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Waterfalls: Art, Exploration, Ecology & Metaphysics:
Written by Michael Tobias and Jane Gray Morrison
Copyright 2009.
The mystique of waterfalls has prevailed since time immemorial, captivating not only humans, but other species as well. In art, science, exploration, even philosophy, waterfalls are “happenings” in nature that have elicited some of the most refined, and daring impulses in the human imagination, as well as in our behavior. Ever elusive, ephemeral, mysterious, waterfalls play major roles in religions, mythology, history, aesthetics, geographical exploration and economics. Architecture, landscape painting and photography owe much to falling water, while humanity’s quest for hydro-electricity has hugely altered the riparian world, often in direct conflict with the remarkable biodiversity that inhabits waterfalls and the rivers leading to and from them.
In this unusual book, veteran explorers, ecologists and authors Michael Tobias and Jane Gray Morrison take readers on numerous journeys throughout the world in search of the essence of waterfalls: their beauty, ecological uniqueness, myriad interpretive layers. With stunning photography and first-hand accounts from many continents the authors share their own joy in the presence of waterfalls, while bringing to the subject a vibrant range of intellectual, historical, and artistic depth that is both lyrical and soul satisfying.
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Written by Michael Tobias and Jane Morrison
A Dancing Star Foundation Book
For 2009/2010
This robust consideration of 21st century conservation and animal protection utilizes New Zealand as a primary case study in conflict resolution. With New Zealand history, economics, art, conservation biology and contemporary industry, technology and environmentalism as the working sweep of metaphors, the book examines numerous instances of success and failure throughout the world, where the goal is non-violence, as well as the fruitful reconciliation of human life with the rest of the biological creation. Issues involving animal rights, animal liberation, ecological islands, new advances in immuno-contraception for controlling non-native invasive species and the evolution of a paradigm that can embrace large ecosystem protection, as well as that of individuals, are just some of the issues discussed in the book.
Other areas of focus concern the conversion of one way of life, one industrial or cottage industry paradigm to another based upon compassion, prudent long-term thinking and a salient recognition of what the authors describe as "destruction in increments" (or, in traditional terms, the "tragedy of the commons"). Choices, patterns and precedents are examined in detail which collectively define the challenges and moral tensions inherent to achieving ecological peace on earth for all concerned - from New Zealand to Bhutan; from Greenland to the United States; throughout the European Union, South America, Russia, China, India; and in extraordinary instances gleaned from past and present anthropological and ethological records.
The book outlines, in sum, a new revolutionary vision for human collectives based upon compassion and pragmatic idealism. It argues that New Zealand is one of those extraordinarily complex, and inspired nations that can lead the way.
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By Michael Tobias and Jane Morrison
A Dancing Star Foundation Book
Cockatoos and true parrots, the psittaciformes, or psittacines, are among the longest-lived "citizens" of the wilderness and are among the most colorful, intelligent, dignified and mesmerizing of all creatures. They are also Threatened and Endangered in most parts of their geographic distributions.
Many years in the making, Parrot is the authors' deeply personal testament to that wide- ranging Order of birds, the psittaciformes. The gorgeously illustrated book takes the reader throughout the history of ornithology as concerns these glorious species, and shares remarkable moments of communication, insight and reciprocity that the authors (having lived most of their lives in the company of parrots) have experienced.
Utilizing rare illustrative material from many of the scarcest ornithological collections in the world, the authors also take the reader onto several expeditions in New Zealand, South America, West Africa, and parts of Central and Southeast Asia, in search – not necessarily of the rarest - but the most provocative of psittacines, as well as investigating the early histories of two now-extinct parrots that inhabited the United States, and at ill-fated attempt at reintroductions.
Filled with personal anecdote, observation, and intoxicating science, Parrot examines CITES and other legislative policies to suggest large ecosystem protections for these birds, particularly in an era of pro-active global warming strategies; and seeks to extend the animal protection awareness that has gained leverage with Great Apes and marine mammals, to the psittaciformes. In so doing, the book acknowledges explicitly that these birds co-exist cognitively with mammals, and that their intelligence may often, in fact, outstrip our own.
With unabashed lyricism, this book is sure to stir up in readers the restless flight feathers that reside in our souls.
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By Michael Tobias and Jane Morrison
A Dancing Star Foundation Book
Descended from C. aegagrus in Central Asia, this most ancient of domesticated species, the Goat, or Capra hircus, is found at high altitude, on glaciers, along marine coastlines, and in the Sahara. In other words, goats have traveled the world with the same free spirited biological wanderlust as humans. And their expressions, personalities, and vast behavioral varieties reflect this primeval journey.
Goats have figured in a myriad of classics: from the Bible to Chaucer, from the Renaissance pastoralist tradition, to the great illustrators of Aesop, La Fontaine, the Georgics and the many Arcadias.
Goats, like donkeys, are also exploited for their milk, their meat and their hair, and are often as beloved a companion animal as dogs. In this joyful, wide-ranging examination of the mystique of goats, from their appearance in Shakespeare's "Tempest" to their role in the tribal societies of Asia and Africa; Goat: The Mystique of Capra Hircus will provide insights into one of the world's most adored, whimsical and independent of creatures.
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Hugh Lofting
By Michael Tobias and Jane Morrison
A Dancing Star Foundation Book
Throughout the world, the name Doctor Dolittle resonates for its celebration of the child's pristine imagination, interspecies communication and empathy, brilliant storytelling and a human geography peopled by persons of all persuasions: Polynesia the Parrot, Chee-Chee the Monkey, Too-Too the Owl, Jip the Dog, Dab-Dab the Duck and Gub-Gub the Pig, among many others.
In late 2009, Dancing Star Foundation will be bringing out, with Council Oak Books, a major study on the life, ethics and imagination of Hugh Lofting, the extraordinary creator of Doctor Dolittle. Lofting was a political activist, poet, literary genius, and loving father to all the children of the world, not least of which, his own. His son, Christopher Lofting, in exquisite reminiscences, recalls many vivid details of his father and of the Dolittle legacy, while other literary creations that swirl around that legacy are configured into a context which will place Lofting in a unique artistic sphere that is at once environmental, humane, forward thinking and deeply personal.
The World of Dr. Dolittle will be lavishly illustrated by manuscript details, artwork, and photographs of actual locations where Lofting lived and wrote. In many respects, he was the John Muir of animal rights; the Rachel Carson of environmental education. And he accomplished these feats without so much as a single decree, act of legislation, or protest march. He did it through the sheer love and drama that is the childhood imagination; elevating the purity and innocence of the child's encounter with nature into a global truth that is felt not just by kids, but by the tens-of-millions of youthful readers during the nearly 90 years since The Story of Doctor Dolittle (followed by its numerous sequels) was first published.
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