Product Description

This is an enlightening and entertaining voyage of discovery spanning the evolution of our relationship to the ocean, as the pathway for Western expansion and now as the key to our understanding of climate change.In "To Follow the Water", critically acclaimed author Dallas Murphy artfully recasts the story of human expansion and cultural development with the ocean playing the central role. Applying a novelist's eye for detail and a historian's drive for perspective, he connects the great ages of ocean exploration from Columbus, Magellan, and Cook to the development of modern oceanography.Taking the reader aboard the research vessels Oceanus and Ronald H. Brown, Murphy observes and participates in the practice of ocean science. Whether demonstrating the proper way to don a survival suit in an abandon-ship drill, actually operating oceanographic instruments, or just sitting down for a breakfast of blueberry pancakes, Murphy humorously evokes daily-life aboard these research vessels, unique amalgams of floating laboratories, heavy industry, delicate measurements, and brute force.By following the water, he and the reader discover that ocean currents, flowing on the surface and in the abyss like giant blood vessels, transport heat around the globe, thereby stabilizing and moderating our climate. The Gulf Stream, the best-known ocean current, is but one among many, each inseparable from the others and all inextricably linked to the atmosphere in determining the condition of our climate. There can be no sensible concept of climate that ignores the oceans, yet they have been largely left out of the climate and climate-change discussion. Letting scientists speak for themselves at sea and ashore, Murphy learns that oceanographers are not only observing and explaining the ocean's dynamic, global circulation, but also employing their skills, tools, and techniques to predict climate change. Their brilliant work is largely unknown outside of professional circles even though the role of the ocean is crucial to our understanding of global warming and climate change.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #551963 in Books
• Published on: 2008-08-07
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 296 pages

The Guardian, August 16, 2008
`After a rather superficial account of the age of discovery and marine exploration, this excellent introduction to oceanography comes alive in accounts of Murphy's trips on board US ocean research ships, during which he describes the work of the scientists who dedicate their lives to fathoming "the unknown, the unknowable sea".'

Review
'The reader will learn a great deal about the technological advances that have transformed the ocean sciences in recent decades, and about the luminaries past and present...who have led the charge in measuring and conceptualising the ocenans and teasing out their dynamics.'

Review
'The reader will learn a great deal about technological advances that have transformed the ocean sciences in recent decades, and about the luminaries past a present (the great Henry Stommel included) who have led the charge in measuring and conceptualising the oceans and teasing out their dynamics.'