num_pages: 320
description:  Part adventure story part manifesto the legendary ocean explorer'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 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. 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. 
language: English
title: The Human, the Orchid and the Octopus: Exploring and Conserving Our Natural World
publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC