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61st out of 211 books
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The Last Flight of the Scarlet Macaw: One Woman's Fight to Save the World's Most Beautiful Bird
“The first time we came here I didn’t know what to expect,” she told me as we paddled upstream. “What we found just blew me away. Jaguars, pumas, river otters, howler monkeys. The place was like a Noah’s Ark for all the endangered species driven out of the rest of Central America. There was so much life! That expedition was when I first saw the macaws.”
As a young woman, Sh...more
As a young woman, Sh...more
Hardcover, 313 pages
Published
February 5th 2008
by Random House
(first published January 1st 2008)
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I'm an admittedly "distracted" reader and often have several books going at once, but once I was a few pages into this one, I dropped all other reading to immerse myself in it. I should note that Belize has been on my travel wish-list for some years now, but I had only a dim notion of the country's politics and history. Purely as an education in all things Belizean, this is a terrific book. The history, culture, geography, and major players are all there. But beyond that, this book...more
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Contributing editor to Outside magazine and author Bruce Barcott (The Measure of a Mountain: Beauty and Terror on Mount Rainier [1997]) has constructed a gripping and suspenseful account of one woman's crusade against corrupt foreign governments and multinational corporations to save the habitat of an endangered bird. Barcott's simple and eloquent prose, vivid descriptions, and ability to render the most complicated business deals and legal concepts in clear layman's terms allow him to tame this
...more
Every time I go to San Francisco, the first stop is usually a long walk to City Lights Booksellers. The most amazing indie-bookstore on planet earth! I'm always discovering new gems here. This being one of them. I love natural history, and at times, struggle with it in context to conservation. Conservation has become such a dirty word, and with understood cause. I love my 'earth' fighting friends, but understand that they often alienate with their passionate (albeit righteous) propagandizi...more
Barcott, Bruce. 2008. The last flight of the scarlet macaw: one woman's fight to save the world's most beautiful bird. Random House, New York. (Anacortes Public Library: 333.9587 Bar. 07/08/2008)
ISBN: 978-1-4000-6293-5
Sharon Matola, a passionate wildlife defender, sets up a zoo of abandoned, wounded, sick animals, birds,and reptiles that come her way in Belize. To defend the original home of wildlife in her adopted country, she finds herself battling the building of a dam.
...more
ISBN: 978-1-4000-6293-5
Sharon Matola, a passionate wildlife defender, sets up a zoo of abandoned, wounded, sick animals, birds,and reptiles that come her way in Belize. To defend the original home of wildlife in her adopted country, she finds herself battling the building of a dam.
...more
Highly recommended for ecological learning, how harmful dams really are, how big capitalist global companies ruin wildlife and culture, and of course, the living habits of the endangered Scarlet Macaw. The author also writes for Outdoor magazine and did some extremely thorough and amazing research. He managed to keep digging up facts, just when you thought he couldn't get any more. Read about the real-life heroine attempting to save the Macaws. Excellent!
The book is about trying to save wildlife in a country that ostensibly felt it needed to supply more electricity to its population--specifically, it tells of efforts to save the Scarlet Macaw. I enjoyed this book because it enlightened me to the world of environmental groups. The lawyers fighting the Belize government's plan to build a dam, thereby destroying the prime nesting grounds of some of the remaining 200 Scarlet Macaw and prime wildlife breeding grounds in Belize, are actually from the...more
I had a love/hate relationship with this book. While I really enjoyed the subject and found it a quick and enjoyable read, it had some major flaws. The most irritating of these was that whole book read like one magazine article after another; sometimes only loosely related to each other.
Aside from the writing style this book covered so many different and interesting topics. I liked learning more about the history of Belize; its ruins, wars, jungles, strange and beautiful animals, an...more
Aside from the writing style this book covered so many different and interesting topics. I liked learning more about the history of Belize; its ruins, wars, jungles, strange and beautiful animals, an...more
A wonderful account of how one woman's passion for saving the Scarlet Macaw made a difference. A motivating story to encourage people that they can make a difference.
Very interesting read.
It's amazing what goes on in politics, both in 3rd world and 1st world countries. It's a shame too, because it affects many aspects.
It's amazing what goes on in politics, both in 3rd world and 1st world countries. It's a shame too, because it affects many aspects.
Liked it, but didn't love it. The book is mostly about the history, politics and culture of Belize, and it definitely made me want to visit there and learn more. I think it would have helped to have a couple of "dueling timelines" set up as a point/counterpoint type of exercise, showing the government and industry's path to building the dam, and the dam opponents' take on what they were doing (date 1, hid files; date 2, pretended to complete a survey, etc.).
Also, since so much ...more
Also, since so much ...more
I have to admit that I often read books with an eye to edit. What would I cut to make it more efficient? This is a story of a woman trying to save the last nesting ground of the scarlet macaw in Belize from being flooded by the construction of a dam to provide her country with much needed electricity. Did we need the chapter on the Mayan civilization? Did we need to know the entire colonial history of Belize? Did we need an overview of dams in the United States? The answer is yes. All this...more
You'll love the writing style, the characters and the setting, but it will get your ire up.
This is about the woman who started the Belize zoo, I wanted to read it before we go to Belize in January. I've read a lot of environmental activism books as I am in the environmental consulting business (not a biostitute). I really enjoyed reading about the hardships of protecting the environment in a developing country and can appreciate all the effort and heartbreak all those involved went through. It's hard enough protecting high quality environments in the U.S. and must be exponentially ...more
Excellent book.
Follows the fight to stop a dam in Belize in order to preserve the habitat of the Scarlett Macaw. Well researched, excellent background material, really well written and informative.
But so sad. You know the story - underdeveloped country, corrupt government, unscrupulous investors from the western world, the age of privatisation - bad chemistry. But still, we need to know - those of us who fight the battels - that we are not alone and that these battls are bein...more
Follows the fight to stop a dam in Belize in order to preserve the habitat of the Scarlett Macaw. Well researched, excellent background material, really well written and informative.
But so sad. You know the story - underdeveloped country, corrupt government, unscrupulous investors from the western world, the age of privatisation - bad chemistry. But still, we need to know - those of us who fight the battels - that we are not alone and that these battls are bein...more
I found myself wishing this guy had won a Pulitzer. The book is so well written and edited, pulling off the feat of being simultaneously comprehensive and spare. When warranted, the author takes his readers on brief trips to Africa or Canada or London; he explains electricity, arcane colonial law, and the fascinating, paralyzing history and politics of Belize. All this, but he never loses sight of the ecology and beauty of the Macal Valley, nor of the center of his book, Sharon, who tried to sav...more
What does a developing third world nation do to provide electricity for their country? There is no oil, gas, or fossil fuel found in Belize. They could buy from foreign neighbors like Mexico but at what price? One thing Belize has going for her is her rivers. If dammed, they could provide hydroelectric power to the Belizeans. Sounds good, right? There are a couple of problems with this:
1) Belize prides itself on conserving her jungle and it animals. Dammed rivers would destroy ri...more
1) Belize prides itself on conserving her jungle and it animals. Dammed rivers would destroy ri...more
Generic review:
The Last Flight of the Scarlet Macaw is a well-written and engaging book. It gave a basic overview of Belize's history (pirates and British colonialism). With that as background, Barcott went on to teach about a major modern event in Belize, the battle to build/stop the Chalillo Dam. Through the events of this battle he portrays the political, social and environmental climates in Belize. From Barcott's perspective, the Belizian government at the time ran on cronyism, with th...more
The Last Flight of the Scarlet Macaw is a well-written and engaging book. It gave a basic overview of Belize's history (pirates and British colonialism). With that as background, Barcott went on to teach about a major modern event in Belize, the battle to build/stop the Chalillo Dam. Through the events of this battle he portrays the political, social and environmental climates in Belize. From Barcott's perspective, the Belizian government at the time ran on cronyism, with th...more
"PART NATURE WRITING, PART TRAVELOGUE, PART BIOGRAPHY:
THE TRUE STORY OF ONE WOMAN’S FIGHT TO SAVE THE WORLD’S MOST BEAUTIFUL BIRD"
This book is environmental journalism at its best, and better yet, it reads like a suspense novel. Unfortunately, the circumstances of the book are non-fiction, and the ongoing environmental devastation that is occurring within the context of a complicated political history is very real.
The main character of the book, Shar...more
Every once in awhile, a book comes along, grabs my attention and as I turn over the last page I feel a interminable sense of sadness that the journey is finally over and there is no more to read.
The Last Flight of the Scarlet Macaw was fascinating and fantastically written. Bruce Barcott brought Sharon Matola and the plight of the habitat threatened by the Chailillo Dam alive with a sense of immediacy and passion.
My only regret is that I hadn't read this book sooner.
The Last Flight of the Scarlet Macaw was fascinating and fantastically written. Bruce Barcott brought Sharon Matola and the plight of the habitat threatened by the Chailillo Dam alive with a sense of immediacy and passion.
My only regret is that I hadn't read this book sooner.
3 1/2 stars, really. First of all, I find the title to be a little deceiving. Though macaws are the driving force behind the main character's passions, the book is really much more about the battle over a dam, a corrupt country trying to achieve dependence, and the many people and animals that get caught in the middle. In other words, this book is about so much more than the title even begins to suggest. There was also something about the writing that didn't capture my attention the way I th...more
I learned a ton about Belize, its history, geography, politics and culture. Reading this book made me want to go there, even though it is now unlikely that I will ever see a scarlet macaw in the wild. The writing is such that I maintained hope to the end. It is a rare book that tells a story where the outcome is wrong (as in right and wrong, not untrue). Sharon Matola's story is so wild that she seems like she must be fictional.
I read this book while traveling in Belize, the setting of this book. It gave me some great insights into the tension between conservation and development in this small Central American country. It's also a great story about Sharon Matola, who does everything in her power to protect the nesting habitat of Belize's remaining scarlet macaws.
Interesting to see the battles that rage over environmental concerns in a foreign country. The book is pretty one-sided, but that's really the point so I can't complain about that. It was definitely more political than I expected, though. I guess it is what it is. :)
This was my favorite book of the year! With fantastically zany characters reminiscent of those from a Carl Hiaasen novel, I had to keep reminding myself that I was reading a work of nonfiction. (To give an idea, the book centers around the efforts of the ex-wife of a dentist in Iowa, who hopped a train to Florida, became an apprentice tiger tamer, took a job as a dancer in a traveling Mexican circus, quit the circus and smuggled a monkey back to the U.S., went to Belize to assist with a natur...more
I borrowed this book from the library to read before my trip to Belize - only started it after I came home and wish I had read it first!! I visited the zoo founded by the woman the book is about. A very interesting and well-written book.
well written (Outside mag. writer).Impressive heroine.Interesting and inside look at how enviromental devastation happens-this time in Belize: shortsightedness, 2-3rd world country, business, greed, profit.
This book kept me on the edge of my seat. It shifted between humorous and harrowing. I learned a lot from it about the the effects of hydroelectric dams and third world politics. I fully recommend it.
An interesting look at the political and environmental situation and Belize and the effects that development has on a country's native species.
Another sad commentary of the human/animal intersection and the negative effects of corruption on the environment but we must perservere.
Well written book on economics and people vs. the environment, and developing nations vs. developed nations. This book tells the story of a proposed dam in Belize that would flood a wonderful valley and wipe out the last known breeding grounds of the Scarlet Macaw in Central America. One thing I found very telling was that to the world and the multinational company who owned the building rights to this dam thought nothing of it, but to the people who depended on ecotourism this meant the world...more
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Bruce Barcott is an American editor, environmental journalist and author. He is a contributing editor of Outside and has written articles for The New York Times Magazine, National Geographic, Mother Jones, Sports Illustrated, Harper's Magazine, Legal Affairs, Utne Reader and others. He has also written a number of books including, The Measure of a Mountain: Beauty and Terror on Mount Rainier (1997...more
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