An Explorer's Notebook : Essays on Life, History & Climate

An Explorer’s Notebook is an exhilarating selection of Tim Flannery’s essays and articles written over a period of twenty-five years. In them we see his evolution from the young scientist doing fieldwork in remote locations to the major thinker who has changed the way we all think about climate and the threat that global warming presents to our planet.

Flannery writes about his journeys in the jungles of New Guinea and Irian Jaya, about the extraordinary people he met and the species he discovered. He writes about population, water and the stresses we have put on our environment. He writes about how we can try to predict our own future by learning about the profound history of life on Earth, and the threads that bind us all together as Australians.

In An Explorer’s Notebook Flannery, the Australian of the Year, also writes about the challenges which face us, his fellow citizens, in dealing with the climate crisis that is now upon us.

This book includes a new essay in which he updates his thinking since the publication of The Weather Makers in 2005.

Praise for An Explorer's Notebook:

‘If you are not already addicted to Tim Flannery’s writing, discover him now.’

Jared Diamond

‘Flannery is perhaps the most gifted describer of the natural sciences writing today.’

Weekend Australian

‘Flannery is fast emerging as one of our best popularizers of science—a term vaguely insulting in many academic circles for those who somehow manage to convey not just the why of things but the why-we-should-care. The secret in Flannery’s case seems to be confident knowledge joined to a storyteller’s gifts and a writer’s determination to get it just right—a rare combination, and a powerful one.’

Washington Post

‘Flannery is not merely Australia’s most popular scientist but probably the most courageous, willing to write popular books, in racy language, while taking big intellectual risks.’

Sydney Morning Herald

‘Flannery is an Australian mammalogist, a respected authority on tree kangaroos and extinct giant wombats. he’s also a man of broad interests, long views and considerable intellectual chutzpah.’

New York Times Book Review

‘A born scientist, Flannery brings a lover’s eye to creatures of the past and present.’

Bulletin

‘Flannery makes a virtue of complexity, and never fails to pull out an entertaining anecdote or illuminating aside to refresh the reader’s attention.’

Times Literary Supplement