Summary

The book opens with a Prologue. Hope Jahren compares the amount of life in the ocean to the amount of life on land. Then, she challenges the reader to look out his own window. Jahren predicts there are man-made things outside, but asks the reader to look again for anything growing. She says the person who can see a tree is fortunate. She then asks the reader to look at a single leaf from that tree and to realize that people kill trees all the time. She says people should care about that just as they would care whenever “someone” needlessly dies. She then suggests the reader ask a question about the one leaf they've focused on, following by saying that question is the basis for being a scientist. She concludes the Prologue by saying she wants...