To Follow the Water

A gentle, captivating history of human interactions with oceans and an overview of how oceans work, this narrative shines with Dallas Murphy’s love of the sea and sailing, as well as his intense respect for both the explorers of the past and the oceanographers of today. His focus on ocean currents, especially the much-studied Gulf Stream, moves from an explanation of how oceans and weather interact to how changes in climate can affect the ocean. Rather than pounding the reader with a series of disconnected facts about global warming, Murphy keeps his focus on what the study of ocean currents can tell us about our climate. With descriptions of a few studies, how they’re conducted and what scientists conclude from their results—caveats and all—he leaves readers to draw their own conclusions.