Showing titles in Environmentalists & Naturalists

Everyone has dreams of what they want to accomplish in life. Marty Essen’s childhood dream of becoming a herpetologist gave way to his dream of becoming a popular DJ, which led to his dream of becoming a big-time talent manager, which morphed into the dream of becoming an in-demand author and college speaker. While he achieved most of his dreams at various levels, he also realized that he didn’t necessarily have to reach the top to find success or happiness. Sometimes, “almost” is close enough.

Disequilibrium tells the story of the creation of the Quirimbas National Park and the author's simultaneous descent into the uncontrolled cycles of mania and depression that characterize bipolar disorder and threaten the lives and wellbeing of those affected. The author's struggles to establish the park in the face of widespread poaching and appalling human poverty parallel his painstaking efforts to regain both ‘a functional approximation of sanity’ and then the love and respect of his wife and family. A photo gallery accompanies the text.

Upon George Mitchell’s death in 2013, The Economist proclaimed, “Few businesspeople have done as much to change the world as George Mitchell.” He was a billionaire Texas oilman who defied the stereotypical swagger so identified with that industry. In George P. Mitchell: Fracking, Sustainability, and an Unorthodox Quest to Save the Planet, award-winning author Loren C. Steffy offers the first definitive biography of Mitchell, placing his life and legacy in a global context

It’s believed by many that crows are a symbol of bad luck and death, but by others, crows are the symbol of life, magic, and mysteries. They also symbolize intelligence, flexibility, and destiny. Grandma often told me superstitious stories and myths. Most of her perceived omens remained unexplainable myths, but she always insisted that if we didn’t pay attention, who knows what would’ve happened.

Der Tod des Elefantenflüsterers und preisgekrönten Umweltschützers Lawrence Anthony trifft seine Frau Françoise schwer. Plötzlich führt sie das südafrikanische Naturschutzreservat ganz allein, das Geld wird knapp und Wilderer machen sich das Chaos von Lawrences Tod zunutze. So bleibt für Françoise keine Zeit zu trauern. Doch die von ihrem Mann gerettete Elefantenherde teilt Françoises Trauer und entwickelt nach und nach eine neue und tiefe Beziehung zu ihr. Sie spendet ihr Kraft, und so werden die Elefanten ihre größten Unterstützer und sie ein Teil der Herde.

Wilderness guide and lifelong Alaskan Bjorn Dihle weaves personal experience with historical and contemporary accounts to explore the world of brown bears - from encounters with the Lewis and Clark Expedition to frightening attacks including the famed death of Timothy Treadwell, the controversies related to bear hunting, the animal's place in native cultures, and the impacts on the species from habitat degradation and climate change.

Heidi Kühn’s lifelong commitment to fostering peace and raising awareness has been a driving force - from her early days as a student at the University of California, Berkeley, to her time as a reporter in Juneau, Alaska, covering the Exxon Valdez oil spill and US-Russia relations. After overcoming a potentially terminal cancer diagnosis that threatened everything she held dear, Heidi became determined to rid the world of another form of cancer that has plagued the world for decades - landmines - in regions as far-flung as Croatia, Vietnam, and Afghanistan.

In The Robin, Stephen Moss records a year of observing the robin both close to home and in the field to shed light on the hidden life of this apparently familiar bird. We follow its lifecycle from the time it enters the world as an egg, through its time as a nestling and juvenile, to the adult bird and ultimately, death.

Alexandra Morton has been called "the Jane Goodall of Canada" because of her passionate thirty-year fight to save British Columbia's wild salmon. Her account of that fight is both inspiring in its own right and a roadmap of resistance.

Moving through the settings of her life - red rock canyons, aspen forests, mountains, and cities - Jana Richman probes the depths of her internal landscape and asks how we can find stillness in our noisy world. In essays both personal and profoundly universal, Richman eschews quick and easy answers for quiet reflections on the questions: In a culture demanding that every voice be heard, how do we make sense of the resulting roar? Where do we seek solace when the last quiet places are sacrificed to human hubris? How do we shed the angst thrust upon us to create lives of peace?

In The Quarry Fox , Leslie T. Sharpe chronicles the seasons and the vibrant wildlife of a landscape she cherishes, offering her keen insights in an engaging narrative that celebrates the splendor of the natural world. From crafty foxes and hibernating bears to vulnerable monarch butterflies, The Quarry Fox explores the creatures of the Great Western Catskills in loving, lyrical detail.

Chana Cox was a brilliant woman who lived a remarkable and incredibly full life until her passing in March 2019 at 77 years old. In her honor, her children have begun to re-publish memorial editions of her books. The first of these publications is this, her most popular book. A River Went out of Eden tells the engrossing stories of her life and those around her, in the beautiful but unforgiving, Idaho wilderness area.

Longtime fly fisherman Quinn Grover had contemplated the “why” of his fishing identity before, more recently, becoming focused on the “how” of it. He realized he was a dedicated fly fisherman, in large part, because public lands and public waterways in the West made it possible. In Wilderness of Hope Grover recounts his fly-fishing experiences with a strong evocation of place, connecting those experiences to the ongoing national debate over public lands.

The Earth, the City, and the Hidden Narrative of Race connects the logics behind slavery, community disinvestment, and environmental exploitation to address the most pressing issues of our time in a cohesive and foundational manner. Most books dealing with these topics and periods silo issues apart from one another, but this book contextualizes the connections between social movements and issues, providing tremendous insight into successful movement building.

For 15 years, Sue Eisenfeld hiked in Shenandoah National Park in the Virginia Blue Ridge Mountains, unaware of the tragic history behind the creation of the park. In this travel narrative, she tells the story of her on-the-ground discovery of the relics and memories a few thousand mountain residents left behind when the government used eminent domain to kick the people off their land to create the park.

Jeff Appelquist has traveled to all 50 of the United States, myriad foreign countries, and six continents. He has survived three years in the Marine Corps infantry; a violent rock slide on Mount Kilimanjaro; a Force Nine gale in a sailboat on the Atlantic Ocean; a frozen regulator while wreck-diving deep in icy Lake Superior; and a ghostly encounter with a Confederate soldier on Little Round Top at Gettysburg. He is a student of history who teaches leadership. He is an international sportsman who loves the outdoors. And he is deeply concerned about the state of our beloved Earth.

Beginning with his interactions with Dr Salim Ali, the legendary ornithologist - who was also his grand-uncle - wildlife biologist Rauf Ali takes the listener on a journey through India’s natural history and the beginning of ecological studies in India. Rauf was one of the first Indians to complete a PhD in wildlife biology - he researched the social behaviour of bonnet macaques in the forests of Mundanthurai region in Tamil Nadu. In the late 1980s, he was instrumental in setting up one of India’s first master's programmes in ecology.

Meet Henry David Thoreau, US Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas, and other intrepid explorers as you travel northern Maine's rugged woods and waters. In a wild country of ledge and trees that stubbornly resists encroaching civilization, find a young couple padding through the trials, triumphs, and sheer mental and physical exhaustion of wilderness travel severely testing their ability to get along and even complete the trip. Fill your ears with roaring rapids and yodeling loons. Smell pungent spruce and dank swamps.

When Dr. David Hosack tilled the country's first botanical garden in the Manhattan soil more than 200 years ago, he didn't just dramatically alter the New York landscape; he left a monumental legacy of advocacy for public health and wide-ranging support for the sciences. In melodic prose, historian Victoria Johnson eloquently chronicles Hosack's tireless career to reveal the breadth of his impact. The result is a lush portrait of the man who gave voice to a new, deeply American understanding of the powers and perils of nature.

Pollution is the single largest cause of death in the developing world. One in seven people in low- and middle-income countries die as a result of it. Simply put, pollution is now the world's most prevalent health risk. And yet, while most everyone has heard about "going green"; few are aware of the more dire and sinister brown pollution - places where man-made toxic pollutants have taken root and spread. Brown sites poison millions of people every year, causing needless suffering and death. After witnessing several brown sites firsthand and meeting families trapped by poverty in these toxic hot spots, environmentalist Richard Fuller founded the Blacksmith Institute, now renamed Pure Earth, a global nonprofit that initiates large-scale cleanups of some of the most polluted places on earth.