Protecting the Oceans ¦ Working with the Oceans

'We can no longer use the world's ocean as a dustbin; we must view it as a living ecosystem, a vital and integral part of of our planet's workings.' This statement from Greenpeace, quoted in Protecting the Oceans, sets the tone for John Baines' look at how we pollute, overexploit and degrade the very earth-organ on which we so vitally depend. Depressingly thorough in its account of pollution from many sources which together with overfishing combines to devitalise our oceans, the book ends on an upbeat with a constructive look at attempts to right the balance before it's too late. Again this series scores with a thoroughly useful 'project book'.

In contrast, Lawrence Williams' book spends most of its space explaining the constitution and behaviour of the sea and the way we at once attack and defend ourselves from it. A particularly useful spread deals with wave energy and devices for harnessing it, working on the principle of the old Scottish beer-fount. Recurrent 'key word' panels put the very necessary glossary where it's wanted rather than tucking it away at the end. Some dramatic illustrations and, not least, the prediction that in fifty years the Thames Barrier will be useless, raise this book from the ordinary.