The World is Blue

The World is Blue: How Our Fate and The Ocean's are One

By: Umbra Fisk
June 23, 2010



As you all know, I am a bookworm of the highest order. In fact, I’m such a bookworm that my compost worms have their own library. I think it’s important to surround them with good literature, but they just keep eating the pages. And so must we all surround ourselves with good matter to fertilize our minds. It is high time the Umbra Book Club has another book to read!

And so it is with great pleasure that I announce this month's book. Drum roll please ... Our book to kick off the summer is Sylvia Earle's The World Is Blue: How Our Fate and the Ocean's Are One.

Why did I choose this book, dear readers? No one says it better than Sylvia Earle, the Oceanographer, Aquanaut, National Geographic "Explorer-in-Residence", herself:

About the Author

Known worldwide as the Ambassador for the Ocean, Sylvia Earle is also TIME magazine's first "Hero for the Planet" and National Geographic's first "Explorer-in-Residence". She is former NOAA Chief Scientist, and the first person to walk untethered at the lowest depth ever 1,250 feet. She is a major force in the establishment and growth of the world's marine sanctuaries and was personally responsible for convincing former President Bush that the recently named sanctuary in Hawaii should be protected. She is founder and director of  'Deep Ocean Research and Exploration', which designs instruments for deep-sea exploration. She is author of 15 books on the ocean.

This book tie-in to National Geographic's ambitious 5-year ocean initiative focusing on overfishing is written in National Geographic "Explorer-in-Residence", Sylvia Earle's accessible yet hard-hitting voice. Through compelling personal stories she puts the current and future peril of the ocean and the life it supports in perspective for a wide public audience.

"Even if you never have the chance to see or touch the ocean, the ocean touches you with every breath you take, every drop of water you drink, every bite you consume. Everyone, everywhere is inextricably connected to and utterly dependent upon the existence of the sea."


This book is a reminder of the beautiful blue part of our planet that sustains us. We're seeing so much damage with the ongoing oil spill in the Gulf it's time we pay attention to the beauty of the ocean and how we can protect and save our "life-support system."

It's a fact-filled, inspiring ode to the oceans. A page-turner. It's also a very fine read at the beach!