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

In this groundbreaking ecological history of Australasia, acclaimed scientist and historian Tim Flannery argues that the Aborigines, Maoris, and other Polynesian peoples were the original "future eaters," humans who consumed the resources they would need for their own survival - even to the point or exhaustion - with a dramatic impact on the indigenous flora and fauna. Beginning with the Australasian continent's geological formation billions of years ago, 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.