SeaSick

Although this book came out last year… or maybe even the year before that… it is all the more timely this year. Alanna Mitchell, an environmental journalist, takes a look at the state of our oceans… or rather… ocean (they are all connected).


Given the gushing oil well in the Gulf of Mexico, this book is well worth the read, at any time, but particularly now.

In its chapters, Mitchell takes a look at the serious issues facing our oceans. Right off the bat, we learn that 99% of the earth’s potential ecosystems are in the ocean. Yup, not the earth, not the air… in the oceans. And the health of the oceans affects the health of the atmosphere which affects the health of the earth as a whole. Just because we don’t live in the oceans, doesn’t mean we should ignore what goes on there! In Genesis, humanity is given stewardship, not only of the creatures that walk on earth, but of the oceans as well…

Five main issues come to the fore in Mitchell’s book:

1. Coastal Dead Zones—off the coasts of major river deltas like the Mississippi. Primarily due to excessive use of fertilizer on land, which flows to the ocean, which creates a plankton bloom, which then settle to the ocean floor and the bacteria go wild and suck up all the oxygen. Some of these dead zones go all the way up to the water surface…

2. Oceanic Acidification—more CO2 in the atmosphere means more gets absorbed into the oceans which creates carbonic acid which means the oceans are getting more acidic, which means current life forms are starting to struggle (e.g. coral reefs). Our cars create CO2 which is killing the oceans.

3. Coral Reef Decline—Increasing water temperatures and increasing oceanic acidification means the coral reefs are dying. 80% of the reefs in the Caribbean are bleached and dying.

4. Overfishing—collapse of various fish stocks… Atlantic Canada and soon to be Western Canada. Within 30 years of starting to harvest a particular fish species, 80% of those fish are gone. We have overfished the rivers, overfished the coastal waters and are now overfishing the deep sea. Once they are gone… they are gone…

5. Ocean Debris—like the Great Pacific Garbage Island—a gyre in the Pacific caused by oceanic currents where all the garbage accumulates. Tiny bits of plastic that clog up fish and bird guts… and slowly poison them. That plastic bag that blew out of the garbage… that cigarette wrapper thrown away…

What are you doing to make a difference? Climate change is transforming our world before our very eyes… and not for the better.