New Booklet

Succulent Plants—Conserving Water,
Outwitting Climate Change
Park S. Nobel

Distinguished Professor of Biology Emeritus,
University of California, Los Angeles 

The two greatest environmental challenges facing our era are (1) shortages of water and (2) climate change. This booklet is a light-hearted rendering of serious topics accepted by scientists and many others.

Park has been called "the international 'guru' for the ecophysiology of cacti and agaves" (Ali Nefzaoui) and "The rock star of cacti" (Nadean Lindberg). He has published five books and over 300 research articles on these remarkable plants (plus 12 other scientific books, with translations into Spanish, Russian, and Chinese).

For this booklet everybody said "Keep it short," "Keep it simple," and "Make it fun to read." In this regard his two grandchildren helped inspire an imaginary dialogue about how agaves, cacti, and other succulent plants conserve water and are responding to climate change. Hopefully you'll enjoy learning many facets of these remarkable plants.

CONTENTS

  1. Introduction/Uses — Agaves (Ava) and Cacti (Alex)
  2. We Are Bags of Water
  3. Breathe In, Breathe Out
  4. And The Environment/Climate Change
    1. Rainfall
    2. Hot Is O.K., But Not Too Cold
    3. We Want More CO2
  5. Agaves and Cacti Thank Global Climate Change!

This booklet (Copyright 2015) is available on Amazon Kindle for $1.00 (free for Kindle Unlimited).