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Summary
Summary
A Silent Spring for oceans, written by "the Rachel Carson of the fish world" ( The New York Times )
Who can forget the sense of wonder with which they discovered the creatures of the deep? In this vibrant hymn to the sea, Callum Roberts--one of the world's foremost conservation biologists--leads readers on a fascinating tour of mankind's relationship to the sea, from the earliest traces of water on earth to the oceans as we know them today. In the process, Roberts looks at how the taming of the oceans has shaped human civilization and affected marine life.
We have always been fish eaters, from the dawn of civilization, but in the last twenty years we have transformed the oceans beyond recognition. Putting our exploitation of the seas into historical context, Roberts offers a devastating account of the impact of modern fishing techniques, pollution, and climate change, and reveals what it would take to steer the right course while there is still time. Like Four Fish and The Omnivore's Dilemma , The Ocean of Life takes a long view to tell a story in which each one of us has a role to play.
Author Notes
Callum Roberts is the author of The Unnatural History of the Sea , a Washington Post Book of the Year and winner of the Rachel Carson Environment Book Award. Professor of marine conservation at the University of York. He has appeared in several documentaries, including "America Before Columbus" and "The End of the Line," and is a board member of Seaweb, a U.S.-based environmental group. He lives in England.
Reviews (5)
Publisher's Weekly Review
University of York marine conservationist Roberts (The Unnatural History of the Sea) offers an engrossing survey of the relationship between man and the sea for readers living through the greatest environmental changes in 65 million years. From the genesis of life four billion years ago to the increasingly empty dead zones of our planet's waters, Roberts details the interaction between the ocean and human evolution, food supply, cities, art, science, policy, business, and waste. He skillfully intersperses jaw-dropping anecdotes (one two-pint bottle of ocean water contains four billion unique viruses, albatross feed their chicks an average of 70 pieces of plastic per meal) with the concrete effects of man's influence on the ocean's acid levels, species diversity, noise, and food chain. Later prescriptions on how to interact ethically with an ocean at risk walk the fine line between individual accountability and informed policy creation. Roberts's meditation will have readers gasping aloud with wonder, even as the sobering truth of humans' profound interdependence with the sea provokes concern. Agent: Patrick Walsh, Conville & Walsh. (May) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Booklist Review
Our oceans are changing. As they warm and become acidic, coral reefs die, exposing shores to more violent storms. Rising waters encroach on coastal cities. Algae blooms remove oxygen from the seas, leaving vast zones deadly to fauna and flora. Large populations of marine species crash in the wakes of overfishing, pollution, habitat loss, climate change, and invasive species. Yet vocal public opinion holds that the oceans covering 80 percent of our planet are inexhaustible and immune to abuse, and politicians continue to support industrial harvesting and mining in the ocean. In this follow-up to his acclaimed The Unnatural History of the Sea (2007), passionate marine conservationist Roberts documents the disturbing changes that threaten the future of marine life and proposes a natural course of conservation that may yet save us from economic crash, environmental ruin, and human suffering.--Roche, Rick Copyright 2010 Booklist
Choice Review
The ocean has long been viewed as a vast, endless resource--one that could never be exhausted or affected by human activities. Because of these attitudes, it has been used as a dumping ground while being indiscriminately overharvested. Thanks to the efforts of many different environmental groups, the public has become increasingly aware of these problems, but other serious issues have received little notice. This book addresses these concerns, including noise pollution, invasive species, plastic pollution, and the effects of climate change on reefs and sea levels as well as ocean acidification. The latter is potentially the worst of all and one of the furthest from public consciousness. Roberts (Univ. of York, UK; The Unnatural History of the Sea, CH, May'08, 45-4944) skillfully presents all these topics and more and provides very cogent arguments against some of the technological "fixes" some scientists have proposed. Although the last quarter of the book concentrates on positive, realistic steps to slow or reverse these trends, the overwhelmingly gloomy tone of earlier chapters may cause some readers to give up before they reach that point. That would be a shame; this book should be required reading for everyone. Summing Up: Essential. All levels/libraries. G. C. Jensen University of Washington
Kirkus Review
Roberts (Marine Conservation/Univ. of York; The Unnatural History of the Sea, 2009) warns that "the oceans have changed more in [the] last thirty years than in all of human history before." In this follow-up to his award-winning account of man's 1,000-year exploitation of maritime resources, the author not only documents the loss of large sea animals, such as whales, sharks and turtles, the destruction of coral reefs and the broader ocean environment, but he anticipates further devastation from the onset of deep-sea mining in the near future. While environmentalists are keenly aware of the danger man poses to animal species, Roberts suggests that the oceans have always played a significant role in human survival. He writes that the view of our ancestors as a "plucky species" of big-game hunters has a "certain mythological ring to it." However, our early survival may have depended mainly on water creatures for sustenance: "Could our shift to bipedalism have been an aquatic adaptation developed by wading to gather shellfish?" While the author notes that the 1880s shift to steam power and then later to diesel "heralded the beginning of the modern era in commercial fishing," these were still just improvements on more traditional fishing methods. Not so the introduction of echo sounders and other electronic devices augmented by computers and satellites, which now allow fishermen to detect the presence of fish with an extremely high degree of precision. Roberts maintains his optimism while looking at the problems that have been compounded by global warming, pollution, the destruction of marshlands, etc., and he notes that remedial action is still possible. It is not too late, he writes, for "strategies that rebuild nature's vitality and fecundity"--e.g., protecting one-third of the ocean from direct exploitation and restricting fishing of tuna, salmon and cod. A timely wake-up call.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Library Journal Review
Biologist and conservation activist Roberts (environment, Univ. of York, UK; The Unnatural History of the Sea) examines with clarity the relationships among fossil-fuel use, climate change, rising sea levels and ocean acidity, overfishing, and pollution from toxic chemicals, sewage, and fertilizers. He discusses the origin of the earth, oceans, and atmosphere; considers the effects of ocean currents and ocean circulation in relation to species distribution; describes fishing methods that deplete fisheries for various species; and traces the ecological dangers of offshore oil drilling. Although he paints a bleak picture of the oceans' health, as do Richard Ellis (The Empty Ocean) and Charles Clover (The End of the Line), Roberts offers solutions for preventing further degradation of our ocean planet. These include recognizing the need for change, controlling human population growth, limiting the use of artificial fertilizers, preventing chemical pollution, eliminating the use of plastic garbage bags, and controlling the release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. -VERDICT Appropriate for the general public as well as high school and college students, this is essential reading for anyone concerned about the future of the planet.-Judith B. Barnett, Univ. of Rhode Island, Kingston (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Table of Contents
| Prologue | p. 1 |
| Part 1 Changing Seas | |
| 1 Four and a Half Billion Years | p. 11 |
| 2 Food from the Sea | p. 27 |
| 3 Fewer Fish in the Sea | p. 42 |
| 4 Winds and Currents | p. 58 |
| 5 Life on the Move | p. 80 |
| 6 Rising Tides | p. 90 |
| 7 Corrosive Seas | p. 105 |
| 8 Dead Zones and the World's Great Rivers | p. 119 |
| 9 Unwholesome Waters | p. 132 |
| 10 The Age of Plastic | p. 149 |
| 11 The Not So Silent World | p. 165 |
| 12 Aliens, Invaders, and the Homogenization of Life | p. 181 |
| 13 Pestilence and Plague | p. 198 |
| 14 Mare Incognitum | p. 213 |
| 15 Ecosystems at Your Service | p. 229 |
| Part 2 Changing Course | |
| 16 Farming the Sea | p. 243 |
| 17 The Great Cleanup | p. 263 |
| 18 Can We Cool Our Warming World? | p. 273 |
| 19 A New Deal for the Oceans | p. 287 |
| 20 Life Renewed | p. 307 |
| 21 Saving the Giants of the Sea | p. 319 |
| 22 Preparing for the Worst | p. 334 |
| Epilogue: The Sea Ahead | p. 347 |
| Appendix 1 Seafood with a Clear Conscience | p. 351 |
| Appendix 2 Conservation Charities Working to Protect Ocean Life | p. 355 |
| Notes | p. 361 |
| Acknowledgments | p. 393 |
| Index | p. 395 |