The View from Lazy Point: A Natural Year in an Unnatural World

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The View from Lazy Point: A Natural Year in an Unnatural World

by Carl Safina (Goodreads Author)

4.26 of 5 stars 4.26 · rating details · 165 ratings · 49 reviews

An exhilarating journey of natural renewal through a year with MacArthur fellow Carl Safina

Beginning in his kayak in his home waters of eastern Long Island, Carl Safina's The View from Lazy Point takes us through the four seasons to the four points of the compass, from the high Arctic south to Antarctica, across the warm belly of the tropics from the Caribbean to the west...more

Hardcover, 416 pages

Published January 4th 2011 by Henry Holt and Co.

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Apr 16, 2013 Richard rated it 2 of 5 stars

This two-star rant has been revised and can now be found at Expendable Mudge Muses Aloud.

Really. Someone this August A Personage can afford a ghostwriter.

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Jan 14, 2013 Cheryl rated it 4 of 5 stars

Mmm, exactly my kind of book. A deeply intelligent and inspirational scientist takes the time to describe where he lives, on a spit of land where the sun rises and falls over the ocean, and then also describes his travels to other oceans and coasts, and merges the two together intensely and beautifully and sometimes heartbreakingly. We see a year in his life, as well as year of the world’s life, and nothing is more beautiful, to watch the world grow and change nor is it more important, to pay at...more

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Dec 30, 2012 Debbie rated it 5 of 5 stars

In a single year, the author covers our most periled environments, from barrier reefs to wetlands to both polar regions, and he recounts the damage done and the consequences of human disregard. The best passages are those describing his walks along a Long Island beach with his beloved dog. Safina writes evocatively of his observations and it's as if you're there walking alongside him and seeing what he sees. How could one man know so many bird species!

There are a few moments of low-key preachin...more

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Sep 19, 2012 Susan Clark-cook rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book is written beautifully and the descriptions of the natural world are breathtaking. It is written by an ecologist very concerned with the state of our world right now, and what we are doing to basically, ruin it. He sounds a warning bell that is clearly articulated and gives examples from real life that makes it ring even truer, but , although he states that without our immediate action the world is going to suffer, and suffer badly-not just the flora and fauna, but the people who live...more This book is written beautifully and the descriptions of the natural world are breathtaking. It is written by an ecologist very concerned with the state of our world right now, and what we are doing to basically, ruin it. He sounds a warning bell that is clearly articulated and gives examples from real life that makes it ring even truer, but , although he states that without our immediate action the world is going to suffer, and suffer badly-not just the flora and fauna, but the people who live here now and in the future. He wants us to think about the kind of world we are creating and leaving for the unborn generations, or even those who now will inherit the damage we are wreaking, ie our children, and grandchildren and begs us to consider them, and as some native american tribes do "unto the 7th generation". If we do not, it will be on our heads and it will be our legacy to be known as the ones who lead to earth's downfall - and even, perhaps our extinction.

Despite all this he does sound a hopeful note through out declaring that it is not too late, and indeed, we can change the environment and recover from the disasters we are seeing and have seen He believes in regeneration and recovery but only if effort and awareness are put into the mix. I myself, am not as hopeful that we supposedly most intelligent creatures on earth, will do the needed actions and make the needed sacrifices.

The one jarring note for me while reading this book, and I have to admit it distracted me all the way through, was the cognitive dissonance he created, for me at least, between his beautiful descriptions and lyrical prose, and almost magical way of looking at the natural world, by the glee and delight he also takes in killing some of these beautiful wonders, most notably his descriptions of fishing, killing fish and sharks and so on . He does this after talking about "looking into their eyes" and seeing, well something akin to souls for lack of better word, and goes on to describe how he reels them in, etc...and then how he skins, guts, and cooks etc...them. To me this just doesn't jib with loving them. Maybe that is just me. However, I do have to say it disturbed me a great deal.

Nevertheless it is well worth spending time with this man and the "natural year in an unnatural world., and I think I may seek out other books he has written and check them out as well.(less)

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Aug 09, 2012 Jean V. Naggar Literary rated it 5 of 5 stars

Winner of the 2012 Orion Book Award
Named one of Best Books of 2011 by Newsday

“A Thoreau for the 21st century.” --New York Post

“Safina’s book soars...I had to—and wanted to—read THE VIEW FROM LAZY POINT very slowly, allowing myself to digest its wealth of information, to revel in the beauty of Safina’s writing and to absorb fully the implications of his musings…What a pleasure it is to be asked to stop rushing about and take time to think, to grapple with fundamental questions, and to find such a...more

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Sep 27, 2011 Gail rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction, science-and-nature

Without question, one of the best non-fiction books I've read in a long, long time. Heard him interviewed on NPR and immediately downloaded to my Kindle. This book follows him around the world, exploring what is happening right now to oceans, ice flows, rivers, forests ....habitat all around us. He interviews scientists who are investigating whether or not the planet can recover from what we're doing to it and if so, what to do and how long it will take. At the same time, he chronicles the chang...more

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Mar 09, 2011 Beeb3 marked it as to-read

Recommended to Beeb3 by: betsy

Shelves: not-chosen

Lazy Point is a “flat peninsula of scrubby pines between the Sound and the bay,” a “place of real power” on a wild swath of Long Island, where ecologist and ocean advocate Safina lives, avidly observing terns, sea ducks, and other shorebirds, as well as bluefish and horseshoe crabs. From his home base, this celebrated scientist and activist travels to places where the impact of climate change and environmental abuse is starkly evident. With the spiral of a year as his structure and with what Ein...more

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Sep 21, 2012 Hannah Spector rated it 5 of 5 stars

I loved, loved, loved this book so much. I can't remember the last time something shook me so deeply and left me thinking about how I live and what I consume- all the choices I make, and their costs.

Can't underline a library book so keeping a running tab of quotes here:

"The compass of compassion asks not "What is good for me?" but "What is good?" Not what is best for me but what is best. Not what is right for me but what is right. Not "How much can we take?" but "How much ought we leave?" and "...more

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Oct 16, 2011 Jennifer rated it 5 of 5 stars

A wonderful book, beautifully written. Usually I read books of this nature and end up with a sense of dread and guilt - not so here. While Safina lays bare the problems that are facing us now and also those that are coming up quickly he also is diligent in noticing what is going right, and how well things respond when just a little care and restraint are given and practiced. Probably the greatest thing I took from this book was something that shocks me - public interest groups are forbidden by l...more A wonderful book, beautifully written. Usually I read books of this nature and end up with a sense of dread and guilt - not so here. While Safina lays bare the problems that are facing us now and also those that are coming up quickly he also is diligent in noticing what is going right, and how well things respond when just a little care and restraint are given and practiced. Probably the greatest thing I took from this book was something that shocks me - public interest groups are forbidden by law from either making campaign contributions or spending much time lobbying. How can that be in a democracy, in a country where we are supposed to care about our fellow citizens? Definite food for thought (and hopefully action).
If you care about where we are headed, as a country and also as citizen of the world, read this one. Very highly recommended.

*The forested slopes tune my mind to a more peaceful frequency. I am "rejoicing in the possession of so blessed a day," as Muir was moved to put it.*

*People came into a world like this, rich, natural, but not without danger. The prospects for real trouble here are low, but the prospects for feeling alive are guaranteed. Many people are shadowed most dangerously by beasts of their own imaginations. Being here is real. That's why this silence, coiled and charged, speaks volumes. Too often, we let fake things stalk us. Accept no substitutes for real experience, real friends, true love, and real bears. Either you set the bar high and keep striving or you create a danger greater than any Griz sneaking up on you: letting real life sneak away.*

*...Fasting living thing. It is not that death comes so fast. It is that between the bookends of nothingness, we have this magnificent glowing life upon whose pages we can write book after book, or which we can leave blank. How many ways shall we make it count? How full or meager?*

*Meanwhile, public-interest groups are forbidden by law from either making campaign contributions or spending significant time lobbying. if you don't represent a special interest trying to make money, you can't participate in democracy.* (WTF????)

*The world is changing because we're changing it. And that makes me understand, at least, what kind of person I'd like to be. A person can seek ways, big or small, to heal the world.*

(less)

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Jun 02, 2012 Pat rated it 5 of 5 stars

This is the first book I've read by Carl Safina, a marine biologist. He writes really well - catching you up into the interesting things about the natural world as he experiences it - but not sparing you, the reader, from his clear-eyed perceptions of man's impact on the environment in both his most benevolent forms and in his most unthinking and destructive forms. He doesn't hold anything back and spells out clearly where we, as societies, are failing to understand our own integral part of the...more

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Mar 01, 2011 Carl rated it 4 of 5 stars

Once again Safina gives us loads of observations of nature, both wondrous and depressing, along with a lot more preaching than he's done in previous books. Unfortunately it's likely to be heard mostly by the choir.
My enjoyment was somewhat diminished by what seemed like too much listing of birds (perhaps more enjoyable to serious birders), even fish, without enough detail to make it interesting to non-birders--almost like showing off how many species he can recognize quickly and at a distance.
T...more

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Jun 10, 2011 Tuck rated it 4 of 5 stars

hohkay, some will read this and give it the one star/this-is-tripe rating, and some will give it the 5 star/this-is-groundbreakingly-wonderful rating. I gave her a 4 because i learned a few things: 1. in the summer, little eddies and whirlpools break off of the gulf stream and drift into long island sound and carry with them LOTS of teeny tiny tropical fish babies, and aquariums from all over go net them for their uses in aquarium worlds 2. there were over 100 different species of penguins (one...more

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Mar 23, 2011 On Point added it

Shelves: science

Listen to what MacArthur genius Carl Safina had to say about his "The View from Lazy Point" here: http://bit.ly/g6JhnG

When Carl Safina grabs his kayak and scuba gear and travels the world, we get more than polar bear reports and tropical fish stories. Safina is a renowned marine ecologist with a writer’s eye and a philosopher’s mind. He’s been out around the world, from his home on Lazy Point, Long Island.

What he’s seen is what remains of heart-breaking natural splendor – and of the groaning we...more

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Mar 13, 2011 Rick rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction

This is Safina’s fourth book and perhaps is most prominently attended to—though the earlier ones received prizes and best non-fiction, science or nature honors from many and sundry publications and organizations. The View from Lazy Point is part meditation on a particular place and one man’s presence in it, part advocacy for more responsible behavior by humans locally and throughout the world (they are essentially the same thing—man’s small corner and the great wide world, this current moment an...more This is Safina’s fourth book and perhaps is most prominently attended to—though the earlier ones received prizes and best non-fiction, science or nature honors from many and sundry publications and organizations. The View from Lazy Point is part meditation on a particular place and one man’s presence in it, part advocacy for more responsible behavior by humans locally and throughout the world (they are essentially the same thing—man’s small corner and the great wide world, this current moment and the moments that led up to it and go forward from it), and part science and history of science. There are great moments in all three interwoven parts, though I was most engaged in the discussions of Safina’s time at Lazy Point, a small bit of land between the Hamptons and Montauk at Long Island’s east end. This was always fascinating and entertaining, particularly for someone who enjoys visiting that neck of the woods from time to time. It’s a beautiful part of the world, rich with birds, plants and fish and Safina’s prose here is always precise and poetic.

The advocacy parts worked often, particularly if you share the sense that time is running out on our wasteful management (or lack thereof) of our own lifespan-limited time on this planet. Safina calls attention to the selfishly misplaced priorities that have allowed the last seven or eight generations (since the start of the Industrial Revolution when man’s footprint started to alter the basic ingredients of life on earth) to put us on our present path with its swelling but emptying oceans, exponentially increasing global population that far exceeds the planet’s resources, declining diversity of species, and increasingly less compatible air. Safina handles the documentation part of the crisis well, matter of factly illustrating his case with evidence from around his Lazy Point home or, from the several excursions he takes to the further reaches of civilization (the Arctic, Antarctica, the South Pacific, the Caribbean, Alaska, and the Svalbard islands). From these remote wild areas he reports on coral reefs, melting ice, rising seas, declining polar bear populations and other ecological changes linked to man’s dominance of the planet. He sometimes goes snarky in the polemical stretches that intercut these case studies—calling a spade a spade in what might be perceived a partisan way, though when you’re Cassandra and folks are not only not listening but contradicting facts with unscientific assumptions and emotional-political arguments anyone might get a little snarky. It’s also possible to misconstrue the partisan sides here—it’s not Democrats (the do littles) versus the Republicans (the do nothings or the keep doing what we’re doing only faster, bigger, and more often); it’s science and life on the planet’s future versus selfishness and the private interests of the few. In both the domestic ruminations and the wilderness expeditions, Safina also shares his knowledge of science to explain succinctly and clearly why scientific theory is not what most opponents of evolution or global warming pretend it to be (anyone’s guess, and yours is no better than mine), why coral reefs and other indicators of planetary health are more important to us all, not just scuba divers, and how our scientific knowledge of life on earth is young, far younger than any of the political, economic, or religious philosophies that tell people how they should live. None of these pre-industrial belief systems has altered its various assumptions or ethical understandings to account for our unhealthy, even suicidal approach to the planet and its resources. Politically, if it’s “yours” it’s yours to do what you wish with; economically, resources, however non-renewable or critical to the sustaining of life on the planet, are there to be used; religiously we have been given dominion of the birds of the air, the beasts of the land, and the fish of the sea. Never mind that these licenses were awarded in a time when man’s numbers and technologies couldn’t lay such dramatic waste to the planet’s health that life itself would be jeopardized. But it’s been a couple of centuries since then. We’re in the billions and we’re now an imminent threat to our existence. So the high priests of God, wealth, and justice better wake up and examine their understandings and start leading the charge to a more responsible custodianship of our time on the planet before it’s too late. It’s fast becoming too late because in this tiny epoch of the planet’s four plus billion years of existence we are both the dinosaurs and the meteor coming to end our way of life.

Safina is a calm, appreciating lover of life and the natural world. He does his best to sound a warning without sounding like a doomsayer. The View from Lazy Point describes a world too beautiful and essential to lose but at risk. It’s been compared to Walden because of its personal and philosophical nature. It can also be compared to the best of Rachel Carson, Peter Matthiessen, Barry Lopez, and other writers and scientists who have been doing their best to alert us to what we have before we haven’t.(less)

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Jul 30, 2012 Michael rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: alaska, animals, antarctica, arctic, birds, global-warming, new-york, nature, non-fiction, ecology

An outstanding read with a good balance of the author�s own lyrical, personal experience with the interconnectedness and beauty of nature and of thoughtful arguments of how humankind must act soon to change the course of its poor stewardship of planet Earth. The book covers one year in which he alternates between sojourns in the environs of his residence near the tip of Long Island and trips to distant sites where human-caused ecological changes are most profound. The latter include coral reefs...more

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Feb 09, 2011 Melody rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Humans

Shelves: nature-nonfic, favorites

Heart-wrenching, eye-opening and exquisitely written. Safina has been compared to many of the giants in the natural history world, but he's a better writer than the lot of 'em. In this latest book, he waxes a bit more philosophical than he's done before. His philosophy fits my belief system like a glove, and his conclusions are breathtaking. One trembles to think that we are on the razor's edge, that our window to ameliorate our planet's distress is closing rapidly- and that if we don't do it, i...more Heart-wrenching, eye-opening and exquisitely written. Safina has been compared to many of the giants in the natural history world, but he's a better writer than the lot of 'em. In this latest book, he waxes a bit more philosophical than he's done before. His philosophy fits my belief system like a glove, and his conclusions are breathtaking. One trembles to think that we are on the razor's edge, that our window to ameliorate our planet's distress is closing rapidly- and that if we don't do it, it will be done for us with a heartless finality that will brook no arguments. As we say where I live, "The mountain don't care if you live or die."

I love this passage:

"So I guess what I'm trying to say is that, though I'm a secular person and a scientist, I believe that our relationship with the living world must be mainly religious. But I don't mean theological. I mean religious in the sense of reverent, revolutionary, spiritual, and inspired. Reverent because the world is unique, thus holy. Revolutionary in making a break with the drift and downdraft of outdated, maladaptive modes of thought. Spiritual in seeking attainment of a higher realm of human being. Inspired in the aspiration to connect crucial truths with wider communities. Religious in precisely this way: connection: with a sense of purpose."

And this, which is purely brilliant:

"If there is a God, then all things natural are miraculous. If there's no God, then all things natural are miraculous. That's quite a coincidence, and ought to give people holding different beliefs a lot to talk about. People who see the world as God's and people who sense an accident of cosmic chemistry can both perceive the sacred. Let's not be afraid to say, to explain- and, if necessary, to rage- that we hold the uniqueness of this Earth sacred, that the whole living enterprise is sacred. And that what depletes the living enterprise always proves to be, even in purely practical terms, a mistake."

I'm still reeling from Safina's descriptions of hunters who still (still!) kill ducks and toss them into the bushes because they are there for the sport (sport!) of duck hunting and have no interest in duck eating. I'm still encouraged by his reports of some of the species that have come back, once we humans gave them a little space and time. And I'm very, very frightened about what my grandchildren will have and hold.

I can't buy everyone a copy of this book, as much as I want to. But I can encourage you, in the strongest possible terms, to read it. And soon. As Safina says in his closing passage, "Time runs short at an accelerating pace."(less)

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Aug 18, 2012 Dianne rated it 4 of 5 stars

I (thought) I would never finish!! What a book- but it took me weeks
and weeks and weeks and weeks to force myself to pick it up and read on. This guy's a marine biologist I think-and an observer of both nature and humankind- the ecology/ global warming/ conservation posterboy and turns a pithy little phrase, but BOY can he not write a book-it was like mining gold with a teaspoon to get it out of there. This is a Chatauqua book I'm pretty sure (reminding myself why I have it in the first place) o...more

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Feb 24, 2011 Martin Cerjan rated it 3 of 5 stars

I would give this three and a half stars if I could. It was a pleasant read with many interesting facts interspersed among a very readable narrative. While I agree with Safina, I felt like the book got awfully preachy at the end. Maybe could have used a bit of editing there. Besides the style, though, I really liked that the author saw signs of hope and reported some nice recovery stories. Since I just moved to NYC this was especially interesting to me since Lazy Point is on Long Island. I will...more

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Mar 28, 2012 Michael Cremin rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: green, life-lessons, nonfiction

This is among the best works of nonfiction I've ever read. The author is a biologist whose narrative history of one year encompasses three things: his home in Lazy Point (a sea side community on Long Island), his travels around the globe (to South America, to Alaska, to the Arctic Circle, to Micronesia, and to Antarctica), and his thoughts on man's relationship with the natural world. Mr. Safina is not only a knowledgeable scientist, he is a gifted writer, and the combination makes The View From...more This is among the best works of nonfiction I've ever read. The author is a biologist whose narrative history of one year encompasses three things: his home in Lazy Point (a sea side community on Long Island), his travels around the globe (to South America, to Alaska, to the Arctic Circle, to Micronesia, and to Antarctica), and his thoughts on man's relationship with the natural world. Mr. Safina is not only a knowledgeable scientist, he is a gifted writer, and the combination makes The View From Lazy Point a true work of literary nonfiction.

During the winter of 2010-2011, I was busily shoveling out from snow storm number 73. The snow was so deep that it appeared blue to me as I shoveled it; the sun was going down and the first stars were coming out. All was quiet and peaceful; cold and still. I was struck, at that moment, by how utterly beautiful the world is, and I wished I could somehow capture what I was seeing in feeling, but the words elude me still. Right about then, a podcast I has been listening to went into an interview with the author, and as he read a few sample pages from his work, I knew that there was some synchronicity at play. It was one of those moments when things seem to line up just right.

Carl Safina, in his book, manages to capture the startling, sometimes savage, sometimes sublime soul of our world. He sees it in the birds and fish that he so loves, in the seasons and the landscapes of places so many people would describe as barren or deserted. He writes about the world as he sees it with love and reverence, and while the author describes himself as being secular, one can't help but sense a feeling of transcendence in his words that borders on the sacred. This book describes holiness. There's no other way to put it.

Along with his riveting accounts of the often times struggling existence of animals, fish, and plants in our changing world, Mr. Safina's ruminations on man's place on our planet were most insightful. Have you ever read a book that puts into words things you've struggled to articulate in your own mind? Inchoate ideas, whispers of discernment, shadows of understanding, glimpses of truths that elude you? In this book, I found a voice for many of the things that have troubled my thoughts over these past few years with regard to our planet and the changes it is undergoing. I am not claiming half of the mind or ideas of the author as my own; the man is brilliant. I am saying that Mr. Safina's observations about humanity and our environment made clear things I had only glimpsed before. It was a powerful experience for me. The term 'enlightening' comes to mind, in the truest sense that I feel enlightened. Like, Buddha enlightened.

So yeah. Loved it. Wrote all over it. I'm going to suggest this to friends who I know will both enjoy it and benefit from it. Marvelous book. A life changer, a mind expander, a soul enricher. Good, good stuff. (less)

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Mar 28, 2013 Michael Cremin rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: nonfiction, life-lessons, green

I actually read this book last January and loved it. I can't believe I forgot to write a review! The View From Lazy Point is my choice for the 2012 Cremin Award for the Best Freaking Book I Read All Year.

Mr. Safina is a marine biologist who writes lyrical, haunting prose. The author writes about science the way poets write about love: with great depth, and beauty, and imagination. Mr. Safina took a year to travel the world and observe the changes being wrought by climate change. He begins his s...more

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Oct 15, 2012 Charles R. Scott rated it 5 of 5 stars

In this beautifully written love letter to the natural world, Safina combines his scientific knowledge of our planet with an intimate connection to our place in it. The book is full of surprising observations – who knew that salmon could make trees grow? – and lyrical elegies to the dwindling wild all around us. Both mournful and hopeful, Safina reminds the reader of our deep connection to nature’s abundance and encourages us to become more conscious of our role as caretakers.

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Jul 20, 2012 Patrick Dean rated it 4 of 5 stars

I highly enjoyed this book. Safina, a marine biologist whose Song for the Blue Ocean I also liked, gives the reader hard truths -- about our economy, our society, and our planet. He also, however, gives beautiful vignettes of his life on the Atlantic coast and on excursions to the Arctic, the Caribbean, and other places hot and cold. Importantly, he also offers hope -- cautious, tentative hope -- that the human race can figure things out before it's too late. Highly recommended.

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May 10, 2012 Linda rated it 5 of 5 stars

Safina gives his readers a narrative history of one year at his home in a long island community called Lazy Point, and his adventures in South America, Antarctica, and Alaska. He describes his relationship with the natural world. This is one of the best nonfiction books I have ever read. As I read his descriptions, I felt the wonder of and love for nature coming from every word he wrote.

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Apr 30, 2012 Ann rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I love my husband but, between this book and Song for the Blue Ocean, I'm a bit sad I couldn't have married Carl Safina. His knowledge of science mixed with engaging writing skills are a true gift. Sure, there's a bit of soapbox time but it is earned and appreciated, not to mention well-balanced with observations of the natural world. I was back and forth between enlightened and abashed. Such a stimulating read. Almost glad it's over so I can stop hyperventilating. Best book I've read in years.

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Feb 25, 2013 Woody rated it 3 of 5 stars

A perceptive, wide-ranging book that alternates between journal-like entries about the natural history of Lazy Point, and intriguing research trips to places like Palau, Svalbard and Antarctica. The book has a smooth flow, is informative, and at times inspiring. Safina, like other environmentalists, does get carried away on occasion describing the litany of environmental issues. In doing so he paints a dark picture that could lead some to conclude: why bother? But then he balances the enormity o...more

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Oct 08, 2012 Cole Russell rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Cole by: Orion Magazine

An astounding triumph of science and spirit, Safina takes the rare position in the environmental sciences that yes, we are fucked, but some things have gotten better, some things remain great, and if we try really hard, we can save some of it (and ourselves). The rare type that understands both the biological systems as well as beauty inherent in regions and the globe, and how humans affect and are affected by it.

I'm no seabird enthusiast, but his masterful knowledge and enthusiasm for the creat...more

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May 09, 2013 Elizabeth rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: natural-history, favorites

Carl Safina does it again! I love his style of writing! It is like reading a book of poetry. Safina makes it sound like you two are just sitting on his porch watching the ocean, having a conversation. He has a unique way of intertwining stories and observations about his home on Lazy Point with larger issues around the world. He has a way of talking about politics, economics, poverty, conservation, global warming and other hot button topics without sounding preachy. I finished reading this book...more

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Feb 04, 2012 Julie rated it 5 of 5 stars

A beautiful look at the flora and fauna with someone who really knows how to be in the moment. After reading this, you'll really stop and take time to look more closely at the world around you...even the smallest of details are evidence of nature's amazing beauty against the challenges of survival.

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Mar 19, 2011 Amy rated it 4 of 5 stars

There was a bit too much infinite detail on fish and fishing and sea creatures and types of ducks for me, but in between, what an amazing and articulate look at how we are and are not affecting the natural world around us. This guy can write.

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Apr 03, 2013 Margaret Mccamant rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book was a gift from my mother, one she learned about because it was a selection for her book group. Safina's not my favorite nature writer, but I do appreciate his trying to teach us all about the interconnectedness of life, sort of ecology writ huge.

This has been on my currently-reading list for quite a while. I just picked it up again (February). I'm enjoying this more now because I've decided to skim, stopping to read some things in detail, but skipping others. There are too many descri...more

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About Carl Safina

Carl Safina is president and co-founder of Blue Ocean Institute, and author of several writings on marine ecology and the ocean, including the award winning "Song for the Blue Ocean"(1998) and "Eye of the Albatros" (2002).

Carl Safina's childhood by the sea led him into scientific studies of seabirds and fish, and to his doctorate in Ecology from Rutgers University.
During his research and recreatio...more Carl Safina is president and co-founder of Blue Ocean Institute, and author of several writings on marine ecology and the ocean, including the award winning "Song for the Blue Ocean"(1998) and "Eye of the Albatros" (2002).

Carl Safina's childhood by the sea led him into scientific studies of seabirds and fish, and to his doctorate in Ecology from Rutgers University.
During his research and recreational and part-time-commercial fishing, he noticed rapid declines in marlin, sharks, tunas and other fishes, and sea turtles. It seemed to him as though a kind of last buffalo hunt was occurring in the sea. This motivated him to become a voice for restoring abundant life in the oceans. Since then, Dr. Safina has worked to put ocean fish conservation issues into the wildlife conservation mainstream. He helped lead campaigns to ban high-seas drift-nets, re-write and reform federal fisheries law in the U. S., use international agreements toward restoring depleted populations of tunas, sharks, and other fishes, and achieve passage of a United Nations global fisheries treaty. In 1990 he founded the Living Oceans Program at the National Audubon Society, serving for the next decade as vice president for ocean conservation.
He is now president of Blue Ocean Institute, which he co-founded in 2003. Blue Ocean Institute uses science, art, and literature to inspire a closer relationship with the sea.
Safina is author of more than a hundred scientific and popular publications on ecology and oceans, including a new Foreword to Rachel Carson's The Sea Around Us (1951). His first book, Song for the Blue Ocean, was chosen a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, a Los Angeles Times Best Nonfiction selection, and a Library Journal Best Science Book selection; it won him the Lannan Literary Award for nonfiction. He second book," Eye of the Albatross," won the John Burroughs Medal for nature writing and was chosen by the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine as the year's best book for communicating science. Safina is also author of " Voyage of the Turtle "
He has been profiled in the New York Times and on Nightline, named among "100 Notable Conservationists of the 20th Century" by Audubon Magazine, and featured on the Bill Moyers PBS special "Earth on Edge." He has honorary doctorates from SUNY and Long Island University and is adjunct professor at Stony Brook University. Safina is an elected member of The Explorers Club, a recipient of the Pew Scholar's Award in Conservation and the Environment, a recipient of Chicago's Brookfield Zoo's Rabb Medal, and winner of a MacArthur "genius" Fellowship, among other honors.
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Books by Carl Safina

Song for the Blue Ocean: Encounters Along the World's Coasts and Beneath the Seas

Voyage of the Turtle: In Pursuit of the Earth's Last Dinosaur

Eye of the Albatross: Visions of Hope and Survival

A Sea in Flames: The Deepwater Horizon Oil Blowout

Tria Giovan: Sand Sea Sky: The Beaches of Sagaponack

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“Saving the world requires saving democracy. That requires well-informed citizens. Conservation, environment, poverty, community, education, family, health, economy- these combine to make one quest: liberty and justice for all. Whether one's special emphasis is global warming or child welfare, the cause is the same cause. And justice comes from the same place being human comes from: compassion.” — 9 people liked it

“Ethics that focus on human interactions, morals that focus on humanity's relationship to a Creator, fall short of these things we've learned. They fail to encompass the big take-home message, so far, of a century and a half of biology and ecology: life is- more than anything else- a process; it creates, and depends on, relationships among energy, land, water, air, time and various living things. It's not just about human-to-human interaction; it's not just about spiritual interaction. It's about all interaction. We're bound with the rest of life in a network, a network including not just all living things but the energy and nonliving matter that flows through the living, making and keeping all of us alive as we make it alive. We can keep debating ideologies and sending entreaties toward heaven. But unless we embrace the fuller reality we're in- and reality's implications- we'll face big problems.” — 6 people liked it

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The View from Lazy Point: A Natural Year in an Unnatural World

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