{"id":44565,"date":"2015-11-30T11:43:08","date_gmt":"2015-11-30T16:43:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/planetsave.com\/?p=44565"},"modified":"2015-11-30T11:43:08","modified_gmt":"2015-11-30T16:43:08","slug":"our-forests-our-civilization-interview-series-with-john-perlin-part-ii-forests-change-the-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/planetsave.com\/articles\/our-forests-our-civilization-interview-series-with-john-perlin-part-ii-forests-change-the-world\/","title":{"rendered":"Our Forests & Our Civilization: Interview Series with John Perlin \u2013 Part II \u2013 Forests Change the World"},"content":{"rendered":"

Welcome to Part II of our interview series with John Perlin, author of \u201cA Forest Journey: the Story of Wood and Civilization<\/a>,\u201d\u00a0an important book that has now come out in its third edition. Our topic? Our forests and our civilization. Perlin details\u00a0the place of forests<\/a>\u00a0and wood in our civilization\u2019s evolution.<\/p>\n

In case you haven\u2019t read it, Part I in this series can be reviewed here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Perlin, a professor of physics at University of California Santa Barbara, is a solar energy <\/a>specialist and author of \u201cLet It Shine: The 6,000-Year History of Solar Energy<\/a>.\u201d He believes that reliance on fossil fuels as an alternative for house and water heating, then later the sun and wind, took place only when people began running out of wood.<\/p>\n

Perlin\u2019s research, dating back to the Mesopotamian civilization, reveals wood was the principal fuel and building material for all ancient civilizations. \u201cIts abundance or scarcity shaped, in large part, the culture, demographics, economy, internal and external politics, and science and technology of these civilizations,\u201d writes Perlin. Our interview picks up here.<\/p>\n

\"Archaeopteris<\/a><\/p>\n

Meyers<\/strong><\/span>:\u00a0What was the world like before the Age of plants and trees?<\/p>\n

Perlin<\/strong><\/span>:\u00a0Scientists describe the period preceding the ascendancy of plants and trees, as the Greenhouse Age due to extremely large amounts of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and subsequent very high temperatures that prevailed worldwide. The sea so much more abounded in life than its scarcity on land that scientists call this time the age of fish. Teeming with reef builders \u2013 algae, sponges and coral \u2013 shell inhabiting animals called brachiopods and mollusks, and fish, the sea seemed an underwater wonderland when compared to the rocky and thinly plant-covered landscapes where but the tiniest creatures scurried to and fro.<\/p>\n

Meyers<\/u><\/b><\/u>:\u00a0Scientists believe this occurred about\u00a0383 <\/b>million years ago in the late Devonian period.\u00a0What happened?<\/p>\n

Perlin<\/strong><\/span>:\u00a0The accelerated transfer of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to the land began with the rapid global spread nearly 400 million years ago of the first deep-rooted tree, Archaeopteris. It stood about eight to ninety feet high, had a trunk not too different than a pine, had fern-like leaves and grew throughout the old, primarily in riparian landscapes.<\/p>\n