Five stunningly large forests remain on Earth: the Taiga, extending from the Pacific Ocean across all of Russia and far-northern Europe; the North American boreal, ranging from Alaska’s Bering seacoast to Canada’s Atlantic shore; the Amazon, covering almost the entirety of South America’s bulge; the Congo, occupying parts of six nations in Africa’s wet equatorial middle; and the island forest of New Guinea, twice the size of California.
These megaforests are vital to preserving global biodiversity, thousands of cultures, and a stable climate, argues economist John W. Reid. They serve an essential role in decarbonizing the atmosphere—the boreal alone holds 1.8 trillion metric tons of carbon in its deep soils and peat layers, 190 years’ worth of global emissions at 2019 levels—and saving them is an immediate and affordable large-scale solution to our planet’s most formidable ongoing crisis.
In a Smithsonian Associates online program on April 7 that captures the majesty of these ancient forests, along with the people and animals who inhabit them, Reid offers practical solutions to meet today’s biggest challenges, from vastly expanding protected areas to supporting Indigenous forest stewards to planning smarter road networks.
Ever Green: Saving Big Forests to Save the Planet (W. W. Norton & Company), co-authored by Reid and the late biologist Thomas E. Lovejoy, is available for purchase. Politics and Prose is offering a 10% discount to Smithsonian Associates ticket-holders. To claim your discount, enter the code SPECIAL10 (no space between letters and numbers) in the “Coupon discount” section on Politics and Prose’s check-out page.
Lovejoy, a giant in the fields of biodiversity and conservation biology, spent part of his career at the Smithsonian, as assistant secretary for environmental and external affairs and, in 1994, as counselor to the secretary on biodiversity and environmental affairs. He established the Smithsonian’s Institute of Conservation Biology.
Register at www.smithsonianassociates.org. Once registered, patrons should receive an automatic email confirmation from CustomerService@SmithsonianAssociates.org. Separate Zoom link information will be emailed closer to the date of the program. If you do not receive your Zoom link information 24 hours prior to the start of the program, please email Customer Service for assistance.
