'Irreplaceable' is a book by
Julian Hoffman.It is subtitled 'The Fight to Save our Wild Places' and focusses on a number of locations which are threatened with being lost.
It has a useful section on ancient woodlands which outlines very clearly what that term means, and the distinction between that and the wildwood.
Each section is relevant to particular types of ecosystems, and the book explores the nature of the threats they face, and the efforts being made to protect them. By the time I read through it, there were lots of post it notes for potentially useful sections.
A very good book as an introduction to the idea of wilderness, and the relationship between humans and nature.
He touches on the plastic threat when he visits the beach in the chapter entitled 'A world within water'.
He describes the discovery of the plastic nurdles which make up a part of any handful of beach sand in most of the world.
"For all its unquestionable usefulness for the human race, a convenience that's turned out to be irressistible to us, plastic places an unearthly burden on the rest of the living world."
My copy was loaned from Norwich Library service.
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