On one scouting expedition, he spotted a grove of palms growing in the sandy soil, trees not native to Florida that had sprouted from a batch of coconuts from a boat that had foundered off Cuba.

WSJ: Book Review: Finding Florida

By trade, John- William is a farmer, growing Christmas trees and organic cider apples.

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"I thought the idea that trees had souls was a little hokey growing up, " says Yarnall.

FORBES: Trees with souls

And although it is true, as loggers argue, that extracting old, slow-growing trees and preserving their carbon in expensive furniture may represent a net sequestration opportunity, high levels of wastage make the argument less convincing.

ECONOMIST: Western consciences can do only so much to conserve forests

The oil multinational hopes its improved trees, now growing in test sites in Uruguay and Chile, will prove a boon to the pulp and paper industry.

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In some Thai villages up to 10% of the land is devoted to growing coconut trees, which are harvested every month and produce up to 70 nuts a year.

ECONOMIST: Monkey business

Added to that, spraying tall trees is a much more complicated and unhealthy business than treating low-growing fruit and vegetables.

ECONOMIST: Biological pest control

The pressure of a desperately poor and growing population has led to the indiscriminate felling of trees, for fuel as well as to increase cultivable acreage.

ECONOMIST: From the archive

Puppetry continues to be one of the fastest growing elements in the Fringe programme with a range of shows from One Eye Gone to The Man Who Planted Trees.

BBC: Van Outen joins line-up at Fringe