The Power of Trees

How Ancient Forests Can Save Us if We Let Them

By: Peter Wohlleben

Narrated by: Mike Grady

Trees can survive without humans, but we can't live without trees. Even if human-caused climate change devastates our planet, the trees will return – as they do, always and everywhere, even after ice ages, catastrophic fires, destructive storms and deforestation. It would just be nice if we could be around to see them flourish.

The Power of Trees is forester Peter Wohlleben's follow-up to The Hidden Life of Trees, a New York Times bestseller that sold millions of copies worldwide. The Power of Trees is as fascinating and eye-opening as it is trenchant in its critique: on the one hand, Wohlleben describes astonishing discoveries about how trees pass knowledge down to succeeding generations and their ability to survive climate change; on the other, he is unsparing in his criticism of those who wield economic and political power – who plant trees exclusively for the sake of logging and virtue-signalling, even as they ruthlessly exploit nature.

The Power of Trees is a love letter to the forest and a passionate argument for protecting nature's boundless diversity – not only for the trees, but also for ourselves.

©2021 Peter Wohlleben. Originally published in German by Ludwig Verlag. First published in English by Greystone Books in 2023. Translation copyright Jane Billinghurst 2023. Recorded by arrangement with Black Inc. (P)2023 Greystone Books

Critic reviews

'An eye-opening insight into the long-lived world of trees, and what they have learnt from our impact on their world. The Power of Trees reminds us that trees are not the slow learners when it comes to climate change – we are.' (Danielle Clode, author of Koala: A Life in Trees)

'Trees, says Peter Wohlleben, have wisdom. So does he. In this magisterial take on how forests can save the planet from our worst endeavours, [Wohlleben] says the world needs the quiet magic of natural forest restoration.' (Fred Pearce, author of A Trillion Trees: Restoring Our Forests by Trusting in Nature)