What Have Trees Ever Done For Us?
Trees are important to our lives. They have contributed to our language, we eat bits of them, build with them, and they are invaluable for our mental health. We will delve into some of these uses, looking along the way at why nutmeg is so toxic, why caffeine gives us the shakes, why just looking at trees helps us recover from surgery, and, perhaps more obscurely, why unmarried males are called bachelors. Recently, we’ve begun planting trees to help our fight against climate change – but does this really work? All these questions and more will be answered.
Peter Thomas holds Emeritus positions at Keele University, UK and Harvard University, USA. He has written a number of books on trees, woodland ecology and forest fires, which has taken him to every continent that has trees. London Natural History Society event.
Time: 18:30 GMT
