## Metadata - Author: [[Ben Rawlence]] - Full Title: The Treeline - Category: #books ## Highlights - The Romans, Danes and the nobles of England were in search of natural resources, principally timber. The colonization of Wales was the first expression of an economic system founded on overreach: having exceeded the limits of what their own environment could sustain, early mercantilists applied force to acquire tribute and resources elsewhere. Empire, whether British, Viking, Roman or otherwise, is by definition overreach. And colonialism, capitalism and white supremacy share a common, perverse philosophy: limits on some humans’ freedom of action are seen as an affront to the principle of freedom itself. ([Location 65](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08R2KZQB9&location=65)) - More than the Amazon rain forest, the boreal is truly the lung of the world. Covering one fifth of the globe, and containing one third of all the trees on earth, the boreal is the second largest biome, or living system, after the ocean. Planetary systems—cycles of water and oxygen, atmospheric circulation, the albedo effect, ocean currents and polar winds—are shaped and directed by the position of the treeline and the functioning of the forest. ([Location 121](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08R2KZQB9&location=121))