The Future Eaters: An Ecological History of the Australasian Lands and People

Tim Flannery

GROVE/ATLANTIC Incorporated, 2002 - History - 432 pages

Humans first settled the islands of Australia, New Zealand, New Caledonia, and New Guinea some sixty millennia ago, and as they had elsewhere across the globe, immediately began altering the environment by hunting and trapping animals and gathering fruits and vegetables. In this illustrated iconoclastic ecological history, acclaimed scientist and historian Tim Flannery follows the environment of the islands through the age of dinosaurs to the age of mammals and the arrival of humanity on its shores, to the coming of European colonizers and the advent of the industrial society that would change nature's balance forever. Penetrating, gripping, and provocative, The Future Eaters is a dramatic narrative history that combines natural history, anthropology, and ecology on an epic scale. "Flannery tells his beautiful story in plain language, science-popularizing at its Antipodean best." -- Times Literary Supplement "Like the present-day incarnation of some early-nineteenth-century explorer-scholar, Tim Flannery refuses to be fenced in." -- Time

What people are saying

Review: The Future Eaters: An Ecological History of the Australasian Lands and People

User Review  - Isaac Bishara - Goodreads

His chapter on New Zealand ecological history lacked quality of evidential substance - shame as the rest of his focus on his own country was excellent... Overall great story telling

Review: The Future Eaters: An Ecological History of the Australasian Lands and People

User Review  - Justin White - Goodreads

Fascinating and in-depth look at the tectonic history of Australasia and how the landscape shaped life, and how humans have co-evolved with the landscape. Important fodder for the 'big Australia' debate with implications for feeding populations as we approach peak humanity.

About the author

TIM FLANNERY has written many award-winning books, including The Weather Makers, which reached #1 in Canada, An Explorer's Notebook, Now or Never and Here on Earth. He is the National Geographic Society's Australasian representative and a director of the Australian Wildlife Conservancy. In January 2007, he was named Australian of the Year and in 2011, he became Australia's first climate commissioner. Visit him online at theweathermakers.org.

Bibliographic information

• Title: The Future Eaters: An Ecological History of the Australasian Lands and People
• Author: Tim Flannery
• Edition: reprint
• Publisher: GROVE/ATLANTIC Incorporated, 2002
• ISBN: 0802139434, 9780802139436
• Length: 432 pages
• Subjects: History / Australia & New Zealand; Nature / Environmental Conservation & Protection; Science / Life Sciences / Ecology