Sinopsis de THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD IN 100 PLANTS
From the author of The History of the World in 100 Animals a BBC Radio Four Book of the Week comes an inspirational new book that looks at the 100 plants that have had the greatest impact on humanity stunningly illustrated throughout As humans we hold the planet in the palms of ours hands But we still consume the energy of the sun in the form of food The sun is available for consumption because of plants Plants make food from the sun by the process of photosynthesis nothing else in the world can do this We eat plants or we do so at second hand by eating the eaters of plants Plants give us food Plants take in carbon dioxide and push out oxygen they give us the air we breathe direct the rain that falls and moderate the climate Plants also give us shelter beauty comfort meaning buildings boats containers musical instruments medicines and religious symbols We use flowers for love we use flowers for death The fossils of plants power our industries and our transport Across history we have used plants to store knowledge to kill to fuel wars to change our state of consciousness to indicate our status The first gun was a plant we got fire from plants we have enslaved people for the sake of plants We humans like to see ourselves as a species