Ocean's End: Travels Through Endangered Seas [Anglais] [Broché]

Take a pristine coral reef off the mangrove-forested coast of Belize, one that draws a handsome roster of fish and other sea creatures--and, therefore, a complement of scuba divers, sports fishermen, photographers, and other consumers of nature. Add an airstrip to serve these cash customers, then a hotel, then a seawall, then a golf course, then a desalination plant. In no time, thanks to the changes you've wrought on the coastal ecology, you'll have a dead reef in a dead patch of sea.

Such wanton destruction is the norm for today, writes science journalist Colin Woodard, who debarks from his travels on the world's seas with depressing and unremittingly bad news. One of the victims is the Black Sea of Eurasia, once a thriving extension of the Atlantic, now all but destroyed by "overfishing, oil spills, industrial discharges, nutrient pollution, wetlands destruction," and other ills. The ravaged Black Sea is mirrored in other places to which Woodard travels: the South Pacific, the Gulf of Mexico, the Antarctic. In such places significant ecological transformations are occurring, all in a very short period of time, all perhaps irreversible, all certainly dangerous to the health of the biosphere. "The oceans," Woodard urges his readers to consider, "are finite and destructible. Wastes dumped and drained into the ocean do not disappear; they are neither economic nor ecological externalities. Likewise, marine fish and animals are not commodities like iron, wheat, or broilers; they are wildlife." Adding to works such as Carl Safina's Song for the Blue Ocean, Woodard makes a clear and urgent call for the reversal of all this destruction and for the protection of the world's waters. --Gregory McNamee --Ce texte fait référence à une édition épuisée ou non disponible de ce titre.

Drawing on his travels across six continents and 100,000 miles, Woodard skillfully supports his argument that pollution, harmful fishing practices, ignorance and global warming are destroying the world's oceans. A global affairs writer for the Christian Science Monitor, he swam through algae and human sewage in the Dead Sea, dived among both pristine and bleached coral reefs in the Caribbean waters around Belize and braved the glaciated coasts of Antarctica to see the melting polar ice sheets. With vivid, detailed descriptions, he successfully brings to life the fascinating mysteries of marine science. Most engaging and poignant are Woodard's myriad interviews with people living alongside troubled oceans. From Newfoundland fishermen, out-of-work since the Grand Banks' massive cod stocks were exhausted, to beleaguered residents of the Pacific Ocean's Marshall Islands, who battle fast-encroaching waters and continued contamination from American nuclear weapons testing, he uncovers a colorful cast of scientists, officials, activists, divers and religious missionaries who attest to the human and economic costs of ecological decline. Woodard also outlines strategies that, he contends, must be taken to save our seas. Although his approach is somewhat one-sided, it is a sobering call to action for those interested in the plight of the world's oceans. (Apr.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --Ce texte fait référence à une édition épuisée ou non disponible de ce titre.

This is a very disturbing book--and it's meant to be. Journalist Woodard gives us a wake-up call that our oceans are in trouble and that we have to act now if we are to save them and ourselves from destruction. In a manner reminiscent of Rachel Carson's Silent Spring, Woodard describes his journeys to a variety of endangered areas: the possibly already-destroyed Black Sea, the bleaching coral reefs of Belize and the Caribbean, the collapsing fisheries of Newfoundland and the North Atlantic, and the shrinking ice shelves of the Antarctic Peninsula. In addition to his own observations, Woodward includes a solid background of the history, politics, and science of each area of focus. He concludes with a prescription for the global action that must occur if we are to turn the problem around, and it is just possible that it can be done. Woodard has done his part by writing the book. Our first job is to get the book (and others like it) into our libraries and then into the hands and minds of our patrons. Highly recommended for libraries at all levels, especially public libraries.
-Margaret Rioux, MBL/WHOI Lib., Woods Hole, MA
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --Ce texte fait référence à une édition épuisée ou non disponible de ce titre.

A state-of-the-marine-environment message from journalist Woodard (Christian Science Monitor), in which the mood is dark and the tidings grim. Every large body of water is another chapter in a global ``cautionary tale of what can happen when marine environments are treated with reckless abandon,'' writes Woodard. He presents us with a catalog of the ills visited upon great waters by human agents: there is, for example, the matter of overfishing and the habitat degradation that has winnowed fish stocks to bare bones, leaving almost no cod at all where once you could practically walk across their backs from the Faeroes to Newfoundland. There is the ``toxic deluge from a thousand factories, power plants, and paper mills'' that gags the mighty Mississippi; there are the grotesque consequences of nuclear testing and the subsequent cultural aftershocks that plague the Pacific archipelagoes. For sheer ham-fisted abuse, however, it would be hard to find better poster children than the Danube and the Black Sea (a rank sewer that would be better called the Dead Sea, if there weren't already oneor a hundredof those). Woodard wisely airs the positions of the naysayerswho claim that fish stocks are naturally in flux and that the same goes for climatic changeand this gives both a balance to his closely argued case and a sense of humility before all that is genuinely not understood about oceanic processes. He also tenders a score of sensible prescriptive measures (which others might call pipe dreams): reducing government subsidies for fishing vessels, changing our fundamental appreciation of the oceans and seas (and their fragility), and encouraging a global problem-solving approach (since shorelines, whether they know it or not, serve as political boundaries). Woodard's quietly passionate and focused presentation leaves little doubt about the gravity of the water worlds ecological crisis. (Illustrations, not seen)-- Copyright © 2000 Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --Ce texte fait référence à une édition épuisée ou non disponible de ce titre.

"With his frank observations, Woodard destroys ignorance and awakens the advocate in all of us..."

"Recognizes not only our excesses...but also our opportunity and ability to change course before it is too late."

"[Woodard] successfully brings to life the fascinating mysteries of marine science [and] outlines strategies that, he contends, must be taken to save our seas."-Publishers Weekly The Black Sea is already dead. Because of sea-level rise, an entire nation in the South Pacific, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, is being washed away. Throughout the Caribbean Sea, vast stretches of coral reef-called the "rainforests of the ocean" because of their diversity of life-are dying at increasingly rapid rates. The reefs along the entire north coast of Jamaica are dead. Ocean's End is not about the damage our oceans could suffer (and inflict) in ten or a hundred years, if we're not careful. It's an eyewitness account, in compelling and vivid detail, of the massive worldwide destruction that's already happened.

A tour of the environmental problems facing the world's oceans, taking the reader into the world of the fishermen, scientists, and activists dealing daily with these problems. The result of more than a year's study of the world's oceans and its protectors and problems, done by the author. Softcover. DLC: Marine pollution.

Colin Woodard writes on global affairs for the Christian Science Monitor. A regular contributor to the San Francisco Chronicle and the Chronicle of Higher Education, his work has appeared in dozens of publications. He speaks Hungarian, French, and Russian and currently lives in Wiscasset, Maine, and Washington, D.C.