Walking to Connect with Nature and Respond to Anthropogenic Climate Change

Book excerpt: The author, Margaret Somerville, collected the insights contained within the present volume over a year of walking the ridge daily, linking globally significant scientific findings on the origins and deep time evolution of landscapes and living things to her own intensely observed, embodied interactions with rocks, trees, plants, birds, weather and the seasons, informed by decades of work with Indigenous researchers. It draws on the formation of Gondwana Land and how the planet came to be when life emerged from the sea and trees in symbiosis with fungi. The Gondwana forests contained the oldest trees and plants on the planet and the first song birds in the world that are said to be the beginning of music and song. It also addresses seasonal change. This book is a valuable resource for any course that aims to address global issues and bring hope to the global movement of young people facing climate change in their local places.