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Title details for The Human, the Orchid, and the Octopus by Jacques Cousteau - Available

The Human, the Orchid, and the Octopus

Exploring and Conserving Our Natural World

by Jacques Cousteau
Susan Schiefelbein
Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
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1 of 1 copy available
Part adventure story, part manifesto, this is legendary ocean explorer Jacques Cousteau's passionate plea for sustaining life on earth.


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 his magnificent last book, 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. 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 remarkable testament to the life and work of one of our greatest modern adventurers.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    January 28, 2008

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781400126088
      • File size: 373821 KB
      • Duration: 12:58:47

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Jacques Cousteau was a legendary adventurer--and an environmental activist. In his memoir, Cousteau, a firm proponent of the planet's rights long before Al Gore came along, runs the gamut from expressing concern to indulging in a raging polemic, never sparing the world's governments in the process. The material gives the book a heavy-handed tone, which is echoed by Stephen Hoye's theatrical reading. His delivery is as clipped as the sails of Cousteau's beloved CALYPSO. Hoye doesn't attempt to evoke Cousteau's distinctly French parlance, but where he does match Cousteau is in his sanctimonious quality, which reinforces the text's strident tendencies. J.S.H. (c) AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from August 6, 2007
      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 seas are plundered, the biosphere is polluted and the hazards of nuclear power are imposed upon nature, the human race is “unraveling complexities it took eternity to create.” As a scientist and an explorer, Cousteau laments the government's use of science as a handmaiden to profit, reproaching technocrats and military and industrial leaders who, in pursuit of power and money, make decisions and leave the rest of the world, and its ecosystems, to live with their mistakes. An informative introduction and epilogue by Schiefelbein, a former editor at the Saturday Review
      , updates this account with developments since Cousteau's death, including the continuing depletion of the oceans and the persistent shift of funds from scientific research to economic “priorities.” Cousteau's reverence for life's miracles—embodied by the evolutionary wonders of the human, the orchid and the octopus—shines through in this eloquent testimony on the importance of pursuing higher ideals, particularly the preservation of the oceans and the natural world for future generations.

    • Publisher's Weekly

      March 31, 2008
      The late Cousteau (1910–1997) is still offering remarkable tales of nature and the sea alongside coauthor Schiefelbein. Stephen Hoye delivers a solid reading complete with an astounding Cousteau impersonation that will have listeners questioning just who they are listening to during the introduction. Hoye transports the audience around the globe and under the sea, capturing the tense incidents throughout the tale in a believable manner. Though most of the tale is told from Schiefelbein's perspective, Hoye manages to capture the spirit of Cousteau without always resorting to the impersonation. His reading is underplayed and all the more realistic because of it. As Cousteau would have demanded, the conservation information included becomes the star of the show, and the story is a medium to spread the word about Mother Earth. A Bloomsbury hardcover (Reviews, Aug. 6, 2007).

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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