I wanted to cover human culture and how humans deal with the ocean. I think we need all these different perspectives on the ocean in order to make sense of it. The stories themselves matter they're not trivial because they are why the ocean matters like they show how it works but then they're also why it matters. It was partly out of necessity because otherwise you're just talking about some water went here and some other water went there. When it comes to us having a relationship with the ocean and actually caring about it we need to see it through all these different lenses.
To understand the world you need to understand the ocean. That’s the argument of physicist Helen Czerski who has long studied the complex ecosystems and forces that drive the ‘blue machine’ which covers 71% of our planet. Czerski joins Intelligence Squared to discuss her new book Blue Machine: How the Ocean Shapes Our World, and what we should know about these vast bodies of water – the waves, currents, invisible ocean walls and underwater waterfalls that are part of an interlinked system that shapes the world around us. In conversation with science editor of The Times Tom Whipple, Czerski discusses how, since the beginning of human civilisation, the oceans have been central to the way human societies have evolved and how threats like climate change and overfishing could threaten our future.
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