Ladders To Heaven

Mike Shanahan is a freelance writer with a doctorate in rainforest ecology. He has lived in a national park in Borneo, bred endangered penguins, investigated illegal bear farms, produced award-winning journalism and spent several weeks of his life at the annual United Nations climate change negotiations. He is interested in what people think about nature and our place in it. His freelance journalism includes work published by The Economist, Nature, The Ecologist and Ensia, and chapters of Dry: Life without Water (Harvard University Press); Climate Change and the Media (Peter Lang Publishing) and Culture and Climate Change: Narratives (Shed). He is the illustrator of Extraordinary Animals (Greenwood Publishing Group) and maintains a blog called Under the Banyan.
 

Photos used in video under Creative Commons licences: Double-eyed fig parrot (James Niland / Flickr); Cathedral fig (James Niland / Flickr); Orang utan (Col Ford and Natasha de Vere / Flickr); Orang utan (Flickr); Lemur (Tree Madagascar/ Flickr); Strangler fig on boulder (O. Baudys / Wikimedia Commons); Green figged tree (Jnzl public domain photos / Flickr Creative Commons); Fig wasps (Jnzl public domain photos / Flickr) and (P. Zborowski / Wikimedia Commons); Adam and Eve (Wikimedia Commons and Wikimedia Commons); Wild fig in Spain (Wildlife encounters / Flickr); Banyan in Hawaii (Wikimedia Commons); Jesus cursing tree (Wikimedia Commons); Box of figs (Pixeltoo /Flickr); Papua New Guinea fig (Arthur Chapman / Wikimedia Commons); Nava Jetavana Temple (Photo Dharma / Wikimedia Commons); Temple under fig tree (Wikimedia Commons); Thai fig tree (Wikimedia Commons); Bodhi tree replica (Wikimedia Commons); Hornbill (Wikimedia Commons); Australopithecus (Wikimedia Commons); Buddha head (McKay Savage / Wikimedia Commons); Banyan roots (Graham Crumb / Wikimedia Commons); Strangler fig (Neil Ennis / Flickr); Banyan (Heiko S / Flickr); Ta Phrom (Steve Cornish / Flickr).