The Human, the Orchid, and the Octopus Summary and Reviews

The Human, the Orchid, and the Octopus by Jacques Cousteau, Susan Schiefelbein

The Human, the Orchid, and the Octopus

Exploring and Conserving Our Natural World

by Jacques Cousteau, Susan Schiefelbein

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  • Published:
  • Oct 2007, 320 pages
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About this book

Book Summary

In this magnificent last book, finally 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. Cousteau’s lyrical, passionate call for 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.

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Reviews

Media Reviews

"Starred Review. Cousteau's reverence for life's miracles...shines through in this eloquent testimony on the importance of pursuing higher ideals." - PW.

"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." - Kirkus Reviews.

"Cousteau's electrifying, many-faceted masterwork at once celebrates "life's miracles " and warns us that unless we stop ransacking "nature's irreplaceables," we may go the way of the dinosaurs." - Booklist.

"[E]loquent 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." - Library Journal.

This information about The Human, the Orchid, and the Octopus was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

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More Information

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.

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