The Overstory by Richard Powers

First of all, I have to confess that I may have gotten this all wrong.  The book is interwoven and dense, so I may have ended up getting it all wrong.  The book is a modern day take on Thoreau, with a lot more people in it.
The book moves the way a hike in an open field evolves into a thick forest: slowly, then inevitably. For a while, almost a third of it, the various stories develop independently, and it’s not apparent that they have anything to do with one another. But have faith in this author. H is working through tree history, not human history, and the effect is like a time-lapse video.  Eventually they tie together, and tell an alarming story without much in the way of hope.
Trees are becoming extinct, and man is the reason why.  We are cutting them down, heating up the planet, killing them and by all means, we ourselves are doomed.  Unless we take action, like some in the book do.  It is overwhelming in so many ways, and truly exceptional.  Up for the Booker Prize this year, it has a good shot at winning.