ninety percent of everything by rose george

Sharply informative and entertaining, Ninety Percent of Everything reveals the workings and perils of an unseen world that holds the key to our economy, our environment, and our very civilization. Like In The Box, a history of the container, the economist Marc Levinson describes a 1954 voyage on a typical cargo ship, SS Warrior. Rose George, acclaimed chronicler of what we would rather ignore, sails from Rotterdam to Suez to Singapore on ships the length of football fields and the height of Niagara Falls she patrols the Indian Ocean with an anti-piracy task force she joins seafaring chaplains, and investigates the harm that ships inflict on endangered whales. Rose George, Ninety Percent of Everything: Inside Shipping, the Invisible Industry That Puts Clothes on Your Back, Gas in Your Car, and Food on Your Plate.

Away from public scrutiny, shipping revels in suspect practices, dubious operators, and a shady system of 'flags of convenience.' Infesting our waters, poisoning our air, and a prime culprit of acoustic pollution, shipping is environmentally indefensible. Without all those dots, the world would not work.įreight shipping has been no less revolutionary than the printing press or the Internet, yet it is all but invisible. Without shipping there would be no clothes, food, paper, or fuel. In postindustrial economies, we no longer produce but buy. Each dot is a ship each ship is laden with boxes each box is laden with goods. On ship-tracking websites, the waters are black with dots. Eye-opening and compelling, the overlooked world of freight shipping, revealed as the foundation of our civilization

Ninety percent of everything by rose george