ENVIRONMENTAL LITERATURE

Environmental Literature



Environmental Literature

Introduction

Barry Lopez, born in 1945, grew up in Port Chester, near Los Angeles and studied in New York. About his numerous trips to the North and South Pole, Africa, Asia and Australia, he has published several highly successful books. He is co-editor of the journals "North American Review" and "Harper's". Lopez lives with his wife in Oregon (Lopez, 1989).

“A Presentation of Whales” details the behavior of people when 41 sperm whales strand themselves on a beach in Oregon. More than two thousand people came to view the whales. The behavior of people ranged from as base as viewing the incident of the whales as mere entertainment to those who broke down and cried in sorrow for these magnificent animals. No one knows why whales strand themselves. When they do the community nearby must deal with the crowd of people it attracts; the tourists, media personnel and scientists. They must make sure that the whales are dealt with respectfully and decently. Ultimately, there is a monetary cost that must be paid.

Discussion

His wonderfully many-sided essay, “A Presentation of Whales,” with the double play of meaning in the word 'presentation,' is a fascinating example of Lopez interviewing as many diverse viewpoints as possible surrounding the event of forty-one sperm whales beaching themselves on a shore in central Oregon in June of 1979. Into his essay he weaves the thoughts and viewpoints of people from the media, Greenpeace, the U.S. Forest Service, veterinarians, scientists, Oregon Parks Department, local law enforcement, and ordinary citizens, sometimes numbering up to 2,000 people in an afternoon, coming from all up and down the coast to witness the dying of the whales. Lopez helps the reader see the whole elephant or whale, as it were, by piecing together various descriptions of trunk, leg, ear, and so forth, any one or several of which would not have yielded an accurate picture of the whole (Lopez, 1989).

Barry Lopez - As a journalist he did a very good job narrating and being an observer. Cetaceans of the suborder were both vents. Adults have no teeth, but special structures of dermal origin, called baleen, which enable them to capture their food by filtering. Preys are small, such as krill. However, the whales can hunt larger prey, fish that move en banc (herring, mackerel, capelin and sardines). These whales swallow a large amount of water in their mouth, and then close ...