Important, funny guide to what we all depend on.

I never expected a book on photosynthesis to make me laugh or cheer me up. Raffael Jovine is a natural storyteller (and perhaps a more glamorous incarnation of Professor Branestawm). With roasting temperatures in the Arctic Circle and flash floods killing nearly a hundred people this week in Germany the reality of global climate change is undeniable. But Jovine’s genius is that he takes the reader’s (in my case, ignorant) hand and takes us on a guided tour of everything you ever wanted to know about photosynthesis and never even knew that you did. With pitstops along the way about the idiosyncratic scientist who unravelled photosynthesis for us, the centrality of photosynthesis for all life, including ours, and fuel for everything on the planet (I for one never used to think of fossil fuels as products of photosynthesis, but there we are), the abundance of photosynthesizing life forms and their possible utility, the untapped power of photosynthesis to clean and rebalance the planet, the challenge ahead in rebalancing the world, and because it is the only thing that will make people listen the monetary value of photosynthesis via the NPP or Net Primary Productivity which ‘is about as emotive as a bag of sand’ (p.161) or Jovine’s preferred ViU for Vitality Unit i.e. life giving unit. And then he concludes with suggestions of what we can do.
This is the first ‘science’ book that I have read since the Desmond Morris’ Naked Ape a half century ago, which despite my interest was a slog. Yet this was a joy. I learned a lot and it did not send me scuttling back under a rock on the seashore to hide but made me realise that there is a lot I and everyone can do to turn the tide, through small acts and changes in policy, manufacturing and lifestyle. Now when I dig a hole for my garden I am conscious of it as a environmental imperative, we can all green our world in little ways, Jovine’s book argues forcefully for the necessity and the ease of capturing that solar energy through the brilliance of biological processes: photosynthesis.
Most people probably take photosynthesis for granted, we should not, we should be nurturing it. If everyone read this book and acted on it, the world really would be a better place.

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