Books worth reading #19: 'The Secret Network of Nature' by Peter Wohlleben

This excellent book is the third book in a trilogy that began with The Hidden Life of Trees and The Inner Life of Animals.

As the blurb says: 

'Did you know that trees can influence the rotation of the earth? 

Or that wolves can alter the course of a river? 

Or that earthworms control wild boar populations? 

The natural world is a web of intricate connections, many of which go unnoticed by humans. But it is these connections that maintain nature’s finely balanced equilibrium. Drawing on the latest scientific discoveries and decades of experience as a forester, Peter Wohlleben shows us how different animals, plants, rivers, rocks and weather systems cooperate, and what's at stake when these delicate systems are unbalanced.'

We're only just starting to get a real understanding of just how complex and interconnected the natural world is - Wohlleben uses the analogy of a juggler trying to keep lots of balls in the air at once. This means keeping their relationship to each other in equilibrium. But instead of one juggler and a dozen or so balls, we're talking about millions of jugglers and millions of balls, all reliant in some way on the behaviours and performance of others. And they have to do that while coping with the unpredictability of weather systems and natural events such as earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. 

Wohlleben writes in a very conversational style and is full of fascinating insights. And the other two books I mentioned are also worth a read.