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The living beach
Book by Cameron, Silver Donald
246 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1998
About the author
Silver Donald Cameron
22 books25 followersOne of Canada's most accomplished authors, Silver Donald Cameron currently devotes most of his time to his work as host and executive producer of TheGreenInterview.com, an environmental website devoted to intense, in-depth conversations with the brilliant thinkers and activists who are leading the way to a green, sustainable future. He is the author of Warrior Lawyers: From Manila to Manhattan, Attorneys for the Earth, the first Green Interview Book. Dr. Cameron also wrote and narrated The Green Interview's five documentary films: Bhutan: The Pursuit of Gross National Happiness (2010), The Celtic Mass for the Sea (2012), Salmon Wars: Salmon Farms, Wild Fish and the Future of Communities (2012), Defenders of the Dawn: Green Rights in the Maritimes (broadcast by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in 2015) and Green Rights: The Human Right to a Healthy World (2016).
“Since TheGreenInterview.com was launched in 2010, we've amassed more than 100 interviews with green giants from 18 countries,” he says. “I've climbed to the Tiger's Nest, a Buddhist monastery that clings to a Himalayan cliff-side in Bhutan, and with my buddy Chris Beckett – our master videographer – I've lived on a houseboat in an Amsterdam canal and stayed in a mediaeval inn in Sussex and at the ultra-posh University Club in New York. We've bounced around in an inflatable speedboat in a Pacific gale off Tofino, BC, to welcome the Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior. We've travelled a filthy urban river in Buenos Aires on a garbage barge, crossed the Andes in a taxi from Quito to reach the Ecuadorian oil town of Lago Agrio, and interviewed a wounded Andean aboriginal leader in a rectory in Lima, Peru. We've had a wonderful time. It's been an education, a privilege and an inspiration.”
Silver Donald's literary work includes plays, films, radio and TV scripts, an extensive body of corporate and governmental writing, hundreds of magazine articles and 18 books, including two novels. He has won awards in all these forms of writing. His non-fiction subjects include history, travel, literature, politics, nature and the environment, ships and the sea, and community development as well as education and public affairs. He has been a columnist for The Globe and Mail, and from 1998 to 2011 he wrote an influential weekly column for the Halifax Sunday Herald. His classic book on shorelines, The Living Beach (1998), was re-released in 2014, and Warrior Lawyers appeared in 2016. The Education of Everett Richardson, his 1977 book on the 1970-71 Nova Scotia fishermen's strike, was re-issued in 2019, and his true crime book, Blood in the Water, will be published in August, 2020.
Silver Donald Cameron has built his own cruising sailboat, cruised extensively on the east coast of Canada and as far south as the Bahamas, and restored four heritage homes in rural Nova Scotia. He has also been a professor or writer-in-residence at seven universities and Dean of Community Studies at Cape Breton University. He holds two honorary doctorates as well as a Ph.D., and in 2012 he was appointed to both the Order of Canada and the Order of Nova Scotia.
Dr. Cameron is married to Marjorie Simmins, also an award-winning writer. They divide their time between Nova Scotia and British Columbia.
“Since TheGreenInterview.com was launched in 2010, we've amassed more than 100 interviews with green giants from 18 countries,” he says. “I've climbed to the Tiger's Nest, a Buddhist monastery that clings to a Himalayan cliff-side in Bhutan, and with my buddy Chris Beckett – our master videographer – I've lived on a houseboat in an Amsterdam canal and stayed in a mediaeval inn in Sussex and at the ultra-posh University Club in New York. We've bounced around in an inflatable speedboat in a Pacific gale off Tofino, BC, to welcome the Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior. We've travelled a filthy urban river in Buenos Aires on a garbage barge, crossed the Andes in a taxi from Quito to reach the Ecuadorian oil town of Lago Agrio, and interviewed a wounded Andean aboriginal leader in a rectory in Lima, Peru. We've had a wonderful time. It's been an education, a privilege and an inspiration.”
Silver Donald's literary work includes plays, films, radio and TV scripts, an extensive body of corporate and governmental writing, hundreds of magazine articles and 18 books, including two novels. He has won awards in all these forms of writing. His non-fiction subjects include history, travel, literature, politics, nature and the environment, ships and the sea, and community development as well as education and public affairs. He has been a columnist for The Globe and Mail, and from 1998 to 2011 he wrote an influential weekly column for the Halifax Sunday Herald. His classic book on shorelines, The Living Beach (1998), was re-released in 2014, and Warrior Lawyers appeared in 2016. The Education of Everett Richardson, his 1977 book on the 1970-71 Nova Scotia fishermen's strike, was re-issued in 2019, and his true crime book, Blood in the Water, will be published in August, 2020.
Silver Donald Cameron has built his own cruising sailboat, cruised extensively on the east coast of Canada and as far south as the Bahamas, and restored four heritage homes in rural Nova Scotia. He has also been a professor or writer-in-residence at seven universities and Dean of Community Studies at Cape Breton University. He holds two honorary doctorates as well as a Ph.D., and in 2012 he was appointed to both the Order of Canada and the Order of Nova Scotia.
Dr. Cameron is married to Marjorie Simmins, also an award-winning writer. They divide their time between Nova Scotia and British Columbia.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
December 18, 2017
One of my favourites, this is a superb combination of travel and science writing. Descriptions of the what, why and how of beaches are interspersed with personal recollections of the author's time spent by sand and sea. If you can ever get your hands on the accompanying video I recommend watching that as well.
March 29, 2025
Passionately in love with natural systems, tickled by their every instance of “farting in the bathtub,” as he delightedly called methane emissions from the sea floor.
Comprehensive, covering the science, philosophy, history, psychology and politics of the subject.
Increasingly relevant as the sea becomes more volatile and our naive human settlements flee or die.
Optimistic, perhaps too much so given recent political shifts. I wish i could talk to him about those. But as an optimist, he was hopelessly so.
Comprehensive, covering the science, philosophy, history, psychology and politics of the subject.
Increasingly relevant as the sea becomes more volatile and our naive human settlements flee or die.
Optimistic, perhaps too much so given recent political shifts. I wish i could talk to him about those. But as an optimist, he was hopelessly so.
June 29, 2025
If I had read this book 10 years ago I would have given it four or five stars. Right now the climate change stuff seems slightly dated. But it is a very comprehensive popular science introduction to oceanography and the ecology of beaches and coastal environments. I learned a lot about the earth, the life cycles of animals and even of the beach itself. The author shows how beaches shift and adapt to changing sea levels, currents and other factors, how they are nourished by sand and sediment from rivers and tides, and how human efforts to control the beach environment and build huge structures like hotels and condos too close to the ocean are ultimately futile. The author covers beaches all over Canada and the USA and even some in other continents too. I recommend it if you’re looking to learn about these topics but maybe not if you are just interested in finding a compelling book to read.
December 18, 2018
If you are a beach lover like me, you must read this book. Once you understand the reality, you will have a new appreciation of our coastal areas. And if live seaside, you might consider moving inland.
October 8, 2014
I received a copy of this book through Goodreads first reads.
4.5 stars.
The Living Beach looks at beaches not just in terms of ecology or oceanography although these to play into it. This book covered a multitude of topics concerning beaches: the movements of sand and waves, animals and plants on the beach, beach erosion, human attempts to 'save' or alter beaches, building on beaches, who owns the beach, beach conservation, and of course, whether the beach can be said to be alive.
Each chapter in The Living Beach discussed an aspect of the beach followed by a short look at a person whose life and or living is intimately tied to the beach.
I learned a number of things reading this book. It's beautifully written and fascinating. The explorations into how various groups have dealt with beach management were particularly interesting.
The Living Beach is a beautiful book. If you are even remotely interested in beaches, I highly recommend giving it a read. By the time you're done, you'll see beaches differently and want nothing more to head out and explore where wave and shore meet.
4.5 stars.
The Living Beach looks at beaches not just in terms of ecology or oceanography although these to play into it. This book covered a multitude of topics concerning beaches: the movements of sand and waves, animals and plants on the beach, beach erosion, human attempts to 'save' or alter beaches, building on beaches, who owns the beach, beach conservation, and of course, whether the beach can be said to be alive.
Each chapter in The Living Beach discussed an aspect of the beach followed by a short look at a person whose life and or living is intimately tied to the beach.
I learned a number of things reading this book. It's beautifully written and fascinating. The explorations into how various groups have dealt with beach management were particularly interesting.
The Living Beach is a beautiful book. If you are even remotely interested in beaches, I highly recommend giving it a read. By the time you're done, you'll see beaches differently and want nothing more to head out and explore where wave and shore meet.
January 15, 2016
I really enjoyed this book! Made me miss the beach, and also realize that I have forgotten most of what I learned about all the concepts covered in the book during university. But re-affirmed my love for all those types of things.
June 17, 2016
A beautiful collection of research essays interspaced with tales of the sea and beach. Silver brings us through the politics, science and philosophy of the beaches of Canada and the United States and speaks of their shifting transformations over time.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews