SLIGHTLY IMPERFECT The History of the World in 100 Plants

Imperfect item - dust jacket of book has slight misalignment of text with gloss overprint. This is not at all noticeable and does not detract from the book's attractive appearance.

As humans, we hold the planet in the palms of ours hands. But the only way we can survive is by consuming the energy of the sun - through plants. Plants make food from the sun through photosynthesis; nothing else in the world can do this. We eat plants, either directly or second hand, by eating the eaters of plants.
 
Plants give us food. They give us the oxygen we breathe, direct the rain that falls and moderate the climate. They also give us shelter, beauty, comfort, meaning, buildings, boats, containers, musical instruments, medicines and religious symbols. We use flowers for love, and for death. The fossils of plants power our industries and our transport. Across history we have used plants to store knowledge, to kill, to fuel wars, to change our state of consciousness, to indicate our status. The first gun was a plant, we got fire from plants, we have even enslaved people for the sake of plants. 
 
We like to imagine ourselves as a species that has risen high above the animal kingdom, doing what we will with the world. But we couldn't live for a day without plants. Our past is all about plants, our present is all tied up with plants; and without plants there is no future.
 
From the mighty oak to algae, from cotton to coca: here are a hundred reasons why.

Hardback, 432 pages.
Measures 24 x 17 cm.