The Atlas of Coasts and Oceans

Announcing The Atlas of Coasts and Oceans: Ecosystems, Threatened Resources, Marine Conservation by Don Hinrichsen, published this month by the University of Chicago Press

"An extremely important contribution to marine science and a superb way of consolidating large amounts of complex information, and putting it into a format and language that can only enhance our understanding of the marine world around us."—Greg Stone, senior vice president for marine conservation and chief scientist for oceans, Conservation International

Oceans drive the world's climate, nurture marine ecosystems full of aquatic life, and provide shipping lanes that have defined the global economy for centuries.
Yet they are increasingly threatened by human activities such as commercial fishing, coastal real estate development, and industrial pollution.
Published this month by the University of Chicago Press, The Atlas of Coasts and Oceans by Don Hinrichsen documents the fraught relationship between humans and the earth's largest bodies of water—and outlines the conservation steps needed to protect the marine environment for generations to come.

The Atlas offers a fascinating and often sobering account of how urbanization, climate change, offshore oil drilling, shipping routes, global tourism, and maritime conflict have had a profound impact on the world's oceans and coasts.
Combining text and images in visually engaging, thematically organized map spreads, this volume addresses the ecological, environmental, and economic importance of marine phenomena such as coral reefs, eroding shorelines, hurricanes, and fish populations—and how development threatens to destroy the ultimate source of all life on the "blue planet."
Lavishly illustrated with global and regional maps, from the Arabian Gulf to the Great Barrier Reef, from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean, and all the other major global waterways, The Atlas of Coasts and Oceans will be the definitive companion to any study of its subject for years to come.

About the author: Don Hinrichsen is the author of many books on the environment and development, including Coastal Waters of the World, Our Common Future, and The Atlas of the Environment.
Now senior development manager at the Institute of War and Peace Reporting in London, he has worked with UN agencies, governments, and NGOs in some sixty developing countries.