Big Books & Bold Ideas with Kerri Miller

Helen Scales advocates for the ocean in ‘What the Wild Sea Can Be’

A book cover and author portrait.
Helen Scales is a marine biologist who writes about the ocean with both worry and wonder in her new book, "What the Wild Sea Can Be."
Cover courtesy of Grove Atlantic | Photo by Ria Mishaal

When faced with the realities of climate change, marine biologists must hold two competing thoughts simultaneously: The seas are warming, the fish are waning, the corals are bleaching. But that doesn’t mean the global ocean is doomed. After all, this is the planet’s largest ecosystem. It knows how to adapt.

The question is really: Will we enable it or hinder it?

Helen Scales lives at the balance of those two intersecting points. A marine biologist, writer and broadcaster, Scales is honest about the scale of change. But as she tells Kerri Miller on this week’s Big Books and Bold Ideas, she believes it’s not too late. We still have time to figure out how to co-exist sustainably. Her new book, “What the Wild Sea Can Be,” explores practical solutions — like no-fish zones and banning undersea mining — that can give the planet’s oceans time to heal.

Guest:

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