![]() ![]() ![]() The problems of plastic and microplastic accumulating in the oceans have more recently raised genuine alarm. As Sylvia Earle says, Carson could not have known of the existence of microscopic organisms such as archaea and prochlorococcus which are so small but so effective in generating most of the oxygen available for powering life in the sea. For instance, there are only three fleeting references to carbon dioxide and none at all to acidification. ![]() In the light of recent knowledge about the ocean and its plight, reading Rachel Carson’s book with its magnificent prose, makes the reader realise just how much more has been learned in the intervening 70 years. ‘ Since the publication in 1951 of Rachel Carson’s epic tribute to the ocean, more has been learned about the nature of the ocean and why it matters to the existence of life on Earth than had been learned in prior human history.’ So reads the opening paragraph of the introduction to the 2018 reprint of the book by Sylvia Earle, a marine biologist and Geographic Society Explorer in Residence with several books on the ocean to her name. National Parks & Wildlife Service – budget cutsįirst edition published 1951. ![]()
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