The View From Lazy Point by Carl Safina - Book review

The View from Lazy Point

A Natural Year in an Unnatural World

By: Carl Safina

Published: January 3, 2012
Format: Paperback, 416 pages
ISBN-10: 1250002710
ISBN-13: 978-1250002716
Publisher: Picador












"So this story is also about the tension created when those things mistakenly called "the real world" - thought they are entirely artificial - continually intrude on the real real world. In a real place, the mysteries of ages pile thick with enduring truths and complex beauties", writes prominent ecologist, marine conservationist, and president of Blue Ocean Institute, Carl Safina, in his lyrical and passionate book The View from Lazy Point: A Natural Year in an Unnatural World. The author describes how environmental problems result from failures of social justice and the politics of greed. He invites the reader to tour the natural world of his home on eastern Long Island, New York, and those discovered on his journey to the four corners of the globe.

Carl Safina understands the critical importance of conserving and protecting the natural world, and its wide variety of fauna and flora, for both ourselves and for future generations. Unlike many environmentalists who provide only bleak forecasts, Carl Safina guides the reader through the beauty of the world, and invites people to share his message of hope. Through asking the very difficult, and very often unsettling questions about the inter-relationship between the challenges facing the the environment and the human created catalysts of greed and politics, the author seeks answers to those queries.



Carl Safina (photo left) expresses a love and an appreciation for the natural beauty of the world, and all of its plants and living creatures, that offers a backdrop of optimism despite the difficult problems that demand compassionate resolution. The author recognizes the interconnectedness of the planet and of all living things. Carl Safina's holistic approach to ecology is guided by a genuine love of life's diversity and for the natural worlds of the planet. For the author, the dramatically inadequate global economic system abuses both nature and human rights.

Carl Safina takes Albert Einstein's concept of the "circle of compassion" as his guiding principle, and takes into consideration the interdependency of humans and the natural world. The author offers a message of hope that people will recognize and understand the critical importance of environmental sustainability as vital to continued human existence as well. To achieve a balance with the natural world, Carl Safina recommends a balance in all human activities including economics, social justice, and political equality.

For me, the power of the book is twofold. Carl Safina writes in poetic and powerful prose that expresses his genuine passion and love for the natural world. The author also shares his concerns that a lack of social and economic justice, and political greed and lack of long term thinking, pose a real threat to the environment and to all of humanity. The author writes poetically, and shows a real joy in in observing the natural world first hand. The detail expressed in Carl Safina's eloquent writing transports the reader to a new time and place, and instills fresh insights and ways of looking at the environment.

This book is a testament to environmental sustainability, the natural world, and for the need for human political and economic justice. The author addresses the challenges facing the environment and the world's people head on, sharing his views on the need for compassion for all living things and for the entire planet. Carl Safina is a voice of hope that humanity will see the need for compassion and for environmental protection. The author is a modern day Henry David Thoreau or Aldo Leopold, and a voice that must be heard by everyone.

I highly recommend the landmark and destined to become classic book The View from Lazy Point: A Natural Year in an Unnatural World by Carl Safina, to anyone seeking a brilliant and heartfelt examination of the problems and possibilities offered by environmental sustainability and social justice. These two concepts are often separated, but in this deeply philosophical book, it becomes obvious that they are intertwined as one. This book will give you a fresh and personal impression of the natural world, in all of its tender lyricism and hope.

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