Peter Essick - Our Beautiful, Fragile World: The Nature and Environmental Photographs of Peter Essick

Our Beautiful, Fragile World

Our Beautiful,
Fragile World

The Nature and
Environmental Photographs
of Peter Essick

Editor: Joan Dixon

Copyeditor: Maggie Yates

Layout: Petra Strauch

Cover Design: Helmut Kraus, www.exclam.de

Printer: Everbest Printing Co. Ltd through Four Colour Print Group,

Louisville, Kentucky

Printed in China

ISBN 978-1-937538-34-7

1st Edition 2013

2013 Peter Essick

Rocky Nook, Inc.

802 E. Cota Street, 3rd Floor

Santa Barbara, CA 93103

www.rockynook.com

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Essick, Peter.

Our beautiful, fragile world : the nature and environmental photographs of Peter Essick / by Peter Essick. -- 1st edition.

pages cm

ISBN 978-1-937538-34-7 (softcover: alk. paper)

1. Nature photography. I. Title.

TR721.E87 2013

779.36--dc23

2013016152

Distributed by OReilly Media

1005 Gravenstein Highway North

Sebastopol, CA 95472

All rights reserved. No part of the material protected by this copyright notice may be reproduced or utilized in any form, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission of the publisher.

Many of the designations in this book used by manufacturers and sellers to distinguish their products are claimed as trademarks of their respective companies. Where those designations appear in this book, and Rocky Nook was aware of a trademark claim, the designations have been printed in caps or initial caps. All product names and services identified throughout this book are used in editorial fashion only and for the benefit of such companies with no intention of infringement of the trademark. They are not intended to convey endorsement or other affiliation with this book.

While reasonable care has been exercised in the preparation of this book, the publisher and author(s) assume no responsibility for errors or omissions, or for damages resulting from the use of the information contained herein or from the use of the discs or programs that may accompany it.

This book is printed on FSC-certified paper.

Dedication

To our children, grandchildren, and those generations beyond who will inherit a complex world of wonder, promise, and loss. I have faith that these talented people, with their affection for life, will use the extraordinary tools of technology to change our current direction and renew our connection to the natural world.

This book is for you.

For more than half a century, my family and I and our teams have shared our discoveries and our concerns about the global ocean with the public. Any expertise we have gained has been broad, oceanic, and summarized by the creed that everything is connected. For many it was my late father, Jacques-Yves Cousteau, and the Cousteau family who helped inspire a sense of desire to explore, to discover, and to understand the wonders of the natural world. Its ironic that in the past seventy years since my father co-invented SCUBA in 1943, we have degraded, overharvested, and changed the landscape of our natural world more than any time in recorded history. We are the primary force threatening the very fabric that holds our rich tapestry of biodiversity together. But with that knowledge comes caring and hope. Its books like Peter Essicks Our Beautiful, Fragile World that show us new discoveries, new knowledge, and new insights that will help heighten our understanding of the importance of the natural world to all living things, including ourselves.

Peter Essick shares his personal stories from twenty-five years of traveling to some of the most remote regions in the world to capture the perfect image to visually enhance articles for National Geographic magazine. His images highlight some of todays most pressing environmental issues: fresh water wars, deforestation, climate change, coral bleaching, nuclear waste, and plastic and chemical pollution. The articulation of his personal experiences with these complex issues, each story illustrated with a single image, will help shed light and give us insights on how we can begin to repair the damage we have wrought on the natural systems that support all life. Essick gives examples of how to protect the vital species and ecosystems that still remain intact. We are at the threshold of a new era of understanding.

How successful we are in securing an environmentally sound future for generations to come will depend in large part on how we move forward to protect the natural world and the myriad of resources it provides for all humanity. We are, after all, borrowing the richness of our planets assets and investing them to ensure that future generations are able enjoy the same privileges we have been fortunate to enjoy. But we have to do it with an ecological mindset, not with a quick boom-and-bust manner fueled by greed.

The beautiful images in this book will transport you on an adventure of discovery while looking at nature at its best, with images from some of Peter Essicks favorite places, such as Torres del Paine National Park in Chile, near the tip of South America in the southern part of Patagonia. The images will also transport you to the cold reality of human society at its worst through the documentation of the depletion of biodiversity in the name of progress and development, such as what Peter witnessed and photographed in the Canadian Oil Sands and in the shameful aftermath of our irresponsible use of Agent Orange in Vietnam decades ago.

I know that when people see and feel the beauty of the natural world, they understand in a profound way the need to take care of our water planet. Creative, optimistic, inspirational people are a force for a better future. Peter Essick is that type of person, and through his beautiful images he gives us that sense of a personal connection with the planet and he inspires us to do all that we can to be a part of a sustainable future.

My father always used say, People protect what they love. Its obvious that Peter has the passion and knowledge to communicate his love of nature through the art of photography. He desires to share his message that it is possible to live in harmony with nature. As he says in his closing remarks, we need to turn off our selfish genes and work together for the good of humanity and for the diversity of all the life that surrounds us.

I feel much hope for the future when I see the talented work of artists like Peter Essick and understand the message he conveys through his stunning environmental images. We no longer have the luxury of being ignorant about some of the most pressing environmental issues. Time is of the essence and that time is now. Dive in and learn all about Our Beautiful, Fragile World.

Jean-Michel Cousteau
President/Founder
Ocean Futures Society
www.oceanfutures.org