"An electrifying, many-faceted masterwork."--"Booklist"
The beloved explorer Jacques Cousteau witnessed firsthand the
complexity and beauty of life on earth and undersea--and watched
the toll taken by human activity in the twentieth century. In this
magnificent last book, now available for the first time in the
United States, Cousteau describes his deeply informed philosophy
about protecting our world for future generations. Weaving gripping
stories of his adventures throughout, he and coauthor Susan
Schiefelbein address the risks we take with human health, the
overfishing and sacking of the world's oceans, the hazards of
nuclear proliferation, and the environmental responsibility of
scientists, politicians, and people of faith. This prescient,
clear-sighted book is a remarkable testament to the life and work
of one of our greatest modern adventurers. Jacques Cousteau
(1910-1997) was world renowned as an ocean explorer, filmmaker,
educator, and environmental activist. He won three Oscars and the
Palme d'Or for his films," " was nominated for forty Emmys during
the run of his TV series "The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau,"
and wrote or coauthored more than seventy-five books, including
"The Silent World," which has sold five million copies in twenty
two languages. As director of the Oceanographic Institute of Monaco
and a member of the advisory committee of the IAEA, he was active
in the conservation and anti-nuclear-proliferation movements. Susan
Schiefelbein has won the National Magazine Award and the Front Page
Award for her cover stories on social issues. A former editor at
the "Saturday Review," where she first worked with Cousteau, she
went on to write the narration for many of his documentary films,
including winners of the Peabody and the Ace. She lives in Paris.
Explorer, diving pioneer, filmmaker, inventor, and activist,
Jacques Cousteau was blessed from his childhood with boundless
curiosity about the natural world. As the leader of fascinating,
often dangerous expeditions all over the planet, he discovered
firsthand the complexity and beauty of life on earth and
undersea--and watched the toll taken by human activity in the
twentieth century.
In what would be his final book, Cousteau describes his deeply
informed philosophy about protecting our world for future
generations. Weaving stories of his adventures throughout, he and
co-author Susan Schiefelbein address the risks we take with human
health, the overfishing and sacking of the world's oceans, the
hazards of nuclear proliferation, and the environmental
responsibility of scientists, politicians, and people of faith.
Cousteau's call to action to protect our earth and seas and their
myriad life forms is even more relevant today than when this book
was completed in 1996. Written over the last ten years of his life
with frequent collaborator Schiefelbein, who also introduces the
text and provides an update on environmental developments in the
decade since Cousteau's death, this prescient, clear-sighted book
is a timely, remarkable testament to the life and work of one of
our greatest modern adventurers. "Cousteau consecrated his life to
teaching the world about marvels that are at once exotic to us and
yet ordinary in the abyss of the ocean. Through his lyrical
writings and his films that took your breath away, he placed the
underwater world at the door of an audience as extensive as the
oceans themselves. I always learned with him."--Al Gore "Cousteau
consecrated his life to teaching the world about marvels that are
at once exotic to us and yet ordinary in the abyss of the ocean.
Through his lyrical writings and his films that took your breath
away, he placed the underwater world at the door of an audience as
extensive as the oceans themselves. I always learned with him."--Al
Gore
"As this rich new book reminds us, Cousteau was utterly
trustworthy, a figure, like Rachel Carson, moved by no desire
deeper than to appreciate the world around, to share that love, and
thus to protect it. He was the quintessential explorer . . .
Cousteau divided his career between two tasks, equally necessary:
getting people to marvel at the beauty of the oceans, and then
pointing out how we were destroying them. It was as if the earliest
explorer of the North American continent was simultaneously
cataloguing its vast buffalo herds and watching them die . . . No
explorer has ever been faced with quite such a dilemma, and
Cousteau handled it superbly."--Bill McKibben, author of "Deep
Economy "and "The End of Nature, "from the foreword "From
Oscar-winning explorer-filmmaker Cousteau, a final bouquet for the
planet he loved . . . Cousteau] makes an eloquent case for
conserving our natural world in these 11 essays, completed before
his death . . . Following a foreword by Bill McKibben, the
collection opens with a meditation on the instinctive human drive
to explore and then considers aspects of the need to protect 'the
last remaining unexplored expanse of earth--underwater, ' which
first attracted the author as a young midshipman on a world tour in
the 1930s. In each instance, Cousteau draws on experiences and
observations from his career: He examines personal risk-taking,
recalling the moment in 1952 (the underwater death of a young man
diving from Cousteau's ship Calypso off Marseilles) when he learned
to dare without danger by minimizing risks to crews; and the day at
a 1959 conference of atomic scientists held in Monaco's
Oceanographic Institute (where Cousteau was director) when he heard
talk about using the sea as a radioactive waste dump that prompted
his lifelong protests over nuclear issues. ('Stick to steering
boats ' said his critics.) Elsewhere, he urges action against
overfishing, unchecked coastal development and corner-cutting by
commercial interests that results in threats to public health and
the environment. The author proves a trusted, familiar and
knowledgeable voice as he draws on explorations in the Amazon,
Antarctica, the underwater caves of the Caribbean and elsewhere to
express his concern for humankind's future. 'We are part of Earth,
' he declares in explaining why we must conserve. Long-time
collaborator Schiefelbein provides a useful introduction as well as
an update on facts and trends since the book's completion ten years
ago."--"Kirkus Reviews"
"Originally published in French in 1997 as "L'homme, la pieuvre et
l'orchidee" . . . this is a comprehensive presentation of the
conservation and preservation philosophy that inspired Cousteau to
become an activist for the oceans and the earth during his
lifetime. Although not by any means a biography, the book contains
numerous anecdotes and an extensive introduction by coauthor and
longtime Cousteau collaborator Schiefelbein that is primarily
biographical. The prose is eloquent and at times almost poetical,
especially in the eponymous final chapter. This worthwhile look
back at the French scientist who taught us to love scuba diving and
the ocean raises questions still highly relevant ten years later.
Recommended for all libraries at the high school level and
above."--Margaret Rioux, "Library Journal""" "Written by renowned
ocean explorer Cousteau in the 10 years before his death, this book
strikes a note of caution as it celebrates the natural world: as
the