Blue Frontier: Dispatches from America's Ocean Wilderness - Softcover

Helvarg, David

3.75

28 ratings by Goodreads

9781578051571: Blue Frontier: Dispatches from America's Ocean Wilderness

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1578051576 ISBN 13: 9781578051571

Publisher: Helvarg, 2010

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In this compelling book, which Bill McKibben calls “the most comprehensive account available of the state of our nation’s oceans, and the best reporting on how they got that way,” veteran journalist David Helvarg fuses his passion for the sea and his reportorial savvy into a panoramic chronicle of America’s maritime history and the challenges that our coastal and marine environments face today. He dives deep into the cultures of those who know the sea in myriad ways―fisherfolk, oil-rig roughnecks, hurricane forecasters, coastal developers, navy personnel, scientists, and surfers―and profiles the growing efforts by coastal citizens and local governments to restore and protect the health of our oceans in the face of wide-open development along our coasts and offshore. Demonstrating how national policymaking on the oceans is enmeshed in a welter of competing jurisdictions, he argues for strong omnibus legislation and the creation of truly protected marine wilderness reserves.
Superbly researched, urgently written, and thoroughly updated, Blue Frontier is engrossing and essential reading for anyone concerned about saving America’s ocean wilderness.

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About the Author:

David Helvarg has written many articles for major print media and commentaries for public radio, and he has produced award-winning documentaries for PBS, Discovery, and A&E. His books include The War Against the Greens. He is the founder and director of the Blue Frontier Campaign.

From Publishers Weekly:

There have been enormous changes the environmental and political landscape since this book's first edition was published in 2001-among them government and private reports on the state of the oceans and the dangers of global warming, severe hurricane seasons in 2004 and 2005, 9/11, the Iraq War, and worldwide marine die-offs. Helvarg has seamlessly updated his immensely readable texts to cover new hurricanes (Katrina among them), rising sea levels, a radical pro-development federal government, growth of an ecological "Dead Zone" in the Gulf of Mexico, catastrophic blooms of hazardous organisms in rivers and estuaries, and the collapse of fisheries. Interwoven are useful histories of the offshore oil industry, ocean policy in Congress, and marine research institutes. Each chapter explores the links between the corruption of our political system and the destruction of critically important coastal resources. Helvarg's love for the sea and its natural inhabitants pervades the text, giving his precise catalog of enviornmental horrors an affecting poetic streak and a closing note of optimism, as he discusses marine sanctuaries and ongoing grassroots efforts to rehabilitate damaged coasts and preserve healthy ones. Supported by a hefty bibliography and copious interviews with scientists, policy makers, and ordinary people, this is a thorough examination of the ecological crisis in progress.
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