Published 2008 in Australia by Murdoch Books; in 2009 in Canada by McClelland & Stewart, in the U.S. by University of Chicago Press and in the U.K. by Oneworld
You thought the climate was the problem? Actually, it's the ocean.
Sea Sick is the first book to explain how the global ocean — 99 per cent of the planet's living space — is undergoing vast chemical changes at the hand of man and why that matters.
In a nutshell, some of the carbon dioxide we are putting into the air by burning fossil fuels is being absorbed by the ocean. That reverts it to a state it has not been in for millions of years: more acid, warmer, and more prone to vast oxygen-deprived dead zones. At risk is the very structure of life in the ocean and therefore, on the planet as a whole.
Mitchell has traveled around the world to find the big picture and translate the science.
She snorkels on the Great Barrier Reef, signs on as a member of the scientific crew examining the huge "dead zone" in the Gulf of Mexico, traipses the beaches of Zanzibar to see how the world's poor will make do without fish, witnesses a breathtaking once-a-year coral spawning in the waters off Panama, immerses herself in the fantastical world of plankton and the acidifying ocean. Ultimately, as you follow Mitchell on a terrifying voyage to the bottom of the ocean, you face your own fear and despair and discover hope.
This book will forever change the way you see your planet.
