The Arbornaut

A Life Discovering the Eighth Continent in the Trees Above Us

By: Meg Lowman, Sylvia A. Earle - foreword

Narrated by: Sylvia A. Earle, Christina Delaine, Meg Lowman

Length: 15 hrs and 25 mins

Publisher's summary

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

©2021 Meg Lowman (P)2021 Macmillan Audio

introduction to science of studying tree canopies

As a woman Pioneer in the field of tree study Meg Loman shows us how a woman can make a difference in the world by studying a subject that was hpreviously unknown

Enlightening, but...

The story of Meg Lowman's scientific prowess, her weaving of intuition, observation, and innovation, deserves to be told in a believable voice--a voice that has the gravitas of a woman in a serious scientific field. Instead, the main narrator (not Sylvia A. Earle,) sounds like the bright, smiling voicemail "lady" who tells you to visit www.whatever.com if you want to find the answer to the question you hoped would be addressed by a real human being.

This could be a great book but …

This could be a great book if the author had just focused on what she did, rather than on trying to prove how great she is. I get it - I’ve lived it - never getting full credit for what you’ve accomplished because you are a woman and what you’ve accomplished as a woman in an environment that strongly favored and still favors men. Yet, trying to redeem oneself in the eyes of others is better done with great story telling that doesn’t focus verbally on what is closest to the author’s heart. Show us, don’t tell us. Show us the magic you experienced and created - there is a lot of it.

Unbearable narration

The story was interesting, but I couldn’t go past chapter two necessarily the narrator’s voice was unbearable! It was like listening to a droning, partially mechanical voice you would hear when pushing a button at an old museum.