22 VIRGINIA FORESTS The Age of Wood Written by Roland Ennos Reviewed by Anitra Webster, VFA Magazine Committee Our Most Useful Material and the Construction of Civilization Author Roland Ennos brings his varied interests and extensive accomplishments to bear in telling us about the wooden construction of civilization. Who would have thought there can be a page turner about the history of the use of wood? He asks many questions, all starting with the word, why. We, the readers, just settle in for the ride covering millions of years. The questions begin with the hypothesis that apes (in this case orangutans who have huge brains) need greater brainpower to map and predict when and where fruit would ripen across the forest. The author approached the problem from his perspective as a bio-mechanic— someone who studies the engineering of plants and animals. To quote Ennos, “The difference was where these primates lived: the forest canopy. A larger animal must have much greater difficulty moving around the canopy of trees, and in particular moving between trees, than a small one. The wooden branches would deflect more under their weight and would be more likely to break. The consequences of a fall for a larger animal would also be far more serious.…It struck me then that the early apes might have evolved larger brains to help them navigate safely around their perilous arboreal environment and allow them to plan and follow the best routes through the trees.… In other words, their intelligence had a physical basis, not a social one: a feeling for the mechanical properties of wood.” Later this idea became a bona fide theory of the evolution of intelligence in apes—the “clambering hypothesis” of Daniel Povinelli and John Cant, American primatologists. (pgs. 11–12). Roland Ennos, is a visiting professor of Biological Science at the University of Hull, specializing in the material properties of wood. He brings his unique questions and answers to the continued development of mankind through the ages, how they fashioned tools, survived the ice age, what types of shelter they developed, how they navigated in their territories, and how they built seafaring ships. All of these efforts began with using the wood at hand and have continued into our current culture. Now we are faced with too much success in using our forests without reestablishing the earth’s forest cover that can help mitigate too much carbon dioxide. Professor Ennos has several observations on what to do about the situation. The book is footnoted, indexed and includes extensive references. It is a good read. BOOK REVIEW
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