Author: Tim Flannery Publisher: Harper Collins ISBN: 1443413585 Category : Science Languages : en Pages : 207
Book Description
Twenty-five years ago, a young Australian museum curator named Tim Flannery set out to research the fauna of the Pacific Islands. Starting with a survey of one of the most inaccessible islands in Melanesia, the young scientist found himself ghost whispering, snake wrestling and Quadoi hunting in search of a small bat that turned out not to be earthshatteringly interesting. With accounts of discovering, naming and sometimes eating new mammal species; being thwarted or aided by local customs; and historic scientific expeditions, Flannery, now one of the world’s top environmentalists, takes us on an enthralling journey through some of the most diverse and spectacular places on earth.
Author: Marvin W. Hunt Publisher: Createspace Independent Pub ISBN: 9781480085497 Category : Travel Languages : en Pages : 294
Book Description
Marvin Hunt's remarkable Among the Children of the Sun takes readers to an island nation that millions of people visit yearly, but few actually know much about. Bypassing the well-known resorts of Nassau and Freeport, he concentrates on life in the other islands of the Bahamas—the Family Islands. Hunt explores the geology of these islands; the racial, social and political history of the nation; its storied history as an eighteenth-century haven for pirates; its customs, its food and music; its religious traditions; and the challenges it faces as an emerging nation, in a lively narrative, reminiscent of Paul Theroux, that spans fifteen years of travel. Richly detailed, full of lively encounters with people and places, Among the Children of the Sun does what no other book about the Bahamas has done: take readers beyond the name tags and smiling faces of those who service the tourist industry, into their real lives, conveying the triumphs and tragedies of ordinary people living in an extraordinary landscape. It is a work of self-discovery, too, as the author comes to terms with his own evolving life.
Author: Thurston Clarke Publisher: ISBN: Category : Science Languages : en Pages : 360
Book Description
They inspire feelings of great passion, serenity, and sometimes fear . . . they give people the opportunity to find themselves--or to lose their minds . . . they are revered as paradise or treated as junkyards . . . both haunted by and respectful of history . . . they are central to the myths and religions of many peoples throughout time . . . they provide a real, friendly community or the hell of repetitive social encounters . . . What is it about islands that has captivated millions of people around the world and through the centuries? In a penetrating, brilliantly written book that weaves sociology, history, politics, personality, and ancient and popular culture into one compelling narrative, Thurston Clarke island-hops around the oceans of the world, searching for an explanation for the most passionate and enduring geographic love affair of all time--between humankind and islands. Along the way Clarke visits the remote and silent Mas À Tierra, the island off the coast of Chile that inspired Defoe to write Robinson Crusoe; tropical Banda Neira, one of the Spice Islands, where its self-crowned prince hopes for nothing less than nutmeg's complete and glorious revival; sleepy, simple Campobello, the Canadian island where Franklin D. Roosevelt spent his boyhood summers; Patmos, with its imposing mountaintop monastery; Malekula, once the most notorious cannibal island in the world; and Jura in Scotland's Hebrides, where George Orwell wrote 1984--the island that turned Clarke into a islomane, someone Lawrence Durrell says experiences an "indescribable intoxication" at finding himself in "a little world surrounded by the sea." Despite colonialism and missionary conversions, wartime scars and shrinking coasts, islands have thrived. Though each island is unique in its own way, Clarke discovers that the islanders themselves are a distinct people-- tranquilized by their watery horizons yet sensitive to the first shift in weather, conservative yet more likely to drop their inhibitions because no one is looking. And over every island falls the shadow of Robinson Crusoe, persuading us that islands are more liberating than confining, more contemplative than lonely, more holy than barbaric because we have been "removed from all the wickedness of the world." In a stunning work of wit, adventure, and incisive exploration, Thurston Clarke brings a unique passion to dazzling life.
Author: Tom Bamforth Publisher: Hardie Grant Publishing ISBN: 1743585993 Category : Political Science Languages : en Pages : 268
Book Description
Vanuatu. The Cook Islands. Fiji. The names evoke white-sand beaches, swaying palms and lazy holidays. But in reality, these idyllic places are tropical maelstroms of global realpolitik, caught between the world’s superpowers, former colonial masters and tin-pot despots. Collectively the Pacific nations, which form one third of the globe’s surface area, are one of the most strategically important regions in the world – for military might, for energy security and geopolitical borders. Even more importantly, these nations are at the frontline of climate change, as rising sea levels, salinity, cyclones and pollution put their very existence at stake.
With humour and insight, Tom Bamforth presents both an insider's and an outsider's view of life in the Pacific, rendered in vivid detail and colour. Gripping and beautifully written, The Rising Tide masterfully weaves the stories of people at the forefront of global change around a broader narrative of political mismanagement, culture, diplomacy and identity.
Author: Nathalie Peutz Publisher: Stanford University Press ISBN: 1503607151 Category : Social Science Languages : en Pages : 478
Book Description
Soqotra, the largest island of Yemen's Soqotra Archipelago, is one of the most uniquely diverse places in the world. A UNESCO natural World Heritage Site, the island is home not only to birds, reptiles, and plants found nowhere else on earth, but also to a rich cultural history and the endangered Soqotri language. Within the span of a decade, this Indian Ocean archipelago went from being among the most marginalized regions of Yemen to promoted for its outstanding global value. Islands of Heritage shares Soqotrans' stories to offer the first exploration of environmental conservation, heritage production, and development in an Arab state. Examining the multiple notions of heritage in play for twenty-first-century Soqotra, Nathalie Peutz narrates how everyday Soqotrans came to assemble, defend, and mobilize their cultural and linguistic heritage. These efforts, which diverged from outsiders' focus on the island's natural heritage, ultimately added to Soqotrans' calls for political and cultural change during the Yemeni Revolution. Islands of Heritage shows that far from being merely a conservative endeavor, the protection of heritage can have profoundly transformative, even revolutionary effects. Grassroots claims to heritage can be a potent form of political engagement with the most imminent concerns of the present: human rights, globalization, democracy, and sustainability.
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Author: Tim Flannery
Author: John Elphinstone Erskine
Author: John Elphinstone Erskine
Author: John-Elphinstone Erskine
Author: John Elphinstone Erskine
Author: Charles Swan
Author: Marvin W. Hunt
Author: Thurston Clarke
Author: Tom Bamforth
Author: Nathalie Peutz