A Blog by John Halkett

Category: Climate change

From tepees to a mainstay of Canada’s timber industry

Lodgepole pine is a coniferous linchpin of forest ecosystems across a vast area that encompasses the western Canadian province of British Columbia and runs down the Rocky Mountains into the United States of America. It is a highly adaptable tree that can grow in all sorts of environments, from water-logged bogs to dry sandy soils.

Tall, straight and slender, it takes its name from the use of Canada’s first people for tepees, and by subsequent settlers for the construction of buildings. Also, in the spring, indigenous Canadians would strip off long ribbons or ‘noodles’ of the sweet succulent … Read more “From tepees to a mainstay of Canada’s timber industry”

Famous London plane trees disappearing from Sydney streets

Living in Sydney’s inner-city suburb of King’s Cross as I do the dominant tree in the neighbourhood is the deciduous London plane tree. With large maple-like leaves and towering height the London plane is a tree of pump and circumstance. The branches begin high up the trunk so that mature trees have a lofty, architectural quality, giving plenty of shade without restricting the view at street level.

Planted throughout London in the nineteenth century to complement the cities imposing squares and thoroughfares, the plane tree was the ideal symbol for the capital of a growing empire.… Read more “Famous London plane trees disappearing from Sydney streets”

New Book Now Available

My sixth book: By the light of the Sun: Trees, wood, photosynthesis and climate change has now been published. The mission of this book is to detail how to better harness the power of the products of photosynthesis to offset adverse climate change. Specifically this book asserts that trees and forests, plus wood products, will be even more important in assisting to tackle climate change, and in contributing to a sustainable energy and carbon neutral future.
This book details how trees and forests will be a critical ingredient in the search for a zero net carbon emissions future. Not only do trees… Read more “New Book Now Available”

Antarctica forests

Just back from southern South America and Antarctica having a firsthand look at climate change impacts.
With a surface area in excess of 14 million square kilometres Antarctica is larger than Europe, and almost twice the size of Australia. As much as 98 per cent of the continent’s surface is covered in thick, compacted ice, reaching an average depth of over a two kilometres.
Recent scientific discoveries suggest that this ‘forgotten continent’ – sometimes nicknamed the Great White Desert – may in fact have once hosted forests.
Sarah Feakins, a biogeochemist from the University of Southern … Read more “Antarctica forests”

By the light of the sun

This is a bit of advanced warning about my new book soon to be published. By the light of the Sun: Trees, wood, photosynthesis and climate change is about how, through the miracle of photosynthesis trees and wood, can confront climate change.
The aim of this upcoming book is to detail how to better harness the power of the products of photosynthesis to offset adverse climate change. Specifically this book asserts that trees and forests, plus wood products, will be even more important in assisting to tackle climate change, and in contributing to a sustainable energy and carbon neutral future.
This… Read more “By the light of the sun”

Jungle book now available

Billed as the Book of the Month for September Jungle Jive: Sustaining the forests of Southeast Asia takes a constructive look at jungle conservation, arguing that implementing economic measures that value jungle trees is the way to sustain them and their biological values. The central thesis of the book is the need to inject a dose of economic realism into a subject that has been long on superlatives and emotion, but short on commercial reality.
The book sets out an argument for that in part lies in the increasing prospects of sustainable, legally verified wood production and climate change abatement… Read more “Jungle book now available”

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