual methods. So she put together a climbing kit: she sewed a harness from an old seat belt, gathered hundreds of feet of rope, and found a tool belt for her pencils and rulers. Up she went, into the trees.

Forty years later, Lowman remains one of the world’s foremost arbornauts, known as the “real-life Lorax.” She planned one of the first treetop walkways and helps create more of these bridges through the eighth continent all over the world.

With a voice as infectious in its enthusiasm as it is practical in its optimism, The Arbornaut chronicles Lowman’s irresistible story. From climbing solo hundreds of feet into the air in Australia’s rainforests to measuring tree growth in the northeastern United States, from searching the redwoods of the Pacific coast for new life to studying leaf eaters in Scotland’s Highlands, from conducting a BioBlitz in Malaysia to conservation planning in India and collaborating with priests to save Ethiopia’s last forests, Lowman launches us into the life and work of a field scientist, ecologist, and conservationist. She offers hope, specific plans, and recommendations for action; despite devastation across the world, through trees, we can still make an immediate and lasting impact against climate change.

A blend of memoir and fieldwork account, The Arbornaut gives us the chance to live among scientists and travel the world—even in a hot-air balloon! It is the engrossing, uplifting story of a nerdy tree climber—the only girl at the science fair—who becomes a giant inspiration, a groundbreaking, ground-defying field biologist, and a hero for trees everywhere.

A Macmillan Audio production from Farrar, Straus and Giroux

About Meg Lowman

Meg Lowman, PhD, aka “CanopyMeg,” is an American biologist, educator, ecologist, writer, editor, and public speaker. She is the executive director of the TREE Foundation and a professor at the National University of Singapore, Arizona State University, and Universiti Sains Malaysia. Nicknamed the “real-life Lorax” by National Geographic and “Einstein of the treetops” by The Wall Street Journal, Lowman pioneered the science of canopy ecology. Her motto is “no child left indoors.” She travels extensively for research, outreach, and speaking engagements for audiences large and small.

About Christina Delaine

Christina Delaine is a SOVAS Voice Arts Award and multiple AudioFile Earphones Award-winning narrator who has recorded over 100 audiobooks. She is also an Audie Award nominee. An accomplished stage and voice actor, Delaine has appeared on stages across the country and has voiced scores of commercials and video games.


Reviews

Goodreads review by ☘Misericordia☘ on October 17, 2021

Q: IMAGINE GOING TO THE DOCTOR for a complete checkup and, in the course of an entire visit, the only body part examined was your big toe. The visit ends with a pronouncement that you are perfectly healthy, but there was no test of your vital signs, heartbeat, vision, or any other part of you—just th......more

Goodreads review by Jennifer on March 20, 2021

It takes a dense book to contain the research, impact, and living legacy of Meg Lowman. Yet in approachable and endearing style her aptly named book, "The Arbornaut", not only accomplishes that but lays out a compelling case of what each of us can (and must) do to mitigate the devastation of our pla......more

Goodreads review by Chantal on February 10, 2022

The world would undoubtedly be a poorer place without Meg Lowman in it. Dr Lowman became a scientist in the 1970s, and the amount of misogyny she had to battle in the lab (and at home, when she married into an Australian farming family) genuinely made me swear out loud at times. But she overcame the......more

Goodreads review by Ellen-Arwen on January 13, 2022

I hadn't actually heard of Meg Lowman before this book - but she has certainly done some amazing things! I wouldn't necessarily count writing a book that ends up as a great read among them, but she is a scientist. It's the kind of book that's a curious mix of science and personal memoir that is so p......more

Goodreads review by Irene on June 03, 2022

Lowman is a fascinating person. She's pioneered an entire new way of studying ecosystems by accessing the tree canopy, where so much goes on while we remain, oblivious, on the ground. Most of her life she's had to fight against sexist biases and work with groups in which she was the only woman (I'm n......more