The World Is Blue

October 1, 2009
Pioneering oceanographer Earle, the leader of more than 60 expeditions, author of numerous books, and a former NOAA chief scientist, asks us to think blue while were thinking green because without healthy and fecund oceans, there could be no life on earth. After lucidly explaining how oceans sustain the biosphere, Earle documents with wrenching specificity how we are drastically altering the fundamental nature of the sea. Earle states, Ninety percent of the many fish common when I was a child are now gone. Why? Earle begins with a simple equation: Since the middle of the twentieth century, hundreds of millions of tons of ocean wildlife have been removed from the sea, while hundreds of millions of tons of waste have been poured into it. The viability of the oceans is threatened by 400 coastal dead zones, melting polar ice, vast quantities of plastic trash and toxic chemicals, overfishing, and deep-sea mining. Earle, who uses thrilling accounts of her undersea adventures to temper alarm with beauty and wonder, stresses that its not too late to reverse the damage.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)