Showing titles in Environmentalists & Naturalists

Author Stephen Harrigan spent months diving on the coral reefs of Grand Turk Island in the Caribbean. In this evocative account, he describes his many explorations, both personal and natural. Though he is there to learn about the history of the coral reef, Harrigan freely admits that his true motivation is to become, at least for a time, his “underwater self”.

When Andy McCarthy left school in Year 10 because of relentless bullying, his career prospects weren't great, but he was determined to prove the doubters wrong. At age 19, he connected his first solar panel and suddenly found himself powered by a purpose. He would accelerate the world's transition to renewable energy, and he would do it in the coal-fired heartland of Victoria's Latrobe Valley. Here Comes the Sun is an electrifying tale for anyone interested in renewable energy, in building a business and in what it takes to follow a purpose without burning out.

Alone on a small Missouri farm after a thirty-year marriage, Sue Hubbell found a new love—of the winged, buzzing variety. Left with little but the commercial beekeeping and honey-producing business she started with her husband, Hubbell found solace in the natural world. Then she began to write, challenging herself to tell the absolute truth about her life and the things she cared about. Describing the ups and downs of beekeeping from one springtime to the next, A Country Year transports listeners to a different, simpler place.

In June of 1889 in San Francisco, John Muir—iconic environmentalist, writer, and philosopher—meets face-to-face for the first time with his longtime editor Robert Underwood Johnson, an elegant and influential figure at The Century magazine. Before long, the pair, opposites in many ways, decide to venture to Yosemite Valley, the magnificent site where twenty years earlier, Muir experienced a personal and spiritual awakening that would set the course of the rest of his life.

John and Elizabeth Gould sailed into Australia on a cold spring day in 1838 prepared for the most astonishing adventure of their lives. They had crossed three oceans from their London home to find the treasures of Australia's birdlife. Elizabeth had fallen pregnant for the seventh time at just 34, and there would be little rest for her in illustrating her husband's exquisite books that had made him England's celebrated 'Bird Man', and a force of nature in both science and publishing.

The Pitchfork Ranch is more than another dusty homestead tucked away in a corner of the Southwest. It is a place with a story to tell about the most pressing crisis to confront humankind. It is a place where one couple is working every day to right decades of wrongs. It is a place of inspiration and promise. It is an invitation to join the struggle for a better planet. Restoring the Pitchfork Ranch tells the story of a decades-long habitat restoration project in southwestern New Mexico.

For fifty years, Barbara McLean has tended a flock of Border Leicester sheep on her small Ontario farm, Lambsquarters. In Shepherd's Sight she shares the crises, pleasures, and challenges of farm life over the course of a year. Now in her seventies, McLean faces a new problem: how much longer she can continue with the physically taxing work that is her central source of meaning and satisfaction.

In her late twenties, writer and naturalist Lucy Bryan found herself in between places. Her marriage to her first love had crumbled. Her beloved father had died of cancer. Doubt had supplanted the faith that had guided her since childhood. Uprooted and adrift, she turned to the natural world in search of meaning, connection, and a renewed sense of self.

Valentin Grüner lebt den Traum vieler Menschen: Mit Anfang 20 gab er seine Heimat, den Bodensee, für ein Leben als Wildhüter und Naturschützer in Afrika auf und zog in die Wüste Kalahari in Botswana. Als er vor neun Jahren ein verlassenes Löwenjunges fand, änderte sich alles: Die kleine Sirga bestimmte fortan seinen Alltag, wuchs heran, lernte auf Streifzügen, mit Valentin zu jagen und sich selbst zu versorgen. Nur durch Willenskraft, Kreativität und Durchhaltevermögen schaffte es Valentin, für Sirga ein Reservat in der afrikanischen Wildnis zu errichten.

Knud Rasmussen (1878-1933) blev født i Grønland, men måtte som 12-årig forlade den elskede ø for at tage på kostskole i Danmark. Som voksen vendte han tilbage til Grønland, men denne gang i en ny rolle som polarforsker. Via sine mange bøger og foredrag om oplevelserne i Grønland og andre polaregne vandt Knud Rasmussen en helt særlig plads i kulturhistorien og har i dag status som en legendarisk opdagelsesrejsende. Forfatter Niels Fenger, der selv havde en stærk tilknytning til Grønland, fortæller her om Knud Rasmussens spændende liv og hans usædvanlige personlighed.

On an East African hunting expedition in 1909, Delia Akeley, a 40-year-old American woman, casually captured a baby female monkey, never dreaming this act would overturn both their lives. Delia’s life was isolated and often lonely in an overpoweringly masculine world. She decided to name the monkey JT Jr and study her interactions with humans; a long-frustrated desire to adopt a child led her to also lose her heart to this lovable animal.

Manda Kalimian is fully committed to changing the world by championing the practice of rewilding. This book shares her remarkable journey so far and her plans for the future. We live in a time of crushing change and unrest. The world is at a turning point, and we with it. Our individual lives and journeys are all interconnected. It is a moment in time to stop and listen to the voices within ourselves and what they are saying about our individual roles at this time.

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.

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.

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.

When Catherine Raven finished her PhD in biology, she built herself a tiny cottage on an isolated plot of land in Montana. She was as emotionally isolated as she was physically, but she viewed the house as a way station, a temporary rest stop where she could gather her nerves and fill out applications for what she hoped would be a real job that would help her fit into society. In the meantime, she taught remotely and led field classes in nearby Yellowstone National Park. Then one day she realized that a mangy-looking fox was showing up on her property every afternoon at 4:15 p.m.

Building on Falconer’s two acclaimed essays, "Signs and Wonders" and the Walkley Award-winning "The Opposite of Glamour", Signs and Wonders is a pioneering examination of how we are changing our culture, language and imaginations along with our climate. Is a mammoth emerging from the permafrost beautiful or terrifying? How is our imagination affected when something that used to be ordinary – like a car windscreen smeared with insects – becomes unimaginable?

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.